Saskatchewan is the latest province to raise concern about the lingering impact of the U.S. oil boom. Its Tory government predicts average oil prices will jump by $6 next year, the first price rise in four years.
The projected rise is welcome news for Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government, which hopes to recapture popular support from its failed effort to impose a seven-per-cent carbon tax that brought tens of thousands of new residents to the province. Crude oil revenues accounted for $1.3 billion of the Saskatchewan Party’s $14.3 billion budget over two years, the latest financial year, up more than 20 per cent from $1.1 billion a year earlier.
Alberta’s NDP government, which has faced a drop in revenue in the period since it took office in 2015, has repeatedly emphasized a need to cut the provincial sales tax to boost spending. Alberta will give Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party another term, this time serving under Jason Kenney, who won his seat in Calgary ridings by winning 71 per cent of the vote.
Awards for business, community and agriculture organizations were also announced, including two out of 10 levels of government for public safety.
See the full list below: