Alberta (fiscal plan)

We present data beginning with fiscal year 1965/66.

These data define what the Government of Alberta referred to as its Fiscal Plan prior to 2015/16. Since 2015/16, we have adjusted expenditure and revenues as they are currently reported (on what the government currently refers to as a Consolidated Financial Basis) to maintain consistency with what was reported previously.

From 1965/66 to 1978/79, spending was reported by Ministry and described as coming from the government’s Consolidated Financial Statements. Starting with 1978/80, expenditures were reported on a functional basis rather than by Ministry and reporting on revenues and expenditures was now described as being on a ‘fiscal plan’ basis.¹ From 1965/66 to 2015/16, the SUCH sector and Alberta Innovates foundations were excluded from the accounts.

Since 2015/16, the government has included the budgets of the SUCH sector and other foundations into its reporting and so has chosen to present its finances using a wider definition of government. To deal with this, we have, since 2015/16, adjusted revenues and expenditures reported in the government’s Annual Reports to remove the budgetary effects of decisions made in the SUCH sector and by Alberta Innovates corporations that were previously omitted from fiscal plan estimates.² For researchers interested in seeing both versions of the Alberta budget, we provide our fiscal plan estimates since 1965/66 as well as revenues and expenditures as they are currently being presented in Annual Reports.

To match as closely as possible the spending reported by function since 1979/80, we report expenditures for the period 1965/66 to 1978/79 in the following ways.

Health Expenditures

• For the years 1965/66 to 1970/71, we report Health spending by the Health Department.

• For the years 1971/72 to 1974/75 we report the amount of spending by Health Commissions plus two amounts taken from Health and Social Development, namely, “Mental Illness” and “General Health”

• For the years 1975/76 to 1978/79, we report expenditures on Hospitals and Medical Care plus two amounts reported under the Ministry of Social Services and Community Health identified as “Treatment for Mental Illness” and “General Health Services.”

Social Services Expenditures

• For the years 1965/66 to 1969/70, we report spending by the Public Welfare Department

• For 1970/71, we report spending by the Social Development Department.

• For 1971/72 to 1974/75, we report spending by the Health and Social Development Department

• From 1975/76 to 1978/79, we report spending by the Social Services and Community Care Department less the amounts identified as “Treatment for Mental Illness” and “General Health Services.”

Education Expenditures

• Prior to 1979/80, Education spending is that reported as that by the Education Department and, when it appears as a separate department, the Advanced Education Department. to include K-12 plus advanced education. From 1975-76 onward we subtract Manpower Development and Training Assistance from the Advanced Education Department.

Finally, to maintain consistency over time, we made the following small adjustments to revenues:

• We removed “renter assistance tax credits and royalty tax rebates and credits” from “individual income tax” in years when those line items appear

• For 1969-70 to 1971-72, the public accounts did not report personal and corporate income tax revenues separately. Statistics Canada reports these separate values in “Public Finance Historical Data, 1965-66-1991/92.” The sum of these values exactly match the total reported in the public accounts and so we rely on these values for our personal and corporation income tax revenue series.

• We removed “royalty tax rebates and credits” from “corporation income tax” in the years leading up to 1977-78.