Finance Minister Joe Ceci releases the government’s 2018-19 first quarter fiscal update and economic statement on Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 in Edmonton. Finance Minister Joe Ceci is planning to provide a fiscal update Friday on the heels of a provincial plan to buy rail cars in an attempt to reduce the brutal oil differential. Earlier this week, Premier Rachel Notley delivered speeches in Toronto and Ottawa , where she said the oil price discount affecting energy producers is a crisis. She said Alberta will buy trains to move an an additional 120,000 barrels per day out of the province, starting late 2019. The full complement of rail cars would ship out in 2020. The province asked Ottawa to fund crude-by-rail to provide relief, but the federal government has yet to give a firm answer. During the most recent fiscal update in August , Ceci touted a $1-billion deficit reduction. That projection came amid continued uncertainty for the stalled Trans Mountain pipeline project. The deficit reduction was mainly attributed to resource revenue brought about by higher than expected oil prices and a low U.S.-Canada exchange rate. The province increased its forecast of the average West Texas Intermediate oil price to […]
