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1. Alberta’s government program spending reaches new heights

   According to a Fraser Institute study released in February, between 2004/05 and 2013/14, the Alberta government’s program spending jumped to $43.9 billion from $29 billion. This spending, beyond the rate of inflation and population ...

2. Worried about Alberta’s budget? Stop counting on high resource prices

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald Forty-one billion dollars. That’s the extra amount, over and above what was needed to keep pace with population growth and inflation between 2006 and 2013, this to fund Alberta government program spending in those years. So ...

3. Why Alberta is broke

   Appeared in the National Post and Calgary Herald The red-ink budgets that have engulfed Alberta since the last recession—Alberta’s Finance Minister Doug Horner just announced this year’s deficit could hit $4-billion— are not accidental. Such red ink is ...

4. Alberta Premier's budget flip flop

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald When governments enter an election year, the political temptation to play fast and loose with budget numbers is strong. The most famous example of this was probably the 1996 budget in British Columbia. That year, then-B.C. ...

5. Too much optimism explains Alberta's expanded deficit

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald Back in the mid-1990s, British Columbia’s New Democratic government published a pre-election budget that forecast a balanced ledger for the then-ending fiscal year. The Glen Clark government quickly dropped the writ and ...

6. Alberta's 2012 Fiscal Time Bomb: A higher deficit and a steep decline in financial assets

   In its February pre-election budget, Alberta relied on unrealistic economic assumptions, ignoring private sector forecasts that were more realistic than its own. It appears to have been overly optimistic about oil and gas forecasts, among others. As a ...

7. Welcome to Alberta—and to the 1980s

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald If, as the newly released census data indicates, you’re one of many arrivals to Alberta in the last half-decade, here’s the shortcut to understanding Alberta’s politicians: On budget day, they replay their favourite “spend ...

8. The Rhetoric and the Reality of Alberta's Deficits in the 1980s, 1990s, and Now

   Almost one-quarter of Alberta’s current population either was not born or did not live in Alberta during the previous deficit era (1985-1994). As a result, these new Albertans may take Alberta’s prosperity and recent balanced budgets for granted, or ...