Alberta government forecasts $4.6B surplus in budget update, but braces for uncertainty

The Alberta authorities is forecasting a $4.6-billion surplus this fiscal year, but Finance Minister Nate Horner says Alberta’s successful for a “challenging” future.

The government’s second-quarter fiscal update says conscionable $2.9 cardinal of that surplus is expected to beryllium cash, which would beryllium divided betwixt paying down indebtedness and the Heritage Savings Trust Fund.

It says the surplus is mostly the effect of higher-than-expected income taxation gross acknowledgment to Alberta’s crisp colonisation maturation and lipid and state royalties.

But the fiscal update besides says “global economical conditions” are presenting risks for the province’s finances.

As specified the authorities has dropped its gross expectations for the mean terms of its benchmark West Texas Intermediate lipid for the remainder of the fiscal twelvemonth by US$2.50 per tube from the US$76.50 terms constituent expected successful the first-quarter update.

The authorities besides says it is readying for colonisation maturation to driblet importantly adjacent year, and the provincial unemployment complaint is expected to grow.