Alberta budget surplus slides by $2B, investments in safety and health continue

Alberta's 2023 budget continues affordability measures and targeted investments in public safety, healthcare, and education as the projected surplus declined by $2 billion for 2022-23.

Alberta's 2023 budget continues affordability measures and targeted investments in public safety, healthcare, and education as the projected surplus declined by $2 billion for 2022-23.

On Tuesday, Finance Minister Travis Toews tabled the next provincial budget, which focuses on paying down debt and establishing new fiscal rules, improving public safety while increasing investments in healthcare and education.

Budget 2023, which acts as the third quarter update for fiscal year 2022-23, forecasts Alberta's surplus at $10.3 billion — down from the summer prediction of $12.3 billion. 

The province attributes that decrease to the introduction of the fuel tax holiday, lower royalties from bitumen in addition to higher spending, with more than a billion spent on agricultural disasters.

Total revenue is estimated at almost $71 billion for 2023-24, approximately $5.4 billion lower than Alberta's record forecast of $76 billion last fiscal year.

After last fiscal year's "strong" 4.8 per cent real gross domestic product (GDP), the province forecasts an increase of roughly half of that.

In 2024, real GDP is predicted to rise to three per cent and sit at an average of 2.9 per cent between 2025 and 2026.