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1. Sunshine list misses major problem with government worker pay in Alberta

   Sunshine lists are meant to provide taxpayers with information on how much governments are paying their highest paid employees. Alberta’s recently released sunshine list shows that last year, 3,511 Alberta government employees were paid ...

2. Alberta in net debt for the first time in nearly 20 years

   The Government of Alberta released its 2016/17 Annual Report last week. The official deficit for that fiscal year totalled roughly $10.8 billion, bringing the province into a net debt position for the first time in nearly 20 years. The ...

3. Minister Ceci should look at education spending to address Alberta’s fiscal woes

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, June 20, 2017 Last month, Alberta suffered another credit downgrade from Standard & Poor’s. Following the downgrade, Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci (pictured above) made several startling claims about deep cuts to core ...

4. Alberta finance minister fear-mongers after credit rating downgrade

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald, June 2, 2017 Last week, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) announced it was once again downgrading Alberta’s credit rating—this time, by two notches, from AA to A+. No surprise, given that ratings agencies warned this could ...

5. Alberta leads the country in spending growth

   Premier Rachel Notley's NDP government inherited a difficult set of fiscal circumstances when it came into power just over two years ago. The new government faced a big budget deficit, caused by a combination of rapid spending ...

6. Show us the plan, Minister Ceci

   Appeared in the Edmonton Journal, May 13, 2017 In a recent conference call with reporters, Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci said his government “has a clear plan to return [the budget] to balance.” This is news to Albertans, since the latest budget only ...

7. Notley government at two years—too much Rae, not enough Romanow

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald, May 12, 2017 Just over two years ago, Rachel Notley became the 17th Premier of Alberta. Upon taking office, Premier Notley’s government was confronted with serious fiscal challenges. Oil prices were down, the economy was ...

8. Saskatchewan has a plan to balance its budget, Alberta doesn’t

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, March 27, 2017 Alberta and Saskatchewan are energy-rich jurisdictions that fell on hard times as commodity prices fell. And both jurisdictions face significant fiscal challenges, with large budget deficits and substantial debt ...

9. Alberta’s 2017 budget—a bad case of déjà vu

   Appeared in the Calgary Herald, March 20, 2017 Many of us are guilty of failing to learn lessons from the past and then going on to repeat avoidable mistakes. Alberta’s 2017 budget is a prime example of this at the government level. Call it a bad case of ...

10. Alberta’s budget will make life worse—not better

    Appeared in the Edmonton Sun, March 20, 2017 Alberta’s 2017 budget address is subtitled “Working to Make Life Better.” Unfortunately, the budget lays out a path towards higher taxes and more spending-fuelled deficits and debt. Let’s start with the eye ...