OP/ED: Spending is to blame for Alberta's $10.8 billion deficit
By The Fraser Institute
The Alberta government could have posted a small budget surplus this year if successive governments had kept program spending increases in line with population growth and inflation, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
But Alberta’s new government is continuing its predecessors’ trend of rapid spending increases, which has seen nearly uninterrupted deficits in the province since 2008/2009 — even during years when oil prices were at historic highs.
