heritage fund
By limiting the amount of resource revenue included in the budget, the fund could restore discipline to government spending.
If Alberta had followed Alaska’s model, Albertans could have received $101.5 billion in dividends.
In 2020/21, Alberta’s non-renewable resource revenue will comprise only 4.7 per cent of provincial revenue.
Albertas provincial government has provided plenty of political theatre as of late, with, as I write, three resignations from the government, including that of Alison Redford as premier. However, the Redford resignation may not be the end of her influence on Albertas future, and in particular, upon the Alberta Heritage Savings and Trust Fund.
If there was ever a place that was the anti-Greece when it comes to public finances, it must be Alberta. Compare Alberta to many places around the world, be it European fiscal disasters, or even nearer to home, and in most decades, Alberta shines in comparison.
In 1987, the value of Albertas Heritage Savings and Trust Fund stood at $12.7 billion. That year, the province faced a massive budget deficit and transfers to the fund from resource revenues were suspended. Such deposits did not resume again until almost two decades later and only lasted two years before being suspended again.