After spending big in a pre-election budget 12 months ago, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is now pulling a 180-degree turn to focus on saving as the theme of Thursday’s budget, which was centred on penny-pinching and the need to stash away the province’s oil and gas wealth for future generations.
There is a long history of governments in Alberta pledging to save the bounty of oil cash, but with a crash in oil prices seemingly always around the corner, every previous commitment to saving has failed.
It’s why the province’s long-term oilpatch savings account, the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, has barely