Alberta to use $13.2B budget windfall to pay down debt, put cash in piggy bank

EDMONTON – Alberta’s finance minister says the government is going to use this year’s projected windfall budget surplus to pay down debt and put some cash in its piggy bank.

Jason Nixon says the plan is to make a $13.4-billion repayment on the provincial debt and add almost $3 billion to the Heritage Savings Trust Fund.

Nixon says that in the past Alberta governments often failed to sock money away in boom times and it now has to make decisions to benefit future generations.

His comments come a day after Premier Jason Kenney announced the forecast for this year’s budget is no longer expected to be $511 million but $13.2 billion.