Soaring oil and natural gas prices are expected to help the Alberta government rebound from the $17 billion deficit of a few years back and instead swing into a surplus when the provincial budget is delivered next week.
The rising commodity prices will result in substantially higher royalty payments from the oilpatch, in addition to more funds raised from corporate and personal income taxes.
The unexpected influx of oil and natural gas revenue is renewing calls for the provincial government to save some of the money in its Heritage Savings Trust Fund, which was created in the 1970s to stash away some