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1. Government policy in 2019, particularly in Ottawa, will be crucial to resolving export constraints

   Albertans came into 2018 hoping for a continuation—or acceleration—of the province’s fragile economic recovery. With the province lingering below its pre-recession private-sector employment levels, economic growth is crucial to putting ...

2. Quarterly update highlights danger of riding rickety revenue rollercoaster

   The Notley government’s failure to restrain spending is quickly growing Alberta’s debt burden. ...

3. Alberta racking up debt much faster than Ontario did

   Recently, several high-profile exchanges on social media and news stories have compared the economic pain in Alberta to what was experienced in Ontario during and after the 2008/09 financial crisis.  We won’t get into addressing the ...

4. Alberta auditor general spotlights the resource rollercoaster

   Alberta’s auditor general recently produced a report that highlighted risks to Alberta’s long-term fiscal sustainability. The report highlights a number of problems with Alberta’s approach to fiscal policy in recent years, including the ...

5. Four reasons why Alberta’s vague balance budget plan may fall short

   Last month, when Finance Minister Joe Ceci unveiled Alberta’s 2018 budget, despite weeks stoking expectations of a detailed plan to eliminate the province’s budget deficit, he instead delivered a risky plan almost entirely reliant on ...

6. Another tough year for Alberta finances

   Another year, another deficit. The Government of Alberta has run nearly uninterrupted deficits since 2008/09, and this year is no exception. In fact, that $10.3 billion deficit the province plans to run this year is just shy of the ...

7. Canada’s federal deficits would be much worse without Alberta

   The prevailing narrative surrounding the post-2008 recovery in Canada is that the country weathered the storm significantly better than the United States, and has emerged in relatively strong fiscal shape (though certainly not unscathed) ...

8. Alberta private sector improving but government finances remain in bad shape

   Dave Mowat, president of ATB Financial, said recently that Alberta’s economy was “turning the corner” after a difficult year in 2016. His comment came as the Crown Corporation released its financial results for the past fiscal year. ...

9. Alberta’s run of deficits tower over Ontario’s worst

   Appeared in the Financial Post, May 30, 2017 Over the past decade, Ontario emerged as the poster child for poor fiscal management in Canada, due largely to the province’s deep run of deficits. However, thanks to a decade of rapid spending growth and ...

10. Race to the Bottom: Comparing the Recent Deficits of Alberta and Ontario

    Alberta’s public finances are deteriorating rapidly, with the provincial government set to run a cumulative budget deficit of $27.6 billion over the three-year period from 2015/16 to 2017/18. Until recently, by far the largest deficits of any ...