[Newsbot]

Title: Alberta headed for $1.4B deficit
Category: Provincial Politics
Posted By: hurley_108
Date: 2009-02-27 07:39:50
Canadian

[bootlegga]

Attn: MTBR

[hurley_108]

What's funny is that this is for the 08-09 fiscal year - the one just about to end. This is the fiscal year they were forecasting a $1.6B surplus for back in April.

[poquas]

Holy Christ! At the risk of betting accused of being an Alberta hater again, how is this possible?

[hurley_108]

poquas poquas:

Holy Christ! At the risk of betting accused of being an Alberta hater again, how is this possible?

Here in Alberta we treat our resource royalties as income, dumping them into general revenue, and using them to keep other sources of revenue (taxes) low. No sales tax; low, flat income tax; etc. What that means is that when the price of oil tanks from $120 to $70 to $40, our revenues get gutted. We don't save the royalties and build up a fun on which we can draw the interest as income, because that would mean higher taxes.

[ziggy]

What about the AHTF?

Havent heard much about it lately.Maybe it's time to sell that baby off.

[ziggy]

I know for a fact lot's of the bigger energy players in Alberta have cut their programs and are doing only 40% of the work they had budgeted for last year.
That's pipelines,drill programs,facility and infrastructure development etc.
Some oilsands projects were shelved,camps being set up are now being dismantled,yet fort mac still has jop openings if you want to work somewhere.I saw opportunities from Flint on facebook of all places.

[Alta_redneck]

ziggy ziggy:

What about the AHTF?

Havent heard much about it lately.Maybe it's time to sell that baby off.

We lost about $3B in that when the markets collapsed. But Ed still has his sock.

$1:

Ed is singing the praises of a sock.

Premier Ed Stelmach said Alberta can weather the economic downtown by dipping into cash it wisely socked away for a rainy day.

"I refer to it as putting money in a sock, just like mom and dad did for some events that were catastrophic or when somebody got sick in the family - you had a little reserve," the premier told a news conference yesterday.

The province has $7.7 billion squirrelled away in a sustainability fund.

"We want to keep Albertans working ... keep the momentum going," said Stelmach

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta ... 1-sun.html

I think everyone in the Edmonton area should go back to paying for their healthcare. I'll volunteer to stop our infrastructure projects this year. Last year 4 of our 5 highways out of town had construction all summer, we need a break.

Hell I’ll even throw in our water main replacement program, even though this would be the last year to have all the old mains replaced, we can wait a bit.

Some times it sucks having your MLA being the Minister of Infrastructure.

[hurley_108]

ziggy ziggy:

What about the AHTF?

Could have been way bigger.

[bootlegga]

ziggy ziggy:

What about the AHTF?

Havent heard much about it lately.Maybe it's time to sell that baby off.

Maybe you should have read the article...

$1:

However, a $3 billion loss in the Trust Fund and other endowments leave the government with a "technical deficit" of $1.4 billion.

The Heritage Trust Fund sounds like a good idea, but the people who run it have about 80% of it invested in the energy sector, so when that takes a hit, so do we. It should be far more diversifed than it is IMHO. It would also be nice of the government put in x% of royalties in every year, instead of using them to buy votes (enforced by legislation).

[bootlegga]

ziggy ziggy:

I know for a fact lot's of the bigger energy players in Alberta have cut their programs and are doing only 40% of the work they had budgeted for last year.
That's pipelines,drill programs,facility and infrastructure development etc.
Some oilsands projects were shelved,camps being set up are now being dismantled,yet fort mac still has jop openings if you want to work somewhere.I saw opportunities from Flint on facebook of all places.

I also saw that of the 7 major upgraders planned in the Heartland Region (NE of Edmonton near Fort Sask), all but one have been scaled back or even cancelled, until oil prices go higher and the cost of building them goes down.

[hurley_108]

bootlegga bootlegga:

but the people who run it have about 80% of it invested in the energy sector, so when that takes a hit, so do we.

Isn't that great? Our rainy day fund is set up in just such a way that it takes a massive hit in foul weather.

[ziggy]

hurley_108 hurley_108:

ziggy ziggy:

What about the AHTF?

Could have been way bigger.

I like this link better,less biased and I was reading it a couple weeks ago and as you can see this isnt the only year it lost money.
http://www.finance.alberta.ca/business/ahstf/index.html

[hurley_108]

Alta_redneck Alta_redneck:

I think everyone in the Edmonton area should go back to paying for their healthcare.

The heath care premiums were the most regressive kind of tax imaginable. Good riddance.

[Arrow]

As one of those Eastern Bastards© referred to oh-so-lovingly back in the day, it'd be real easy to be snarky. However, the reality of the situation is that there's been those with an agenda trying to drive a wedge who should be ashamed of themselves for not anticipating and diversifying Alberta's economy. FFS, will Canadian politicians at large not get their head out of their ass and do what is best for the majority rather than what is convenient or locally popular?