Fiscal History Archives - Page 4 of 5

10Dec

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Budget, Energy, Fiscal History

Hyndman Papers: Excerpts from Old Budget Speeches (Part 2)

Updated 16 December 2020 In this remarkable and lengthy undated memorandum from Jim Dinning, a future Treasurer and candidate for the premiership of Alberta, to Lou Hyndman, Dinning highlights some historical issues which still confound Alberta finances to this day. (The italics are Dinning classification of issues for Treasurer Hyndman.) Central to preparing a budget in the 1980s was the reliability of non-renewable resource revenue. Back in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s natural resource revenue was also front of mind. The growing dependence on resource revenue was underlined in Ernest Manning's 1950 budget. A dilemma for provincial treasurers then, in 1980, and today is the balancing of pressures for spending, the proper stewardship of resource revenue, and the need to contain "insatiab...

9Dec

By Bob Ascah1 Comment

Budget, Fiscal History, Politics

A presentation to the Board of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce – A Sales Tax for Alberta-Why and How

This morning I made a presentation to the Board of Directors of the Edmonton Chamber and senior management of the Edmonton Chamber. Below is the PowerPoint/PDF. Although the business community is still generally negative to a provincial sales tax, possibly harmonized with the federal GST, there appears to be a growing realization that non-renewable resource revenue will not be sufficient alone to balance Alberta's structural deficits. In late October, the Chamber released Forging our Future which includes the following: While government spending and support programs are critical right now,we must not lose sight of the fiscal challenges on the horizon.We recommend a review of the Canadian tax system and a review ofAlberta’s revenue sources, including consideration for a consumption ...

25Nov

By Bob Ascah1 Comment

Capital Spending, Economic Data, Energy, Environment, Fiscal History, Government Finances, Politics

Presentation to EQUS directors- 23 November

EQUS is a small, co-operative distributor of electricity to 12,000, mostly rural, customers. The organization is the product of a series of mergers of rural electrification co-operatives over the past two decades. EQUS employs about 100 staff with its head office in Innisfail. The presentation, provocatively entitled "Alberta's Crumbling Economic and Fiscal Foundation" builds on concerns about the future health of Alberta's economy in a world where international financial capital places more emphasis on renewable energy solutions. The presentation highlights the pivotal role of capital expenditures of the oil and gas sector which have driven the Alberta economy since 1947. Alberta's gross fixed capital formation (oil and gas, institutional, industrial, residential and non-residential bu...

Peter Lougheed- Address to Calgary Chamber of Commerce- 13 March 1981

16Nov

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Fiscal History, Intergovernmental, Politics

Peter Lougheed- Address to Calgary Chamber of Commerce- 13 March 1981

Background From Lou Hyndman's papers, this speech is given to a friendly business audience at the height of the energy fight between Ottawa and ALberta. The parallels between 1980-81 and today are many, but there are considerable differences. In 1980-81, inflation was rampant over 10 per cent and interest rates had soared. Oil was trading at historic highs due to the 1979 Iranian revolution. The Alberta economy had enjoyed six straight years of boom conditions. Unemployment was very low and cranes dotted Edmonton and Calgary's skylines. Joe Clark's administration had been dethroned and Pierre Trudeau was back in office. Jimmy Carter had lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan and the rest of the world outside Alberta was spiralling into recession. The National Energy Program was an attack ...

6Nov

By Bob Ascah3 Comments

Economic Data, Energy, Fiscal History, Government Finances

Presentation to Professors Emeritus

Yesterday I presented to a small but engaged group of retired University of Alberta emeritus professors. My talk was provocatively entitled "Alberta's Crumbling Economic and Fiscal Foundation." Key points emphasized in the presentation include: Volatility in price of oil over past 6o years and its impact on provincial finances Over past 40 years Non-renewable resource revenue represents a high of nearly 50 per cent of own source revenue (excludes federal transfers) to lows of just under 10 per cent recently. Based on Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers data since 1947, Alberta collected royalties equivalent to about 10 per cent of the total value of production over this 70-year span. In the early 1980s, Albertans were receiving about one-third of the rent from their resource own...

