Alberta on track to lower deficit by $1B, Ceci says in first-quarter update

Alberta is on track to reduce its deficit by $1 billion this year to $7.8 billion, Finance Minister Joe Ceci said Friday in his first-quarter fiscal update.

Revenue is expected to increase by $1.2 billion, largely due to higher oil prices andrevenue from personal income taxes.

Overall spending remains stable at $56 billion, but an extra $2 million has been added to go toward a plebiscite on Calgary's 2026 Olympic bid.

The debt by the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year is projected to bejust under $53 billion.

Ceci said the government is on track to balance the budget by 2023-24.

The province has increased its projected average price foroil this year to $61 US a barrel, up from the $59 USforecast when thebudget was tabled in March.

The fiscal update came a day after a federal court overturnedapproval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which theprovince says is critical to the Alberta and national economies.

Cecisaid the court decision doesn't affect the government's finances for the first quarter or the 2018-19 fiscal year.

He acknowledged the importance of the Trans Mountain project, but said the "path to balance" relieson a number of factors, including revenue from two new pipeline projects.

"I'm confidentthat they'll be in place when we need that capacity in the 2021 timeframe,"Cecisaid.

Those projects are TransCanada'sKeystone XL and Enbridge'sLine 3.

The 1,900-kilometreKeystone XL pipeline has faced numerous regulatory and legal hurdles. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Montana ordered the U.S. State Department to do a full environmental review of a revised route for the pipeline, which would carry heavy crude from Alberta to Nebraska.

Enbridge'sLine 3 Replacement Program is underway. It involves the replacement of more than 1,000 kilometres of pipeline fromHardisty, Alta. to Saskatchewan, Manitoba and through Minnesota to Superior, Wis.Line 3 replacement through the United States received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission in June.

Cecirefused to speculate on how reduced revenue by withdrawing from the nationalclimate change planwould impact the debt projections.

"That doesn't affect the 2018-2019 budget at all," he said. "We're not here talking about [what happens] down the line.We're here talking about first quarter of 2018-19."

Jason Kenney, leader of the Official Opposition United Conservative Party, blasted Cecifor releasingfiscal update numbersthat don't account for the government's decision Thursday to pull out of the federal climate-changeplan until the pipeline construction starts again.

The March budget had counted on an increase in carbon tax revenues when the full federal plan comes into effect over the next few years.

Kenney said Ceciwas "not credible" in providing an update that didn't account for the government's decision to foregothe planned 67-per-cent increase in carbon taxes, from the current $30 a tonne to $50 a tonne in 2022.

"I think it's pretty clear that they better come back to Albertans with revised projections, including the impact of giving up those revenues," Kenney said. "The world changed yesterday and if they want to be transparent with Albertans, they should come back with revised projections."

• Alberta deficit $2.5B lower than forecast thanks to higher revenues

In June,Cecireported that Albertaended the 2017-18 fiscal year with a deficit of $8 billion, $2.5 billion less than had been forecast in the spring 2017 budget.

The government took in $2.4-billion more than expected in revenue in 2017-18. A jump in resource revenue accounted for $1.9 billion of that increase.