Last weekend I participated in the “The Value of Alberta” conference in Calgary. While most of the focus was on options for Alberta’s autonomy, what was most striking were the off-session comments of the 700 attendees. Albertans are running out of patience after five bad economic years. Many told me about hardships: a friend recently […]

The U.S. and Canadian November employment reports released last Friday could not have been any starker. Canada lost 71,200 jobs while the United States reported an increase of 266,000 in non-farm payrolls. This is Canada’s worst employment result since 2009, already causing some to argue that the country is on the cusp of a recession […]

The School of Public Policy has entered into a partnership with the Government of Alberta to offer paid internships to students enrolled in its Master of Public Policy program. The School anticipates placing five interns through this program in Spring of 2020, and ten interns each in Spring of 2021 and 2022. The University of […]

Last month’s federal election produced mixed results and a minority government. But Justin Trudeau is probably right when he says most voters supported a progressive agenda. Judging by enthusiastic NDP support and the Liberal promise of a $6-billion down payment over four years, that agenda could include a national pharmacare program. The government’s own advisory […]

Alberta’s latest provincial budget — released last week — is perhaps the most consequential budget in years. But in many important ways, it’s widely misunderstood. Like any budget, it contains thousands of individual decisions. Each comes with tradeoffs, and each should be subject to examination and debate. Unlike other budgets, there’s disagreement over what exactly […]

As governments and economies across the world wrestle with how to tackle climate change, Alberta’s oil and gas sector is developing technology to help minimize greenhouse-gas emissions and lessen its environmental footprint. In early September, Suncor Energy announced it would be making a $1.4-billion investment to build a new power cogeneration plant just outside Fort […]

A majority of Calgarians who shared their feedback with the city in the days leading up to council’s decision on the $550-million arena deal were opposed to the project, a Postmedia review suggests. An analysis of more than 4,000 individual public submissions found about 55 per cent of those who wrote to the City Clerk’s […]

In 2016, the Alberta Electric System Operator, or AESO, filed a report recommending that Alberta’s electricity market transition from an “Energy Only” to “Energy and Capacity” markets. The previous NDP government accepted this recommendation, but on July 24 the UCP government scrapped the idea. Electricity markets are complex. They require a constant balance between supply […]

A Calgary economist says the current Alberta government likely made the right decision to cancel big changes to the province’s electricity system. The former NDP government had proposed an overhaul of the power market to help avoid big price swings for consumers, while ensuring there’s enough power to meet the province’s needs. The Alberta government […]