Nate Horner really didn't want a deficit. But he has one, thanks to a new threat and an old campaign pledge.
Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner enters a news conference about Budget 2025, which includes the first deficit for the province since the height of the pandemic. In a rare admission, Finance Minister Nate Horner acknowledged there was some political daylight between him and Premier Danielle Smith when it came to putting Alberta deeper into deficit for the sake of fast-tracking a tax cut.
Historically, balanced budgets have meant a lot to Albertans, too, including former premier Ralph Klein's triumphant erasure of the provincial debt two decades ago, and Jason Kenney's return to surpluses after the oil-price slump and recession the NDP government oversaw. "Conservatives, we don't like deficits. We're allergic to them," conservative strategist Sarah Biggs told the"But if the deficit is caused because of a tax cut to the middle class, I think they will be OK."Certain uncertainties
Alberta's budget-makers are perennially used to unpredictability, having to guess what global oil prices and the exchange rate will do for the year ahead. In fact, the "low" and "high" scenarios in past financial blueprints have been far greater than in Budget 2025.
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