Notley said the budget would also focus on plans to diversify Alberta’s economy and create jobs, while protecting public services.
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“My dad worked hard all his life”.
The provincial budget that will be released Tuesday is expected to feature a deficit just under $6.5 billion and will commit the government to significant further borrowing to pay for infrastructure construction.
The Notley government had campaigned on promises to invest in healthcare an education. “So the idea of having it fund operational or specific capital projects is not something that I think aligns with the values of Albertans or the way they see that fund”.
“Ninety-three per cent of Albertans pay less under the plan that we’ve outlined, thus far, than they would have under the plan that Mr. Prentice ran on, primarily because of the fact that we cancelled the health-care levy”, Notley said.
“We have not valued it as much as we should have over the last couple of decades”, she added.
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, citing recent comments from the DBRS rating agency, credit raters may have to revisit Alberta’s top-shelf AAA rating if debt approaches 15 per cent of Alberta’s gross domestic product. The Finance Minister’s correction was the second one-year extension by the NDP, following the party’s admission during the spring election that the math in its platform was wrong and achieving balance by 2018 wasn’t possible. Before this year’s oil-price drop, Alberta collected almost $9 billion in revenue from oil and gas, but this year the previous government was only forecasting about $3 billion – and that was based on an average annual price of oil at roughly $55 per barrel.
Ceci said the delay is due to a long-term slump in oil prices.
Mr. Ceci’s deficit won’t be the largest the province has faced in its modern history – that distinction belongs to then-premier Don Getty’s 1987 budget.
In mid-October, Ms. Notley’s office created a 10-member advisory panel on the economy headed by the dean of the University of Alberta’s business school.
“What I would like to see is a real effort to do more with less”, said Clark.
Mintz said that without a reserve fund, the government will have to borrow to cover operating costs.
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“This government jacked up oil revenue projections in August, but now the low price of oil is their excuse to push back balancing the budget”, Jean said in the legislature.
