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A pumpjack works at a well head on an oil and gas installation near Cremona, Alta., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh CALGARY – One of the planks in the platform the Kenney government used to rise to power in the spring election was a restoration of the "Alberta Advantage," a term popularized during the Klein era. However, one Calgary school says that will never happen. The study, authored by Paul Precht at the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy , says the Alberta Advantage won’t ever be restored without a major energy boom to go along with it. In his paper, Precht says the Advantage came from non-renewable resource revenues (NRRRs) that ended up contributing a glut of Alberta’s finances ever since Peter Lougheed was in office. During Notley’s tenure, those NRRRs dropped to just nine per cent, a fraction what they once were under Lougheed (48.4 per cent). Shortly after being elected, Premier Kenney pledged to lower taxes in order to bring back the Advantage, but Precht writes that simply won’t work. "Alberta’s economic booms have always resulted from high oil and gas prices, not low tax rates. Lowering of taxes did not precede […]
