Latest news with #NateHorner
CTV News
a day ago
- Business
- CTV News
Final budget numbers land: Alberta posts $8.3-billion surplus in 2024-25 fiscal year
The final numbers are in on last years' Alberta budget, and the bottom-line figure is an $8.3-billion surplus. That's $2.5 billion more than officials had expected to get. Finance Minister Nate Horner says the jump is because of more tax revenue from a growing population coupled with oil royalties that were higher than expected. Horner says just over $5 billion of the surplus is cash the province can spend, and the government will split it between its rainy-day Heritage Fund, paying down debt and savings. However, the good times are not expected to last. Horner's current budget for the fiscal year that began in April is expected to end next spring with a $5.2-billion deficit, with more multibillion-dollar deficits in the years after that. The province says the red ink is expected because of volatile oil prices, tax cuts and global events like the trade tariffs imposed by the United States. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2025.
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Alberta records unexpected $8.3-billion surplus off higher resource royalties
Massive oil and gas revenues driven by strong global crude prices and record production helped Alberta end the 2024-25 fiscal year with an unexpected $8.3-billion surplus. The surplus, announced Friday in Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner's year-end fiscal update, was roughly $8-billion higher than the province predicted in its February budget, and $4-billion more than the previous fiscal year. Non-renewable resource revenues alone were $4.7-billion higher than the province had forecast. Along with strong oil prices, the province's fossil fuel sector benefited from the opening of the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline system, which significantly increased the price of Alberta's heavy oil. A lower exchange rate also propelled higher returns for the sector, as did oil production climbing to a record high of almost four million barrels a day. The financial results came off the back of a nine-year high in sector spending to develop oil, gas, hydrogen, geothermal, helium and lithium resources in 2024, as well as a significant increase in oil and gas reserves estimates. Alberta Premier Smith says plan for new West Coast oil pipeline 'pretty close' The unexpected natural resource payout looks to support Prime Minister Mark Carney's push for Canada to become an energy superpower – a message and a goal that the energy sector and provincial government say they can get behind. At the heart of the windfall are solid oil prices and increased demand for the heavier crude supplied by Alberta's oil sands. The price of West Texas Intermediate oil, a North American benchmark, averaged $74.34 per barrel over the year, slightly higher than the $74 per barrel forecast in last year's budget. And while that price was lower than in 2023-24, it was offset by Trans Mountain's influence, which narrowed the difference between Canadian and U.S. pricing. But the province's coffers remain highly dependent on revenue streams that are subject to significant volatility, particularly non-renewable resource royalties, noted the government's annual report. Oil prices in particular are impacted by global supply and demand, and have been volatile in recent years due to geopolitical tensions and economic pressures around the world. One example of how Alberta's reliance on oil prices can cause a significant swing in numbers is the deficit. In last year's budget, the province projected a surplus of around $400-million. Instead, Alberta ended the fiscal year with a $8.3-billion surplus. Time will tell how much the resource revenue roller coaster affects the deficit next year, which the government pencilled in at $5.3-billion in last year's budget. Gary Mason: B.C. and Alberta are about to renew old hostilities. It could get ugly In the 2024-25 fiscal year, Alberta's total revenues hit $82.5-billion, $8.9-billion more than the budget and $7.7-billion more than 2023-24. Strong corporate profits in the oil and gas sector contributed to the windfall, thanks in part to the U.S.-Canadian dollar exchange rate. It averaged 72 US cents in 2024-25, four cents lower than estimated in the budget and two cents lower than the 2023-24 average. Since oil is priced in U.S. dollars, the lower exchange rate boosted the Canadian dollar revenue. Bitumen and conventional oil production volumes rose by 37 per cent and 10 per cent from the budget, respectively. That brought bitumen royalties to $17.2-billion – $4.6-billion more than the budget and $2.6-billion higher than in 2023-24. Conventional crude oil royalties were $3-billion in 2024-25, $300-million higher than the budget and very close to 2023-24. Natural gas and byproduct royalties were $1.2-billion, up $200-million from 2023-24 and down $200-million from budget, due to fluctuations in oil and gas prices. Real GDP rose an estimated 2.7 per cent last year. The energy sector led Alberta's growth in business activity and output with activity ramping up in the second half of the year.
Calgary Herald
a day ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Alberta ends 2024-25 fiscal year with $8.3 billion surplus thanks to oil, taxes
Higher revenues from oil royalties as well as personal and corporate income taxes led Alberta to end the last fiscal year with an $8.3-billion dollar surplus, a swing of nearly $8 billion from what the government accounted for in Budget 2024. Article content The 2024-25 fiscal year ended on March 31, 2025, with the province's bottom line looking much healthier than the initial $367 million projected in the February 2024 budget. Article content Article content Article content 'This surplus shows Alberta's strength. The road ahead may be rough, but Alberta is built to last. We're paying down debt, saving for the future and backing the services Albertans count on,' Finance Minister Nate Horner said in a news release. Article content Article content The surplus represents a significant swing from both Budget 2024's slim surplus and Budget 2025's forecasted deficit of more than $5 billion. Article content Much of that bottom line is a product of continued increases to Alberta's population, which grew by 4.4 per cent in 2024, adding approximately 200,000 new people to the province. Article content That growth is reflected in the government's increased tax revenue but also in its rising expenses as those new residents engage with social programs, infrastructure, and the education and health-care systems. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content The $8.3 billion surplus is Alberta's fourth consecutive fiscal year-end surplus. Article content The fiscal year ended with $85.2 billion in taxpayer-supported debt, an increase of $3.4 billion from the prior fiscal year. The province's overall debt grew by $2.9 billion, up to $102.5 billion. Article content Revenue Article content Alberta's revenue greatly outperformed projections with the government taking in $82.5 billion, or $8.9 billion more than estimated in Budget 2024. Article content More than half of that, $4.7 billion, comes from non-renewable resource revenue with the province noting record-high production as well as the opening of the Trans Mountain expansion pipeline in May of last year.
CBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CBC
Alberta finance minister to deliver year-end fiscal update Friday
Social Sharing Alberta's finance minister is set to deliver the final bottom line number today on last year's provincial budget. Nate Horner's new figure will close the books on the budget for the fiscal year that ended in March. That budget was last forecast to come in with a nearly $6-billion surplus. Horner is expected to deliver his fiscal update Friday during a news conference at 1 p.m. MT. Into the red Alberta's new budget year is now a few months old, but its expected bottom line number is deep in the red. Horner introduced the budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year amid great financial uncertainty, just days before the U.S. tariffs were set to come into effect. The current budget, introduced by Horner in February, predicts Alberta will register a $5.2-billion deficit at the end of March 2026. At the time, Horner cautioned that Alberta's deficit could soar much higher, to an estimated $8.7 billion under a worst-case tariff scenario. It also predicts deficits will continue for years after that due to declining oil prices, tax cuts and global events including the trade levies imposed by the United States.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Alberta finance minister to deliver year-end fiscal update, $5.8B surplus forecasted
Alberta finance minister Nate Horner arrives to speak to the media at a news conference in Calgary, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh) Alberta's finance minister is set to deliver the final bottom line number today on last year's provincial budget. Nate Horner's new figure will close the books on the budget for the fiscal year that ended in March. That budget was last forecast to come in with a nearly $6-billion surplus. Alberta's new budget year is now a few months old, but its expected bottom line number is deep in the red. This budget, introduced by Horner in February, predicts Alberta will register a $5.2-billion deficit at the end of March 2026. It also predicts deficits will continue for years after that due to declining oil prices, tax cuts and global events like the trade tariffs imposed by the United States. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 27, 2025. The Canadian Press
