Alberta Debt Free

[Andrew]

Today Ralph Klein annouced that the province is debt free.

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040712.wdebt0712/BNStory/National/

Maybe I should move to Alberta. :)

If they go back in debt they will not have managed their money well.

Anyone here about the West Edmonton Mall being flooded?

That would suck but would be interesteing to see.

[Vanguard3000]

Well, they have submarines in the West Ed Mall already, so it probably wasn't much of a problem.  ;)

Yeah, Alberta has always been pretty well-off it seems.  They don't have PST.  But that might change if Canada supports Kyoto, which it seems it will be doing.

[exatreide]

those are the only submarines that the canadian goverment owns...  ;)

[Gobalopper]

I have some pictures of the rain storm... I'll have to see where my brother put them.

[Edric O]

From what I hear, though, this debt-free status came at a serious cost for the standards of living of the average Albertan (is "Albertan" the proper noun for someone living in Alberta?).

Now that you've actually paid the debt, maybe you can devote a larger portion of your budget to social services and public projects.

For example, you look like you'd need a giant ombrella. ;)

[Andrew]

Albertan is correct I believe.

Yah, they blew up a hospital. (it was pretty big too)

[Gobalopper]

I haven't noticed any differences here in Alberta standards of living wise then from when I lived in Ontario which still has a debt.

[Andrew]

I think he meant the cutbacks to education and health to pay off the debt in Alberta. (Where Ontario may not be paying off the debt as quickly - so not as many cutbacks)

Think that is what Edric meant.

But you can still make loads of money out there.

A. you have an education.

B. you are a hard worker.

A. Calgary has the most people with degrees percentage wise in Canada. (Maybe diplomas too?)

B. Go work on oil rigs. ;) Or build the oil pipelines.

But cost of living is crazy.

[Gobalopper]

Actually I think it had more to do with oil field revenues then cutbacks. A lot of provinces have made cutbacks like Alberta but none of them have the revenues like here. Granted there has been cuts but certainly nothing that makes it impossible to make a decent living.

And cost of living is pretty low here, certainly not the highest in Canada.

[Andrew]

I guess the cost of living anywhere is just so damn high compared to PEI. ;)

Yah, the oil revenues made em lots of money. So if the oil market crashes ALberta will probably go back in debt.

BC was debt free back in the late 60's I believe. But now they are back in debt.

Ontario has the largest debt and PEI has the smallest. (all has to do with population)

And of course Quebec has the highest percentage last I checked.