Sometimes you have to take government at its word.  In the case of the latest Alberta budget, two sentences in the government’s fiscal plan suggest its spending plans are unsustainable.  Exhibit A is the sentence at the top of page…

After 44 years and $180-billion dollars in equalization spending (not adjusted for inflation) the Atlantic provinces are only barely more able to meet the needs of their citizens with their own revenue sources than they were when equalization was introduced…

All attention these days is focused on the political de-alignment that seems to be taking place in Ottawa. But it is an emerging political re-alignment in Canada’s provinces that will fundamentally reshape the country within the emerging global economy. It…

Two prominent Alberta-based institutes recently released reports that risk feeding the politics of envy that says Alberta’s economic success is unfair. Fortunately, a closer look at the reports combined with a clear understanding of federalism suggests that Alberta’s success is…

The most important number in this week’s Alberta budget is $3 billion — the average level of natural resource revenues that poured into Alberta coffers during the 1990s. Let me explain.  In 1981, Alberta relied on non-resource revenues to fund…