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1. Kenney should draw inspiration from Klein reforms and reduce spending quickly

   Appeared in the Edmonton Sun, February 9, 2021 Back in the early 1990s, in the face of serious fiscal challenges, former premier Ralph Klein changed the trajectory of Alberta’s government finances and set the stage for a decade of fiscal stability. Today, ...

2. 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 ...

3. Kenney government faces more hard choices with second budget

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, February 26, 2020 Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson once famously said “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” In other words, it’s often easier to devise a plan for success than it is to ...

4. Spending reductions in the 1990s dwarf Kenney’s budget plans

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, December 11, 2019 The Kenney government’s first budget, tabled in the fall, has attracted more attention and commentary than most provincial budgets. Critics predict harmful economic effects due to the planned spending ...

5. Alberta’s budget at a glance

   Today’s Alberta budget represents a marked departure from recent fiscal policy in the province. Alberta governments of various stripes have run nearly uninterrupted deficits since 2008/09, and the province has gone from having $35 billion ...

6. To balance the budget, Alberta must ditch it’s big-spending ways

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, October 16, 2019 Next week, the Kenney government in Alberta will table its first budget. The government has signalled it’s serious about tackling the province’s budget deficit. The big question remains—exactly how will it do ...

7. Spending cuts—not tax hikes—to balance Alberta’s budget

   Appeared in the Edmonton Journal, October 8, 2019 As the Kenney government’s first budget approaches, some pundits and analysts are calling for higher taxes to help shrink the Alberta’s deficit. These calls are ill-advised. Instead of hiking taxes, the ...

8. Spending Beyond Our Means: Addressing the Root Cause of Alberta’s Deficit

   In May of 2019, Alberta’s newly elected United Conservative Party created the Blue Ribbon Panel on Alberta’s Finances. The panel’s mandate was to develop recommendations to achieve a balanced operating budget without tax increases by 2022/23. This ...

9. Alberta throne speech disconnected from reality

   The Alberta government Monday delivered its throne speech for 2019. Unfortunately, the speech seemed utterly disconnected from the fiscal and economic challenges facing Alberta and the corresponding need for an ambitious policy response. ...

10. A Spending Framework for Alberta: Balancing the Need for Deficit Elimination and Tax Reform

    This paper calculates the extent of spending reductions that Alberta would need to make over the next three years to eliminate the province’s budget deficit by fiscal year 2021/22 while also creating the necessary fiscal room for pro-growth tax relief. ...