[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Slava

I haven't looked at the budget, so I have no idea, but is it because the operating budget balances and they are borrowing for capital projects?

It's sort of how Klein had a balanced budget and was using P3s for everything. It was basically just off balance sheet financing.

So you're saying that when Klein declared Alberta to be debt free back in 2004 it was a lie and he was just fudging the books?

Alberta is now debt-free, due in part to the high price of oil and gas. "Today I'm very, very proud to announce that Alberta has slain its debt," Premier Ralph Klein said on Monday in Calgary.

"Never again will this government or the people of this province have to set aside another tax dollar on debt," Klein said.

"Those days are over and they're over for good, as far as my government is concerned, and if need be we will put in place legislation to make sure that we never have a debt again," he added.

The province eliminated its $3-billion debt by using a big surplus in this year's budget from high oil and gas revenues. In June, the province said its 2003-2004 budget surplus stood at $4 billion.

Ten years ago, Alberta's debt stood at $23 billion. Almost all of that debt was run up between 1982 and 1992, when oil prices crashed.

A rebound in prices, however, has led to big provincial surpluses since the mid-1990s.

The move makes Alberta the only province with no debt. The last province to say it was debt-free was British Columbia in the late 1960s.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/albe...-free-1.516753

P.S. What ever happened to that promised legislation?