Alberta’s savings hobbled by oil sands

Potential bonanza for Heritage Fund is not without caveats

For the first time in decades, with the most recent global energy crisis driving prices higher, politicians in Alberta are talking about stashing relatively large sums in the Heritage Fund—essentially a sovereign wealth fund (SWF)—or at least paying down the province’s burgeoning debt. This past summer, once it became apparent Alberta was going to achieve a large budget surplus this fiscal year (FY), then premier Jason Kenney announced the “largest-ever single-year investment in the Heritage Fund”: a total of C$2.9bn ($2.14bn). This was to be achieved by allowing the fund to retain its investment income from the previous year and by allocating it an additional C$1.7bn. In November, at the ti