Alberta’s Finance Minister Shirley McClellan released the government of Alberta’s annual report providing details of the province’s performance on Budget 2004.

The report says that the province eliminated its accumulated debt, and delivered a balanced budget for the eleventh consecutive year in fiscal 2005. Revenues exceeded expenses by $5 billion. The surplus was primarily allocated to paying the remaining $3.7 billion accumulated debt and to help pay for capital projects.

Revenue was $29.3 billion, $3.4 billion higher than in 2003-04 primarily due to higher non-renewable resource revenue. Expenses were $24.3 billion, $2.4 billion higher than in 2003-04, primarily due to higher health and education spending.

The report says that Alberta continued to enjoy the highest personal disposable income per capita and the lowest overall tax load among the provinces. Also, 40,000 jobs were created and Alberta recorded the lowest unemployment rate in Canada at 4.6%.

While the government addressed the accumulated debt it also focused on further investments in key programs. Health spending was $9.1 billion, an increase of 18.8% from 2003-04. Education spending was $6.4 billion, an increase of 9.1% from 2003-04. The increases reflected higher spending on programs and increased capital and operating grants to health authorities, school boards and post-secondary institutions. Health and education spending together accounted for more than 63% of government expense.

Taxes were reduced in 2004-05, with the general corporate rate reduced to 11.5% from 12.5%, and the small business rate reduced to 3% from 4%. The personal income tax system continued to be indexed to inflation to preserve the nearly $1.5 billion in reductions since 1999.

The Sustainability Fund continued to provide emergency assistance to support the cattle industry, which is still being impacted by the BSE crisis, and funding for forest fires, floods and natural gas rebates. “We are in a very fortunate financial position to help Albertans in times of need without impacting priority programs,” said McClellan.

The Heritage Fund earned approximately $1.1 billion from its investments during the 2004-05 fiscal year. All of the investment income was transferred to the General Revenue Fund. Since 1976, transfers to the General Revenue Fund have amounted to $27.6 billion. On a fair value basis, the fund’s investments returned 7.7%. At March 31, the fair value of the Fund was $12.2 billion.