Premier Jason Kenney in Edmonton on Dec. 7, 2020.. Kenney says Alberta is in for a tough budget on Thursday after a year of COVID-19 emergency spending, even as oil prices begin to rebound. Article content Premier Jason Kenney says Alberta is in for a tough budget on Thursday after a year of COVID-19 emergency spending, even as oil prices begin to rebound. Taking questions at a news conference Tuesday, Kenney said that energy prices have allowed the government to revise its deficit projection from 2020-21 to be “in the range” of $14 billion. The finance ministry hours later declined to confirm Kenney’s estimate, and there was no link to the news conference on the government website. In November, it was anticipating a $21.3 billion deficit for the 2020-21 year. Kenney said Alberta would continue to restrain spending, but repeated that there will be no balanced budget until after the province gets out of the pandemic. “With what we’ve been handed by COVID, we cannot realistically balance the budget in the next two years, but I think we can make meaningful progress if we continue to hold the line on spending, which is what we’ve done,” said Kenney. Article […]
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