When Jason Nixon was first appointed Alberta’s finance minister in June of 2022, oil prices were surging above US$106 a barrel in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

When Nixon returned to the role last Thursday, taking over the portfolio from Nate Horner, the price of benchmark U.S. oil was hovering around $97 a barrel amid a war in the Middle East.

A small variation in those two price points over the past four years doesn’t reflect what actually happened during the stretch — West Texas Intermediate crude opened this year at just $57 a barrel — but it underscores how wild gyrations caused by geopolitics can quickly alter government’s financial picture.

For Nixon, it highlights why the provincial government won’t bank on rising resource revenues to go on a spending spree.

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“It’s not lost on me, some of the similarities of that spring to this spring . . . because of a war, frankly, taking place in Europe, and now the situation in the Middle East,” Nixon said in an interview.

“I find myself now in the spot where there’s potentially some extra money coming into the system but it’s likely temporary, just like it was at that time.

“And we have to make sure that we use that to benefit Albertans in the short and long term, but don’t fall into the trap of, sometimes, previous governments........

© Calgary Herald