Travis Toews Minister of Finance of Alberta speaks with the media during the Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Toronto, on Friday, February 3, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette
Alberta is predicting a $2.4-billion budget surplus for its petro-powered economy this year, with plans to take a big bite out of its debt and put up guardrails to prevent eye-popping deficits when oil booms go bust.
“This plan achieves the priorities of Albertans, which include ensuring the government lives within its means,” Finance Minister Travis Toews told reporters Tuesday before introducing the 2023-24 budget in the legislature.
“Our relentless focus on investment attraction, job creation and diversification has secured our position as the economic engine of Canada.”
It’s the first budget under United Conservative Party Premier Danielle Smith and the last before a scheduled provincial election in May.
The document hikes spending almost across the board, particularly in the key areas of health, education and justice.
There are billions of dollars for new schools, new roads and bridges, a new business school in Edmonton, more ambulances and Crown prosecutors and training in schools for in-demand fields like health, energy, business and innovation.
Many major spending initiatives were revealed in recent weeks, including $158 million to recruit and retain health workers and $243 million over three years to augment primary care to reduce emergency room bottlenecks.
The budget promises a cap on post-secondary tuition increases starting in 2024.
Toews said there would $1.8 billion over three years to fund kindergarten to Grade 12 enrolment, to reduce class sizes and to improve bus transportation.
There is a 12 per cent combined hike to the Justice and Public Safety budgets to pay for more sheriffs and prosecutors and more staff to clear courtroom backlogs.
The province is putting in almost $2 billion to top up the Heritage Savings Trust Fund nest egg to $20 billion. There are also to be legislative changes to let the fund keep all of its net income rather than allowing the government to withdraw a portion in certain circumstances.
Alberta, with a population of 4.4 million, is on track to take in $70.7 billion in revenue and spend almost $67 billion. Another $1.5 billion is being set aside for unforeseen spending emergencies.
Oilsands money remains the key driver, with bitumen royalties alone expected to bring in $12.6 billion.
Oil prices plunged into negative territory early in the COVID-19 pandemic only to rebound over the last 24 months as the global economy picked up and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove up prices.
West Texas Intermediate — the benchmark price for North American oil — is expected to remain strong at around US$70 and US$80 barrel in the coming years.
Alberta’s oil booms have allowed it to pay the bills while keeping the lowest tax regime in Canada along with no provincial sales tax.
However, as successive governments tied operational spending to the ups and downs of oil prices, oil booms have seen sky-high surpluses accompanied by equally head-spinning deficits during bad times.
Toews introduced a plan for legislated balanced budgets that can only go into the red when there are emergencies, such as COVID-19 or last-minute steep drops in revenue.
Even if such events occur, the government would have to get back into balance within two years. Spending increases would also be limited to inflation plus population growth.
Toews said it would be “far more than embarassing” if the government were to break its own balanced budget law.
“It would be a public spectacle and there would be a huge political cost to bear,” he said.
“Simply passing legislation around these fiscal rules provides real teeth in terms of the impetus for governments to follow them.”
The surplus for the fiscal year that’s about to end had been on track to be $12.3 billion but will now come in at $10.4 billion.
The change is to help pay for $3.5 billion in inflation-aid programs along with a new deal for physicians and wages in bargaining with public-sector unions.
The inflation aid programs have seen the province pause its portion of the gasoline tax and once again index personal income tax brackets to inflation. There are also rebates on electricity bills and direct payments for young families, seniors and those in need.
Economic indicators remain robust. Alberta’s real GDP growth is expected to rise 2.8 per cent to lead the nation.
Population growth is expected to rise by almost three per cent, the largest such increase since 2006.
The Opposition NDP has warned Albertans to beware UCP politicians bearing gifts on the eve of an election.
Finance critic Shannon Phillips noted that many of the givebacks — including the cap on post-secondary tuition increases, a freeze on auto insurance hikes, and tax and benefit re-indexation — reverse earlier decisions made by the same government.
Here are some of the highlights:
— A $2.4-billion surplus based on $70.7 billion in revenues and $68.3 billion in spending (including a $1.5-billion contingency fund).
— Taxpayer-supported debt is to fall to $78.3 billion.
— New fiscal framework legislation to mandate balanced budgets and operational spending caps.
— No new taxes.
— Operational health spending to rise 4.1 per cent.
— Kindergarten to Grade 12 operating expenses increases by 5.2 per cent.
— $178 million of revenue reductions over three years to make post-secondary education more affordable for students, including reduced loan rates, extended repayment grace period and tuition increases capped at two per cent starting in fall 2024.
— Operating and capital funding to municipalities to grow to $3.4 billion from $2.5 billion.
— $10 million over two years to promote rural tourism.
— An $800 million investment over three years from the TIER fund to programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to support green technology.
— The capital plan has $23 billion over three years for a range of projects, including roads, bridges, recreational centres and schools.
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
___
Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
