Have you two dimes to rub together? If so then 10 years ago you could have carried out this rather bizarre though oft-mentioned action before handing them to the provincial government.
Continue doing this somewhat silly little task each and every day back in 2008 and, by the end of that particular year, the amount shelled out to the Alberta Treasury would be a shade over 70 bucks.
No doubt even then there were better things to do with your petty cash. But fair’s fair: that was your personal share of the annual cost of our accumulated provincial debt. And two measly daily dimes was a lot less than other Canadians were paying out across this vast land when it came to debt servicing.
In Quebec, for example, you’d be rubbing together three loonies and still falling short as that province was then spending more than a thousand dollars per resident covering interest of what they owed – Newfies were shelling out even more.
But, being an inclusive bunch in Wild Rose land, we decided to join the party and though we came late to this dubious debt delicatessen we’ve since grabbed the biggest plate on offer to gorge ourselves in a show of interprovincial solidarity.
In fact we’ve made such a good job of borrowing that on our current trajectory we’ll soon be joining La Belle Province and Newfoundland in singing loudest from that rejigged Seven Dwarfs’ ditty: “We owe, we owe, so off to work we go.”
Yes, we have squandered the Alberta Advantage, which wasn’t so much the relative lower taxes we paid compared to the rest of Canada, but was more the lack of interest payment on what we owed, meaning money wasn’t going to foreigners holding our then Triple-A rated provincial bonds but instead was spent on classrooms, hospital beds and infrastructure.
Because we still pay lower taxes than most, but these days we only manage that feat by borrowing billions of bucks each year. Sooner rather than later that catches up to a province. Those daily two dimes are well on track to become three loonies apiece within a decade.
That will be quite an achievement, ratcheting up what every Albertan owes each year from less than $70 to over $1,000, though it’s unlikely the government of that dark, future day will throw a provincial party when the event occurs, like the famous celebration the late Ralph Klein held when Alberta, once upon a very different time, was judged debt free.
You can see what a pickle we have gotten ourselves into when a beaming Joe Ceci, a man whose astounding continued good humour over these past three years at the provincial financial tiller is one of nature’s true miracles, celebrates in announcing we actually only borrowed $8 billion last year.
This is akin to the Oilers and Flames beaming with pride because they didn’t officially miss the playoffs until April instead of their usual mid-March swansong.
We were supposed to borrow more than $10 billion in the financial year ending March 31 but higher oil prices reduced the red ink. Yahoo indeed: only $8 billion more to pay interest on as the debt rises to $43 billion. Another similar chunk of borrowing is underway this year. Maybe we’ll all get a provincial pin when we hit the $100 billion owed mark.
We are watching our financial future slide down the drain. Interest rates are now rising yet we borrow ever more money to simply keep those energy efficient bulbs burning brightly across Alberta.
This could be stopped, of course. But I wouldn’t wager two dimes on it happening.
– Nelson is a syndicated columnist
