Remember the good old days — like, 2023?

It was only 36 months ago, but it might as well be a lifetime for Alberta budget watchers.

Varcoe: Alberta's new budget on course to collide with its own fiscal guardrails Back to video

Oil prices were high. The economy was strong.

Multibillion-dollar budget surpluses were rolling in like the tide — and long-term deficits were seemingly being legislated away by the provincial government.

Well, that didn’t last long.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Nate Horner unveiled the province’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, showing a tsunami of red ink — including $9.4 billion in the new 2026-27 financial blueprint.

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With rising expenses and low oil prices, deficits are expected to keep falling like raindrops in the coming years — $7.6 billion in 2027-28, and then $6.9 billion the following year.

If we include the projected deficit for the current reporting period that ends in March, it would add up to four straight years of bruising budgets — a combined $28 billion of spending outstripping revenues.

And there’s no clear path back to a budget surplus.

It also means the rules in the UCP government’s “fiscal framework” — touted in the 2023 budget as a way to “secure Alberta’s future by requiring balanced budgets, limiting operating expense growth and setting out rules to pay down maturing debt” — are likely to be broken.

“I recognize that this is a tough pill to swallow, but this deficit reflects our commitment to providing top quality services . . . while managing substantial drops to the price of oil,” Horner........

© Calgary Herald