50 Years of Government of Alberta Budgeting /

To use a phrase made popular in the 2015 provincial election campaign, for that brief period in the mid-1990s, the government had managed to climb “off the energy roller-coaster.” But it could not stay off, and the government, with the support of voters, returned to a pattern of financing spending growth not with taxation but with energy revenues. [...] Boothe (1995) reports the results of interviews with policy-makers in power at the time, which suggest a fourth goal: that the diversion of energy revenues to the AHSTF was useful and effective at taming expectations for increased spending.8 By the end of fiscal year 1982, the AHSTF had received $8.3 billion of energy revenue and had earned $2.65 billion in investment income. [...] The recession slowed the economy and the NEP not only slowed the growth in resource revenues by reducing the price at which Alberta could sell oil in Canada but it also prompted the provincial government to increase spending in the form of support to the energy industry.12 The effects of these events on the budget surplus were mitigated by the decision in 1982 to divert the investment income earne [...] The unwavering dedication to meeting that target by both the premier and the treasurer was as significant as the speed with which it was accomplished.16 The adoption of the zero-deficit target provided the government with the opportunity to build credibility by systematically meeting pre-announced deficit targets on the way to the goal of a balanced budget. [...] In fact, the shortfall in 2016–17 ($2,594 per capita) was similar to the one in 1986–87 ($3,320 per capita) that prompted the cuts to 18 The act required that all amounts of resource revenue in excess of $3.5 billion had to flow into the newly established Sustainability Fund.