Budget

The Voldemort of Alberta Politics- a sales tax No one likes to pay tax, least of all residents of Alberta. The Progressive Conservative Government of Alberta had for years been successful in stifling debate on the need for alternative sources of revenue to offset declines in non-renewable resource revenue. In fact, all parties in Alberta are equally silent on this question. The  Conference Board of Canada's Q32016Outlook on Alberta weighed into the sales tax fray in their June briefing on Alberta's fiscal situation. Their analysis, part of the Conference Board's periodic review of provincial government finances, offered a sober outlook for the province. The Board's analysts Daniel Fields and Alicia Macdonald, forecast Alberta's economy to come out of back to back negative annual growth r...

Prelude to First Quarter Fiscal Update More dreary news surfaced on 11 August when July's drilling rights sales were announced by the province's energy department. The CBC post based on Dan Healing's article (link below) showed how volatile this source of revenue has been for the Alberta government. In 2011 when oil and gas prices were high and the Montney and Duvernay formations were "discovered", $3.5 billion poured into the province's coffers versus perhaps $125 million this fiscal year. Data on the number of land sales per year. the number of parcels sold, the value of the sales and the average price per hectare is available at Alberta energy land sales history. Institute for Public Economics' Post Mortem on Provincial Budget April 2016 As reported in the Edmonton Journal on Fr...