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1. Despite smaller projected budget deficit, Albertans can’t afford to discount province’s fiscal challenges

   A boost in projected revenues this year have reduced the expected deficit for 2021/22, but this will only provide a small amount of relief. ...

2. Alberta economy recovering from COVID but government finances remain cause for concern

   The province's net debt will reach a projected $102.1 billion by 2023/24. ...

3. No PST—Alberta government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem

   The provincial government ran deficits in 12 of the past 13 years. ...

4. 1990s put Alberta’s fiscal problems into alarming perspective

   As a share of the provincial economy, Alberta's recent deficits are larger than those incurred in the early ’90s. ...

5. Kenney government must learn from fiscal mistakes—and successes—of the past

   Alberta's deficit this year will be the largest in history, relative to the size of the provincial economy, at 6.9 per cent of GDP. ...

6. Alberta’s reign as Canada’s fiscal leader is over—and Albertans will pay the price

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, February 17, 2021 As the Kenney government prepares to table its latest budget next week, Albertans should understand a cold reality. The province’s reign as a fiscal leader among the provinces is over. In 2020/21, the ...

7. Lessons for Fiscal Reform from the Klein Era

   Alberta is facing serious fiscal challenges, including a historic deficit and rapid debt accumulation that extend beyond the COVID shock. This is not the first time Alberta’s finances have been in trouble. Today’s situation has parallels to the ...

8. Kenney can’t become complacent about Alberta’s government debt

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, February 3, 2021 The COVID recession and recent drop in oil prices, which contributed to a historic $21.3 billion projected provincial budget deficit (for 2020/21), sent the Kenney government’s plan to balance Alberta’s budget ...

9. Alberta’s finances—back to the ’90s?

   During the early 1990s, the federal government and many provinces faced fiscal challenges so daunting that many described the situation as a crisis. As governments across the country run historically large deficits in response to the ...

10. Rising debt-interest payments further threaten Alberta government’s deteriorating fiscal situation

    Appeared in the Calgary Sun, December 9, 2020 Last week in this space, we outlined the Alberta government’s deteriorating finances, as spelled out in the Kenney government’s recent fiscal update, which projects that the province will rack up $50.0 billion ...