CALGARY - The United Conservatives are promising to get Alberta’s books out of the red and into a $714-million surplus by 2023 — a year earlier than the NDP. ( Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS )“This is a very mainstream, balanced approach to gradually getting to balance without any absolute reductions in spending,” UCP Leader Jason Kenney told reporters Saturday. The NDP predicts the West Texas Intermediate benchmark average price for North American oil will be US$59 a barrel in 2019-20, rising to US$70 a barrel by 2022-23. But the UCP predicts the WTI will start at about US$55 barrel and then climb to just under US$62 over that same time period. In this budget year, the government predicts total spending will be $56.6 billion and total revenue will be $49.6 billion.

Source: thestar March 30, 2019 22:18 UTC