Buckle up Alberta.

The provincial government is calling back the legislature for a financial update Thursday, August 27 and Premier Jason Kenney says it won't be pretty.

"This is going to be the biggest deficit in Alberta by a country mile," he says. "I've said that it's going to be well north of a $20 billion deficit in large part because of the total collapse of revenues emanating from the coronavirus recession."

He says other deficits, in other provinces and around the world, are seeing extraordinary deficits this year and likely will next year.

"But what's made it especially tough in Alberta is the total collapse of energy prices and so you'll be seeing, in the report on Thursday,a massive decline, north of $10 billion in our revenue stream this year and that is particularly evident in oil and gas."

Kenney says the government based its estimates on a realistic price for oil, but just a couple of weeks after the budget was released COVID hit, and through March and April the government was having trouble selling Alberta government bonds.

Kenney says there's a great fiscal reckoning on the horizon but they're not going to let that get in the way of urgent action today to protect lives and livelihoods.

He says the government, and taxpayers will have to address those deficits in the future.

 

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