The provincial government’s plan to balance the budget is getting a thumbs-down from the Fraser Institute.
In a report released today, the think-tank says Alberta is repeating the same mistakes of the 1980s with a “don’t worry” approach to deficits and spending.
Alberta policy director Mark Milke says the government needs to change course.
“They need to go back to 1993, revisit Jim Dinning’s plan to have a balanced budget plan in four years, legislate it, and stick to it,” he says.
“There’s no virtue in taking away the savings of future generations of Albertans, or putting them into debt.”
The report says Alberta is relying too much on projected new revenues from energy royalties, which aren’t a sure thing.
Milke says relying on three-year forecasts is risky business.
“As anyone in finance will tell you, three years is a long way away to try to predict the price of oil, interest rates, inflation, how much oil is going to be pumped from the oil sands,” Milke says.
“And in the past, they’ve almost always spent more than they planned to three years previously.”
The government is currently projecting a balanced budget by 2014.
