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Oil cars are seen as they pass east of the Inglewood neighborhood in southeast Calgary on Thursday, November 29, 2018. Jim Wells/Postmedia A dollop of encouraging news for Alberta arrived Friday, as OPEC cemented a deal to support higher oil prices, the discount on Canadian crude continued to narrow, and more jobs were created in the province last month. But let’s not celebrate for too long. A new report warns the prospects of modest economic growth in Alberta in 2019 could be sideswiped by the provincial government’s new oil curtailment strategy. The Conference Board of Canada estimates the plan to cut oil production by 325,000 barrels per day, beginning in January, will take a big bite out of the province’s gross domestic product (GDP) next year. “The government’s unprecedented intervention is a desperate measure to alleviate bottlenecks and bolster prices,” it states. “If sustained throughout the year … an 8.7 per cent (oil) reduction would take roughly 2.2 per cent out of Alberta’s GDP in 2018, potentially putting the province on course for an economic contraction.” With the think-tank previously projecting Alberta’s economy would expand by 2.2 per cent, the lost value of shut-in production is expected to erase […]
