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Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013
chats with ... Doug The title of your speech to the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday was, “Where do we go from here?” So, where do we go from here?
Horner
ALBERTA FINANCE MINISTER
We’ve had a bit of a change as I went around the province and listened to people in various places, and the online survey and other ways submissions have come in. They now know that, when you make a tough budget, tough decisions have to be made, and if we can avoid that, they’d like to. Core service investment is a big priority. Infrastructure is a big priority — certainly, when you talk about the growth St. Albert has seen, that Alberta has seen, infrastructure is top of mind … The one-two is core services and infrastructure, and the third is maintaining low taxes.
Alberta’s economy is very dependent on oil. What are your expectations for the price of oil in the coming year? I would suggest to you that the majority of the forecasters are going to be in the mid-90s [US per barrel]. What we’re doing different this year, too — this is something that is probably as well-known, and I don’t think we’re going to go out and announce it — we’re going to invite the same people that we had at a forecasting summit earlier this year, we’re going to invite them back here at the end of November and just put it to them … and then we’ll go to industry and ask them the same thing. It won’t be our prediction; it will be the industry and the experts’ prediction as to what number we’re going to use.
“What else can we do with our
Is there more work coming to diversify the economy and not have Alberta so dependent on oil?
savings that would help that next-generation economy, that would help diversify what we have today?” The province announced the start of results-based budgeting back in April. Has that been a big adjustment, both for your department and for other departments?
What kind of impact are the southern Alberta floods going to have on the provincial budget in 2014 and beyond? It’s going to be fairly significant impact on the budget this year because we’re going to be taking the majority of the operating losses in this year. By that, I mean the difference between what the federal government is going to pay us and what we’re going to have to pay out on our own. There’s a significant amount of money on the table there.
It is, and it’s been a positive one, because it’s forcing departments to work across their normal lines. We’re doing it based on program, not on department, so it’s forcing them to justify to an outside group, a third-party group of Albertans, the reasons why they’re still doing what they’re doing and the objectives they’re trying to achieve. In many cases, there’s been some reworks of the measurements they’re using or the accountability piece they have, and that’s all been extremely positive. It was never intended to try and save a bunch of money. It was intended to get productivity up, better services, better alignment, and to ensure what we’re delivering as a core service of government is a core service we should be delivering.
I think you’re going to see a lot more emphasis on the reinvestment piece: investment in people, investment in the future for the province. Hopefully we’ve turned a bit of a corner here. We’ve got a handle on how we operate; we’ve lived within our means, we’ve cranked that down. We’ve got a handle on results-based budgeting. That should allow us now the opportunity to start reinvesting in some areas.
Photo: DAVID BLOOM, Sun Media News Services