Eight days after his government released a fiscal plan that called for a balanced budget by 2022/23, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the global economic downturn linked to the spread of coronavirus could have already put that plan in jeopardy.
Eight days after his government released a fiscal plan that called for a balanced budget by 2022/23, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says the global economic downturn linked to the spread of coronavirus could have already put that plan in jeopardy.
At a news conference Friday, one day after Alberta announced its first presumptive case of COVID-19, Kenney told reporters that evidence is mounting that Alberta’s economy is being hobbled by the global slump in stock markets and oil prices.
“It’s clear now that we’ll be losing some of those gains that we had in the fourth quarter of 2019 and in January of this year,” Kenney said. “But we just don’t know how long and how deep this global trough is going to be.”
Balancing the budget by 2022/23 was an important commitment made by his government just last week, Kenney said.
“However, if there is a major prolonged global downturn, that would obvi