The presentation below from my presentation on 20 March 2019 to the Gyro Club of Edmonton. The presentation summarizes many of the arguments in a book I am editing which hopefully will be available this summer. The PowerPoint presentation and speaking notes examine the problem of the provincial government’s fiscal dependence on non-renewable resource revenue and economic dominance of the energy sector. The presentation also highlights difficulties which started in the early 1980s when the provincial government decided to take a short-term view and suspend payments of resource revenue into the Heritage Fund. At this time, all investment income accruing to the Fund went to government program spending.
The words “sales tax” will not be uttered voluntarily by the two main political leaders over the next 26 days. Stay tuned!
