Provincial debt.

[stonepicker]

I keep reading on here about what a huge mess the conservatives in alberta left the ndp. What mess? 20 years ago alta. debt was twice as much as it is now. Alta owes approx. 10 billion, MB. owes over 30 billion. Which province would any incoming gov. want? Enough excuses about how the ndp in alta. are inheriting a huge mess, alta is a gravy train ( richest prov. in canada ) It's up to the ndp themselves to sink or swim.

[SASKFARMER3]

Good point

[blackpowder]

Or increase transfer payments.

[foragefarmer]

Stonepicker

Norway's oil fund $905 BILLION surplus.

Alberta's will have a $17 BILLION DEBT by the end of 2015-16.

What did the so called fiscal manager's, the PC's of Alberta do with all the royalty money????

OH ya, let's blame it all on transfer payments!!!!!

[stonepicker]

Norway is a country, alta is a prov. within a country. By what your implying forage, then the ndp should be able to rapidly rebuild alta's heritage fund?

[LEP]

That's right Stonepicker things were so badly run, the NDP should be able to build the heritage fund dramatically,reduce the debt and offer civil servants a nice payoff, I mean raise.

All while raising taxes creating jobs and building the economy. Because you know it isn't business that creates jobs.

[perfecho]

Table 2: Alberta Debt, 1984-85 to 2015-16 ($ millions of dollars)
Year Debt Year Debt
1984-85 $5,787 2000-01 $8,195
1985-86 $4,953 2001-02 $5,261
1986-87 $10,091 2002-03 $4,736
1987-88 $11,105 2003-04 $3,730
1988-89 $13,069 2004-05 $(4)
1989-90 $15,527 2005-06 $124
1990-91 $16,647 2006-07 $269
1991-92 $17,406 2007-08 $429
1992-93 $20,305 2008-09 $865
1993-94 $22,701 2009-10 $2,873
1994-95 $21,451 2010-11 $3,184
1995-96 $20,531 2011-12 $3,428
1996-97 $17,733 2012-13 $4,584
1997-98 $14,976 2013-14* $8,660
1998-99 $14,106 2014-15* $13,094
1999-00 $12,020 2015-16* $17,001

From
Canadian Taxpayers Federation

[perfecho]

King Ralph resigned in 06, but was already spending much of the Heritage Trust fund on general revenues to keep his "no debt" focus. But a lot of infrastructure and needed services had been gouged to obtain debt reduction, only to cost more later.
The unfortunate thing, is that a lot of money was made in this province since 09, but was not taxed sufficiently, and royalty rates were amongst the lowest.
Now the catch up is going to hurt....and it didn't need to be.
The old phrase of "Give me one more oil boom and I promise not to pishh it away", was forgotten.

[vvalk]

forage. you make a smart ass comment about transfer payments. so how much money has alberta sent to Ottawa? have a look and let the rest of us Albertans know just how much money it works out to per individual.

[vvalk]

my quick google, which I didn't spend too much time at shows one website saying $250 billion. another from the fraser institute says a family of four in alberta sends over $15000 a year to Ottawa. interesting

[TOM4CWB]

Forage,

When things turned ugly in 08-09, Premier Stelmach had close to $20B in our rainy day fund... which took us most of the way to today on infrastructure spending in Alberta. We do have a heritage fund as well... and to compare Alberta to Norway is a little rich... given the differences in oil reserves and types of cost to produce that oil. Our net transfers in taxes out... to other Canadians... clearly is a structural difference from Norway.

[foragefarmer]

Walk

Your comment towards me confirms the old saying "the truth hurts" just read the statistics post above. Where has all the royalty money gone to??? You seriously can't be happy with the situation!!!!

Stonepicker

Your beloved PC's were in power for 44 years, and with oil prices in the tank you expect the NDP to turn it around right away. Comments like that are baseless and are only posted in desperation, or lack of economic understanding!!!

[stonepicker]

forage, what you keep implying is that the consevatives have never done anything right in 44 years, what i'm saying is that it shouldn't be hard to fix for the ndp! You completely under-estimate the cost to alberta over the years re: transfer payments. Or the energy crisis of the 70's when alberta was pillaged again. Is there another country in the world where one prov. or state continually props up the rest of the country? And whoever brought up no infrastructure in ab., come to mb. and you'll see what no infrastructure really is.

[vvalk]

Forage. Typical Tom mulcair answer. Deflect and never answer the question. How much money has Alberta sent to Ottawa in the last 50 years alone? Not saying the conservatives havnt done things wrong. You brought up the transfer payments

[blackpowder]

Didnt u come from somewhere else before u left?