Alberta, Canada’s oil-producing province, recorded its first fiscal surplus in seven years after oil and gas prices rose in the first months of the year.
The province ended its fiscal year on March 31 with a $ 3.9 billion ($ 3 billion) surplus after West Texas Intermediate crude traded at an average price of $ 77 a barrel, $ 31 more than budgeted. according to documents released Monday. Revenues from non-renewable resources, including oil and gas royalties, amounted to $ 16.2 billion, or $ 13.3 billion more than budgeted.
Alberta’s energy-based economy – its oil sands contain the world’s third-largest oil reserves – has emerged from the pandemic with the strongest economic growth in recent years thanks to the collection of gifts and tax revenue. . Oil prices rose above US $ 100 a barrel during the last month of the fiscal year, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted countries to avoid Russian oil. In March, the government presented a budget for 2022-2023 that included the first surplus since 2014.
The government plans to use its surplus to pay off debt and invest in the province’s trust fund, as well as to continue to help Albertans cope with rising prices through policies that include the suspension of fuel taxes and electricity rebates Jason Nixon, the province’s finance minister, told BNN Bloomberg Television.
The government said it used the last fiscal year’s surplus to pay off debt at $ 1.3 billion. The province’s Alberta Wealth Savings Trust Fund grew to $ 18.7 billion, the highest net worth in its history, the government said.
These are other highlights of Alberta’s tax results:
- $ 68.3 billion in revenue was $ 24.6 billion more than budgeted
- Expenditures of $ 64.4 billion were $ 2.5 billion more than expected, in part due to health care costs related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as disaster assistance costs.
- Changes to the contract provisions for the federally supported sturgeon refinery accounted for about $ 2 billion of the surplus.
- Net debt fell to $ 57 billion on March 31, from $ 59.8 billion the previous year