Danielle Smith’s pre-election budget includes $68 billion spending plan and $2.4 billion surplus
Alberta’s first provincial budget under Premier Danielle Smith shows the government’s coffers will be buoyed once again by deluge of resource revenue, estimated to reach $18.4 billion in 2023 — the second highest resource bonanza in the province’s history.
The province will end the current fiscal year with a slightly smaller surplus of $10.4 billion than was projected in November, as energy prices softened and the new premier increased spending in recent months.
The 2023 fiscal plan, tabled in the provincial legislature on Feb. 28, shows surplus in 2023 of $2.4 billion and surpluses in the subsequent two years, continuing the oil-reliant province’s dramatic reversal in fortune after nearly a decade in the red.
Smith’s $68.3-billion spending plan comes just three months before Albertans are set to head to the polls on May 29, when the premier will attempt to re-up the United Conservative Party’s majority in the legislature.
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