Alberta’s first-quarter fiscal update says the double blow of collapsing oil prices and the COVID-19 crisis have pushed the province into a historic deficit of $24.2 billion.
The red ink Finance Minister Travis Toews is predicting for 2020-21 is more than triple what the United Conservative government projected in its February budget.
The value of everything Albertans produce is forecast to drop by nearly nine per cent.
The unemployment rate, now about 12 per cent, is expected to remain at near double-digit levels well into next year.
The government says the economy will start to bounce back next year, but it won’t be enough to make up for the ground lost in 2020.
The Conference Board of Canada said this week that Alberta will be the hardest hit province economically this year with an 11 per cent contraction in GDP.
The Canadian Press