ThinkHQ/Metro News Poll Thursday’s provincial budget is a pivotal one for the NDP. Conventional wisdom would suggest that a new government faced with outside economic challenges beyond their control, as the NDP are today, would garner little blame for economic misfortune. Conventional wisdom is wrong.   Economists may question whether or not it is a fair evaluation, but according to […]

“He who controls the past controls the future.  He who controls the present controls the past.”   –       George Orwell, 1984   With all the discussion lately about the upcoming March 7th budget, and the difficult financial straights our province now navigates, I find myself thinking about Ralph Klein and how history will mark his place in the story of […]

IN THE NEWS… Graham Thomson, Edmonton Journal 2013 February 2: “Tories taking a wrecking ball to the public trust”.   Click here to read Graham’s column: http://tinyurl.com/b8k7m7w       Click here to see survey results (.pdf): December 2012 Budget EJ Ex

About 6 or 7 months ago, on this very page, I said the Government of Alberta had a budget problem – well, actually 3 problems:   1)   Energy royalties would be well short of budget projections; 2)   The Provincial Budget had no spending “cushion”, i.e. every nickel of revenue was slated for spending, along with $900 million drawn from savings, […]

Crafting provincial budgets in Alberta is more challenging than one might think.  We have resource wealth, no doubt, but it is revenue prone to wild fluctuation.  The Government must not only manage the dollars and cents of the budget, but the public expectations that come with being as financially fortunate (and sometimes unfortunate) as we are.  And Governments who lose […]