Alberta expecting to deliver positive news regarding the province’s budget

Alberta’s finance minister is expected to deliver some good news on the province’s budget on Nov. 30 when he releases the second-quarter update.

Travis Toews says the economic outlook is improving across the board and not just in Alberta’s mainstay oil and gas sector.

A surge in oil and gas prices has helped Alberta’s bottom line since Toews predicted an $18-billion deficit when he introduced the budget back in February.

That deficit projection has since been halved to less than $8 billion.

Opposition NDP finance critic Shannon Phillips says the higher energy prices will help.

But Phillips says Toews still needs to present a plan to help families dealing with the double whammy of a 4.7 per cent rise in inflation on top of higher user fees, bills and insurances rates imposed under Premier Jason Kenney’s United Conservatives.