A new report says Alberta could balance its books a lot faster by cutting just a little bit of provincial spending.
According to The Fraser Institute, if the province cuts about 1.85 per cent of its spending per year, or just over $1-billion of it’s $57-billion budget, it could balance the books by fiscal year 2020-21, three years ahead of its current plan.
Report Author Steve Lafleur said getting back to balance more quickly is important to reduce the amount of accumulated debt.
“If we use reasonable assumptions to estimate the amount of debt to be accumulated by the time the government pays off the (deficit) in 2023-2024 — we’d be up to about $62-billion in debt,” he said.
The report also questioned the province’s math on reaching a balance by 2023-24 as it has said it would, saying if current revenue and spending trends continue, there will still be a $5-billion deficit that year.
