Alberta looks beyond oil industry as crash leaves balanced budget far off

Bloomberg

Alberta is looking beyond its oil industry as it works to end years of red ink. Still, a recovery to balanced budgets is a long ways off.
Canada’s top oil-producing province projected a narrower budget deficit next year, despite declining revenue from non-renewable resources. Wh-ile it expects that revenue stream to rebound in future years, by the time the province returns to balanced budgets in six years, it will mark a smaller share of the government’s revenue than historical averages.
In its budget for the fiscal year ending in March 2019, Alberta doubled down on measures to wean the province’s economy off its dependence on oil and gas extraction after the recent downturn in the sector plunged the government’s finances into deficit. It’s extending a 30 percent tax credit for equity investments in certain Alberta businesses and a 10 percent tax credit for some capital spending in manufacturing, processing and tourism infrastructure.
“For too long, Alberta has been locked in a cycle of boom-and-bust spending that trac-ked the price of non-renewable resource spending,” Finance Minister Joe Ceci said in a prepared speech to the province’s legislature.
The new budget is built to increase entrepreneurs’ access to capital, strengthen the technology sector and attract investment to the petrochemical industry, he said. The government is pointing to growth in other parts of the economy as a sign that its efforts are gaining traction.