As reported by CBC news, Alberta is back in the black in a big way thanks to high-flying oil prices.
This "unprecedented reversal of fortunes" has left Canada's oil producing leader with a $3.9-billion surplus from the previous fiscal year.
It's the first time in some seven years that Alberta's budget sports no red ink on the bottom line. What's more, it represents an astonishing turnaround from the $18.2-billion deficit predicted when the budget was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2021.
Will History repeat itself?
However, Alberta's finance minister says he's determined to avoid previous governments' missteps of spending the glut of oil and gas cash all at once.
"What goes up will come down," Jason Nixon said earlier this week in his first fiscal update as finance minister.
"That's why we have focused on savings for the future to reduce the burden of debt to make life more affordable for Albertans.'' he continued. "I think it is incumbent upon us at the moment to ensure that we strategically use these resources to help Albertans through these issues right now, particularly inflation and affordability."
More problems of a boom
Despite this massive surplus and high oil prices creating plenty of new jobs, employers are fighting an uphill battle when trying to find staff to fill these positions.
Recruiters, hiring managers, HR departments and internal marketing teams are scrambling to attract enough workers.
This includes everything from highly skilled trades people and professionals such as welders & equipment operators to unskilled "green", eager-to-learn labourers.
