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  1. Dear Minister Ceci, when you’re in a hole, stop digging

    Finance Minister Joe Ceci (pictured above) released Alberta’s Second Quarter Fiscal Update this week, confirming that the province’s budget deficit this year will be even bigger than forecasted in his spring budget. While the budget ...

  2. Spending choices, not a drop in oil prices, spurred Alberta’s chronic deficits

    Avoiding deficits during an oil boom should be a relatively straightforward proposition for governments in oil-rich jurisdictions. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case in Alberta. A recent Fraser Institute study compared how Alberta ...

  3. The worst might be over for Alberta’s economy, but not for government finances

    Appeared in the Edmonton Journal, November 21, 2016 Albertans got some welcome news recently, when ATB Financial suggested that the worst of the oil price downturn is over and that oil prices would continue to increase in 2017.  This is, of course, ...

  4. How Texas avoided big deficits when oil prices fell

    Appeared in the Calgary Sun, November 17, 2016 A common myth holds that the deterioration of Alberta’s finances in recent years was inevitable due to falling commodity prices. After all, Alberta is an energy economy and, so the narrative goes, big ...

  5. One Energy Boom, Two Approaches: Fiscal Restraint Has Left Texas in Better Shape than Alberta

    Prior to the recent fall in energy prices, the economies of Alberta and Texas enjoyed prolonged economic booms. The booms began in earnest in 2004, when real economic growth in the two jurisdictions reached approximately 5 percent. Although there have ...

  6. Don’t blame the oil crash or wildfires for Alberta’s deficit

    The Alberta government dramatically increased personal and corporate income taxes. ...

  7. It’s official—Alberta’s 2015/16 deficit larger than initially thought

    Appeared in the National Newswatch, July 14, 2016 There’s no doubt that 2015/16 was a bad year for Alberta’s public finances. And with the recent release of the provincial government’s 2015/16 annual report, we now know just how bad it was. According to ...

  8. Uncontrolled spending driving Alberta government towards net debt position

    According to Alberta’s recently released annual report, the province’s operating deficit for the year was $6.4 billion—about $300 million more than projected by the Notley government in its October budget. Factor in capital spending ...

  9. Alberta budget confirms ‘revenue recycling’ is code for tax and spend

    Appeared in the Calgary Herald, April 27, 2016 Last autumn, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley claimed that her government’s proposed carbon tax plan would be revenue neutral. This claim was widely discredited by economists who noted that the term “revenue ...

  10. Notley government doubles down on spending, refuses to change course

    Appeared in the Huffington Post, April 22, 2016 “We are in a different situation than we were six months ago,” said Finance Minister Joe Ceci after unveiling Alberta’s 2016 budget. He’s right. Alberta’s fiscal outlook has worsened dramatically since the ...