Government Finances

During the fall of 1981, Peter Lougheed's government was facing stagnant government revenue and, at the same time, pressing demands for additional spending during a time of historically high interest rates and rising unemployment. This memorandum, which was not sent, reflects the Treasurer's and Alberta Treasury's worries that spending was spiraling beyond the limits set by the Priorities Committee.  This was an era when the notion that spending reductions really entailed reductions from what was being requested or needed or expected in light of inflation and population growth. This was an era where the capacity to raise revenue and the capacity to spend was bifurcated.  At the federal level the position of Treasury Board President and Finance Minister was coincident with rising deficits, ...

This memorandum from the late summer of 1981 captures the momentum of spending that had built up under the Lougheed government in 1981. As previous documents have shown, a great deal of money was being spent to cushion the blows from the National Energy Program and the attendant difficulties associated with lower oil price projections and high interest rates.  As departments rushed to take advantage of a more generous attitude within the provincial cabinet to spend, the volume of additional requests suggested mid-year of supplementary estimates to presented at a fall sitting of the Legislative Assembly. Collins' memorandum attempts to get ahead of the list of Special Warrants, appropriations made by the provincial cabinet rather than the Legislative Assembly.  These Special Warrants would ...