Smith Cabinet practicing their surprised face ahead of budget 2026
In a province that prefers to trade stable funding for votes, few governments have been able to deliver a “good news budget”. Former Premier Jason Kenney managed one, but it was a “good news bad news” type announcement (and he didn’t mention the bad news part).
In 2021, on the heels of oil sands companies shelving new development in 2014, many of those projects finally gave the Alberta Treasury the golden royalty payday every government had been dreaming of since the 1970’s. Oil companies had found a loophole in the royalty structure; so long as they kept investing, capital investment was never paid off and the royalty rates remained low. So, the good news was that the Treasury hit paydirt in 2021. The bad news was that it was because oil companies were no longer investing in new projects.
The other premier to have some good news budgets was Ralph Klein. Many leaders since have looked back on those days with a wistful nostalgia, marveling at the incredible fiscal acumen the premier demonstrated with sheer force of will. They never mention the fact that Albertans stepped up with higher tax rates, corporations paid higher tax rates, surcharges were applied, and it was the last time natural gas was in a “boom”. Only one of those was outside the government’s control.
After aggressively paying down debt, Ralph Klein reduced tax rates in the province again and, miraculously, the days of balanced budgets were no more.
