CALGARY – Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says her government has been forced to pick from a menu of bad options due to the crude price collapse.
Notley says she’s not happy that Alberta is on track to run a deficit of more than $10 billion in the next fiscal year.
READ MORE: Alberta on track for record deficit, says Finance minister Ceci
But she says Alberta is not the only government going through rough times.
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Notley says there’s some room to cut spending, but not at the expense of critical services.
The U.S. benchmark price of oil is above US$33 a barrel — a staggering drop from its mid-2014 high of US$108 a barrel.
Every $1 drop in the average price of oil over the course of a year drains $170 million from Alberta’s coffers.
READ MORE: Feds allocate $250M to help Alberta; Notley welcomes it but ‘not enough’
Watch below: Alberta’s bottom line is billions of dollars worse than projected just three and a half months ago. The dramatic drop in oil prices is squarely to blame. Provincial affairs reporter Tom Vernon has the numbers.
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