A Government Reinvented: A Study of Alberta's Deficit Elimination Program

David E. Smith is a professor of political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan and the author of Building a Province: A History of
Saskatchewan in Documents and The Invisible Crown.

This book is, to begin with, a study in economics. Fifteen of its 21
contributors are economists concerned with analyzing and evaluating
Alberta’s much publicized Deficit Elimination Program. Between 1992
and 1996, that program dictated a 20 percent cut in provincial
expenditures and, in consequence, a fundamental restructuring of
public-sector services. Tables and graphs abound in this 500-page book.
Yet the reader learns not only about the economic theory that framed the
debate and the details surrounding the program’s implementation, but
also about one provincial government’s response to the threat of debt
that all provincial governments faced in the 1990s. By the last chapter,
the motivation and the decisions of Ralph Klein’s government may or
may not be deemed defensible; they are, nonetheless, explicable.

This is no small achievement, since the authors must explain the
methodology of provincial accounting and budgeting; the mechanisms
instituted to win public support; and the creation and application of
“key performance indicators” across four major spending departments
(Family and Social Services, Health, Advanced Education, and Education).
Although the approach is not deliberately comparative in design, there
are more than enough data from other provinces to confirm the uniqueness
of the Alberta solution.

Whether, in fact, Alberta has solved its deficit problem is another
matter. As several of these papers make clear, the books may now be
balanced, but the effect of the cuts on the well-being of Albertans will
long be felt.