EDMONTON - The Alberta government tabled its 2016-17 budget Thursday. Here are some of the highlights:— Total revenue is pegged at $41.4 billion against $51.1 billion in spending. The government is adding a $700-million buffer if oil prices fall into the US$30 barrel range, which would bring the deficit to $10.4 billion.— Benchmark West Texas Intermediate oil expected to average US$42 a barrel and the dollar is forecast at US73.5 cents.— The province is amalgamating or dissolving 26 agencies, [Read more]
Oil and gas land sale rights down in Saskatchewan as industry struggles
REGINA - Sales of petroleum and natural gas rights in Saskatchewan are down as investment in the sector plunges.The province says the April sale raised $3.1 million, bringing the year's total so far to $8.1 million.That's almost two-thirds less than the $22.8 million brought in over the same period last year and far below the $98.6 million raised over the same dates in 2014.Economy Minister Bill Boyd says there's no question that when the price of oil drops significantly, the markets react and [Read more]
Newfoundland and Labrador budget delivers tax hikes, job cuts, $2B deficit
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Critics are calling Newfoundland and Labrador's new spending plan the Tax on Pretty Much Everything Budget, saying it could repel investment and migration to a province that badly needs both."We cannot tax our way back to prosperity," Des Whelan, chairman of the St. John's Board of Trade, said as the new Liberal government delivered its first fiscal blueprint Thursday."In this budget we have seen an increase in every tax, fee and levy that you could possibly do. That's going [Read more]
Alberta braces for $10B in red ink as Finance Minister Ceci unveils budget
EDMONTON - The Alberta government, with oil prices taking massive bites out of its bottom line, blew past its own spending safeguards Thursday to deliver a budget that forecasts almost $58 billion in debt within three years.Finance Minister Joe Ceci confirmed that this year's deficit will be $10.4 billion and said there is no expectation of balancing the books before 2024.He also outlined details of a planned carbon tax that will cost a two-income household earning more than $100,000 annually [Read more]
Hard choices expected in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Bad News Budget
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Tax hikes, job losses and spending cuts are among grim expectations for Newfoundland and Labrador's budget Thursday as the oil price slide takes its toll."It is not something that we take pleasure in. It is a very difficult situation," Finance Minister Cathy Bennett told the legislature this week as the Liberal government prepares to deliver its first spending blueprint since winning power last fall after 12 years of Progressive Conservative rule.Bennett asked officials across [Read more]
CBRE says Calgary downtown office vacancies above 20% for first time in 30 years
CALGARY - The hollowing out of Calgary's core has hit its highest level in more than 30 years and the situation in what was once the energy industry's thriving financial pulse is likely to worsen, a commercial real estate firm says.In a report released Wednesday, CBRE Canada estimates the city's downtown office vacancy rate was 20.2 per cent in the first quarter ended March 31, almost twice as high as the 11.8 per cent vacancy rate in the same period a year ago.Greg Kwong, regional managing [Read more]
Wildrose Leader Brian Jean urges debt cut, halt to carbon tax, in TV address
EDMONTON - The NDP government's plan to get Alberta out of the low-oil debt spiral is only going to make things worse, Wildrose Leader Brian Jean said Tuesday in a televised, provincewide address.Jean said the province can't spend and borrow its way out of the current fiscal crisis."Interest payments will soon be the largest expense in government after health, education and social services," said Jean in the short speech, which served as a rebuttal to last week's kitchen-table TV address by [Read more]
Quebec businesses support Energy East pipeline, advocacy group president says
TORONTO - Quebec businesses have not done a good enough job promoting the economic benefits the Energy East project would bring to the province, the president of Quebec Manufacturers and Exporters said Tuesday.It's up to Quebec's business lobby to step up and make the pipeline happen in a province where it faces strong opposition, Eric Tetrault told a panel discussion in Toronto."Business gets it now and it's going to step forward and make our government support those projects," Tetrault said at [Read more]
Calgary commercial real estate vacancies hit 19.5% as layoffs continue
CALGARY - A new report says Calgary's downtown offices got a bit emptier in the first three months of the year as vacancies rose 2.2 percentage points from last quarter.The Barclay Street Real Estate Ltd. report says vacancies rose to 19.5 per cent as about 938,000 more square feet were on the market. It said by 2018 the vacancy rate could be close to 24 per cent.The increased vacancies come as energy companies continue to announce layoffs and consolidate operations due to low oil [Read more]
Environmental group files lawsuit over ‘expired’ Shell Arctic oil permits
Environmentalists have asked a court to declare invalid a group of Arctic offshore energy exploration permits that are delaying the creation of Canada's third national marine protected area.On Monday, the World Wildlife Fund filed a lawsuit in Federal Court alleging that 30 permits held by Shell Canada at the eastern gate of the Northwest Passage lapsed decades ago."There's no indication they've ever been renewed," said Ian Miron, the group's lawyer.The federal government and regional Inuit [Read more]
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