1981- Economic Downturn and Accelerated Projects

16Aug

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Capital Spending, Energy, Fiscal History, Government Finances

1981- Economic Downturn and Accelerated Projects

The fall and winter of 1980-81 was a very unsettling time for provincial politicians. The Alberta public, politicians, and senior public servants were furious at the indifference of federal politicians' plans to redirect oil revenues from producers and the provincial government. Unemployment insurance claims rose from about 10,000 in September 1980 to over 17,000 in January 1981. Alberta's unemployment rate increased from 3.4 per cent in September to 4.5 per cent in January, further causing concern in a province which had recorded rapid economic growth since the early 1970s. In this climate of uncertainty, Treasurer Lou Hyndman had requested his cabinet colleagues to provide suggestions on how to get idle human and physical capital to work again. In these two memoranda from the Hyndman pa...

Hyndman Papers- Wilson, Percy and Norrie

13Jun

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Budget, Economic Data, Fiscal History, Intergovernmental, Politics

Hyndman Papers- Wilson, Percy and Norrie

Oil prices, Interregional Adjustment and the Canadian Economic Union In the summer of 1980, federal-Alberta relations were going through a period of conflict and mutual suspicion. Around the same time as the Mellon memo and the Treasury review of Alberta's contribution to Confederation, three respected economists from the University of Alberta produced a paper for the Treasury on the oil, interregional adjustment, and the Canadian economic union. The 4-page Executive Summary (presented below) examines the question of how might an adjustment to the terms of trade within a federal state (i.e. higher oil prices) ideally be carried out. Key issues examined include: the structure of ownership of natural resources (public versus private); redistribution or recycling of oil wealth in a fe...

25May

By Bob Ascah2 Comments

Economic Data, Fiscal History, Intergovernmental

Hyndman Papers

Alberta's Contribution to Confederation circa 1980 In August 1980, Alberta intergovernmental relations were heating up as the earlier Mellon memo attested to. The National Energy Program was about two months away from release, a release that would fuel the flames of western separatism. Concerns were festering in Alberta about the cost-benefits of remaining in Confederation. In the Briefing Note below, authored by Treasury officials in the Fiscal Policy and Economic Analysis Division documented the inflows and outflows to and from the federal Treasury over a 16-year period. The Table below summarizes two tables from the paper- the cumulative totals for provinces and a combined B.C., Yukon, and North West Territories and the discounted cumulative totals. The information was derive...

Reset for federal-provincial-municipal fiscal arrangements? Opinion

17Apr

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Credit Ratings, Fiscal History, Government Finances, Intergovernmental, Opinion/Research

Reset for federal-provincial-municipal fiscal arrangements? Opinion

It is cliché to say we are living in extraordinary times. Comparisons with the Global Financial Crisis doesn’t work, although monetary madness is again afoot. For Alberta, there are comparisons with the 1980s when homes were sold for a dollar, allowing mortgagors to walk away. And of course, there is the Great Depression, which devastated all of Canada and left lasting resonance on how people related to others, to governments, and to money. So now, we are in a time of both crisis and reflection. Should governments (national and sub-national) be co-operating or competing? We know the beggar thy neighbour policies of the Great Depression did not work, but our next-door neighbour seems intent to draw up the bridges on the castle. In Canada, we are in in a period of inter-governmental co-ope...

3Feb

By Bob AscahNo Comments

Energy, Energy, Fiscal History

Syncrude Royalties- Hyndman’s papers

In the mid-1970s, major efforts were made by the Alberta government to support the expansion of oilsands production. Up until this time, Great Canadian Oil Sands (GCOS), operated by Sunoco, was the only source of commercial bitumen. With the rapid increase of oil prices in 1973, the provincial government encouraged the development of a consortium involving private and public funds. Construction began in 1973 and production commenced in 1978. Between February 1975 to March 1980, the Alberta government had cumulatively advanced $281.8 million to the project of a total cost of $2.875 billion. Prior to 10 March 1980, the Province sold some of its interest to Alberta Energy Company for $54.9 million and had received cash receipts of $48.1 million from the sale of its entitlement of synthet...