By Charles Lefebvre

Fiscal update

Province says spending restraint needed as it presents fiscal update

Aug 27, 2019 | 4:18 PM

EDMONTON, AB — The province provided an update on its finances Tuesday morning, with Finance Minister Travis Toews saying spending restraint is needed.

Toews presented the first quarter fiscal update, which covers the period from April to June 2019, during a news conference in Edmonton.

The update shows revenues for the quarter were $13.4 billion, which is almost identical to revenue for the same time period. Since the United Conservative Party has not yet tabled a budget, the party is comparing with data from the same time in 2018.

However, the province says debit continues to be an issue, noting operating expenses grew by $270 million and debt servicing increased $93 million.

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“This Q1 report shows just how much work is needed to get Alberta back on track,” Toews said in a statement. “Compared to Q1 last year, we are now paying an additional $93 million on debt servicing instead of on programs and services for Albertans. Burdened with cost pressures and compounding debt left by previous governments, we have to find ways to exercise restraint.”

Jim Groom, a political science instructor at Medicine Hat College, says the fiscal update offered hints budget cuts could be coming this fall when a budget is tabled.

“They’ve given the marching orders to the MacKinnon committee that they can’t raise taxes, and we can’t raise the deficit, so I would have to think that cutting is the next step, and the public sector is the next step that would be cut,” he said, referring to the Blue Ribbon Panel led by Janice MacKinnon examining the province’s finances.

Groom says the cuts, if they happened, would be felt everywhere, including Medicine Hat.

“There would be a direct impact on the public sector that’s in Medicine Hat, I think,” he said, noting more specifics would be known when the budget is tabled.

Health and Education are normally the two largest sections of the provincial budget, and Groom speculates those areas would most likely receive cuts.

“Everybody will be tightening the belt, and they’ll be using the Ralph Klein approach that they did in the 90S, where maybe just across the board, they’ll just do a general cut, and let the organizations decide how they’re going to work within that budget,” he said. “Or they may come out and be a little bit more specific, and say, we want to cut this program, and that program because it’s not affordable at this time.”

Groom says Albertans should not expect the province to table its budget until after the federal election in October.