Alberta expecting another gusher in budget ahead of provincial election

Alberta is scheduled to introduce its budget Tuesday - the last before a spring provincial election - with political observers wondering what the province will do with all its billions of extra petrodollars.

Alberta is scheduled to introduce its budget Tuesday - the last before a spring provincial election - with political observerswondering what the province will do with all its billions of extra petrodollars.

“Any budget that's leading into an election is always one that contains quite a few goodies,” said University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe.

“Combine that with a government with significantly higher resource royalties than planned, and you have a lot of scope for big announcements.”

Finance Minister Travis Toews, in his four years in the post, has tabled budgets that began with multibillion-dollar deficits and recently spotlighted multibillion-dollar surpluses due to rebounding oil and gas revenues.

The province said in its mid-year forecast that it's expected to finish the current fiscal year, which concludes at the end of March, with a $12.3-billion surplus on the strength of high oil prices and oilsands operations reaching the higher post-payout stage of production.

Tombe said if the benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil price stays robust at US$80 barrel in the coming years, the province could once again, by decade's end, eradicate its $80-billion taxpayer-supported debt.

WTI is currently trading just under $80 a barrel.