And with Alberta facing its steepest economic downturn since the 1930s, as the government has been wont to say, Premier Jason Kenney is again putting his money — well, taxpayers’ money — on oil. But with oil prices dropping, a global price war and questions about future demand has some asking, is it a losing bet? Unlike most other governments, the province rolled out a budget just a month ago that was highly dependent on oil. On Tuesday, Kenney lashed out at Russia and Saudi Arabia, blaming what he called the “world’s worst regimes,” for the ongoing spat that’s driven oil prices into the gutter. The Star reached out to the Energy Ministry to ask what oil prices were used to back up that estimate, but didn’t receive a response.

Source: thestar April 01, 2020 10:52 UTC