At a Glance - Week of September 11, 2024
New Governance Agreement Reached
On September 4th, the Government of Alberta, Law Society of Alberta, and Legal Aid Alberta signed a new five-year governance agreement to ensure that legal aid services remain available to Albertans. The new agreement comes into effect on September 6th and will expire on September 5th, 2029.
As part of the agreement, Legal Aid Alberta’s grant for the 2024-25 fiscal year will remain at $110 million.
Deanna Steblyk, K.C., president of the Law Society of Alberta, said in a statement that “this agreement upholds that principle, and we look forward to continued collaboration on this important work with the government, Legal Aid Alberta and other key stakeholders in the justice system.”
Funding Pulled from Green Line Project
A letter from Minister of Transportation Devin Dreeshen to Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek revealed that the provincial government would be backing out of its share of funding allocated to constructing the long-awaited Green Line LRT in Alberta’s largest city. The province’s contribution was set to be around $1.53 billion.
As a result, Mayor Gondek indicated that the province’s position change means "as a result of that … we are no longer as a city able to afford the cost of this project.” This week, City Council passed a motion to direct staff to present options at the regular council meeting on September 17th to find ways to transition the project to provincial hands.
“This is no longer our project. It’s not the one we approved in 2020. It’s not the one we established a Green Line board for. This is now the province’s project. They need to be the ones who hold the risk on this.”
Two Albertans Appointed to the Senate
On the Labour Day long weekend, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the two vacant Alberta Senate seats have been filled by new appointments from the wild rose province. Daryl Fridhandler, K.C. and Dr. Kristopher Wells will be sworn in as Canada’s newest senators on September 17th.
Fridhandler is a corporate lawyer by trade with more than 40 years of experience in the profession of law. He has served on a number of boards, including the Alberta Ballet Company, Calgary Economic Development, and Calgary Police Commission – among others.
Dr. Wells served as a teacher before earning his master’s and doctoral degrees. He most recently served as MacEwan University’s Canada Research Chair and is the founding director for the MacEwan Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity. He has spent most of his career promoting 2SLGBTQI+ rights.
They will join fellow Alberta Senators Patti LaBoucane-Benson, Paula Simons, Karen Sorensen, and Scott Tannas.
Alberta Releases Q1 Fiscal Update
At the end of August, the provincial government releases its first fiscal update of the most recent budget. According to Minister of Finance Nate Horner, the province is forecasting a $2.9 billion surplus, the province also forecasts that “it will be in a cash deficit at the end of 2024-25 and will need to borrow $0.6 billion.”
Taxpayer-supported debt is currently forecasted to be $86.1 billion with current debt servicing costs reaching $3.2 billion.
On the revenue side of the equation, population growth has spurred income tax increases of $458 million ($16.1 billion total) with non-renewable resource revenue coming in $2.5 billion higher than projected. The forecasted surplus is boosted by better-than-expected cost of oil which averaged $81USD/bbl from April 1 to July 31.