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1. Dear Alberta, please don’t make the same mistakes we did in Ontario

   Appeared in the Ottawa Sun, August 30, 2016 Alberta recently released its first quarter fiscal update, which showed that the province’s budget deficit this year will be even bigger than expected, weighing in at $10.9 billion. The grim headlines and eye ...

2. Poor policy choices eroding economic freedom in Alberta

   Alberta has for many years been an example for other provinces in Canada, showing how to provide liberty and economic opportunity by embracing a tax and regulatory approach that promotes freedom and is conducive to human flourishing. Due ...

3. Emissions cap in Alberta—high cost, little benefit

   The Alberta government plans to cap greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the province at 100 megatonnes (Mt) annually. But before understanding the potential impacts of the cap, we need to understand how oilsands production might grow in ...

4. Alberta poised to outdo Ontario on budget deficits

   Appeared in the Financial Post, August 24, 2016 A recent analysis from the federal government compared the economic damage done to Ontario’s auto sector during the financial crisis to the damage done to Alberta’s energy sector during the recent stretch of ...

5. The Alberta government’s response to the downturn is the real cause for alarm

   In the wake of the resource-sector downturn, Alberta’s economy has been taking a beating and we’ve been inundated by headlines as to how bad things are. Among the recent items: unemployment is up, consumer debt is up, GDP is shrinking ...

6. Alberta’s finances deteriorating quicker than expected

   Premier Rachel Notley’s government yesterday released Alberta’s latest economic and fiscal update, pointing to even more red ink on the province’s operating budget than was projected in the October budget. Alberta’s projected operating ...

7. An HST for Alberta? Only if other taxes are cut

   Recent calls for a harmonized sales tax in Alberta fundamentally misunderstand the province’s fiscal problems, which are driven primarily by years of rapid spending growth, not a drop in revenue. Albertans have already been hit hard over ...

8. More government spending (on infrastructure or anything else) will make Canadians poorer

   As pretty much everyone knows, the price of oil has fallen dramatically. When the price of an item falls, consumers are better off and producers are worse off. But Canada is a net exporter of oil—it exports more oil than it imports. That ...

9. Another rating agency tells Alberta to take ‘corrective fiscal action’

   Appeared in the Calgary Sun, January 22, 2016 Moody’s Investors Service has changed Alberta’s credit rating outlook to negative. While it has left the province’s Aaa credit rating intact—for now—the agency warned that the rating faces “downward pressure ...

10. 2015: Alberta’s difficult economic year

    Appeared in the Edmonton Sun, December 31, 2015 The year 2015 was a difficult one for Alberta’s economy. First, the province was hit by a major decline in oil prices. Then, the provincial government introduced a slew of economically damaging policies, ...