Alberta Premiers and Government Spending finds that from 1965 to 2020, the highest level of per-person provincial government spending (adjusted for inflation) in Alberta occurred in 2017—three years before the pandemic.

Learning from Ontario’s Past: How Ontario Can Avoid Another Post-Recession Debt Binge is a new study that focuses on how the provincial government could balance the budget by 2022/23, and what mistakes made by past governments should be avoided to ensure fiscal stability. Based on recent projections, the provincial government would need to reduce annual spending by $9.1 billion from its 2021/22 level to balance the budget in 2022/23—a 4.8 per cent decrease.