It’s not quite boom time Alberta, but the province’s $2.4 billion budget surplus is making a bang.
Buoyed by more than $70 billion in revenue, the provincial budget is sprinkling dollars across the board while aligning per capita spending with British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
Debt will be reduced by nearly $15 billion by the end of the 2024 fiscal year to a little more than $78 billion.
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The surplus was expected along with spending priorities on health care, education and social supports.
Of note is what’s not in the budget.
There is no specified funding for a provincial police service, Alberta pension plan or the $100 million Liability Management Incentive Program that would provide royalty credits for companies to clean up well sites they are already liable for.
“None of those policies have been approved,” said Finance Minister Travis Toews during a pre-budget media conference as to why those much-touted programs weren’t included.
There was little with respect to new funding for agricultural programs.
The province will continue to fund the Alberta Irrigation Modernization Program with $33.5 million in the next fiscal year and $140 million over the next three years in addition to $38.5 million to Results Driven Agricultural Research (RDAR) to promote profitability in the sector.
The Highway 3 agri-industry corridor between Medicine Hat and Lethbridge will be getting $94 million over the next three years for the previously announced project expected to begin this year. Another $6 million has been allocated for engineering activities for twinning the highway to the B.C. border.
The province’s Agricultural Societies Infrastructure Revitalization will see an additional $8 million over three years to upgrade exhibition centres and agri-plexes.
The Alberta government will also be providing $1.2 million for upgrades to laboratory equipment at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.
Dean Renate Weller said in an interview last year the faculty planned to further expand its diagnostic services to help Alberta producers guard against animal diseases such as avian influenza.
The funding is separate from a total of $67.4 million previously announced to double annual student enrolment under a major three-year expansion to help ease a critical shortage of veterinarians that is increasingly affecting the province’s farmers and ranchers.
The next three years are also expected to see $10 million invested by the provincial government in rural business and economic development initiatives with the same amount over the same period being invested in Travel Alberta for rural tourism programming.
Toews said the province is continuing to try to wean itself off the oil and gas rollercoaster.
But when asked about how that’s being done through the latest budget, which relies heavily on a windfall from the sector, Toews said the province is not quite there yet.
“That’s our reality right now,” he said.
