{"id":4810,"date":"2020-04-23T04:51:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T10:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/?p=4810"},"modified":"2020-04-22T22:04:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T04:04:48","slug":"ab-finance-minister-approves-lending-ab-government-25-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/23\/ab-finance-minister-approves-lending-ab-government-25-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"AB finance minister  approves lending AB government $25 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Yesterday, <strong>Travis Toews<\/strong>, president of the Alberta Treasury Board and the minister of finance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alberta.ca\/release.cfm?xID=7014369C9EC76-0B3E-D56D-8E096CAB95FAEBD5\">recommended to the lieutenant governor<\/a> that he be authorized to do the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Raise up to $25 billion through notes, bonds, debentures, or interest-bearing or non-interest-bearing treasury bills issued by the Crown, or any other securities under which the Crown is the debtor<\/li><li>Approves the terms and conditions of any of that money<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The lieutenant government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qp.alberta.ca\/documents\/Orders\/Orders_in_Council\/2020\/2020_131.pdf\">approved the recommendation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, I <a href=\"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/15\/travis-toews-lets-himself-lend-1-25b-to-oil-refinery\/\">broke a story<\/a> about a similar approval for $1.25 billion. That borrowing was specifically for an oil refinery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This newborrowing is for an undetermined purpose. Which is odd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the $1.25 billion that Toews was approved to borrow last week for the refinery, he was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qp.alberta.ca\/documents\/Orders\/Orders_in_Council\/2019\/2019_259.html\">approved for up to $7 billion in November<\/a> for securities of ATB Financial and Alberta Capital Finance Authority, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qp.alberta.ca\/documents\/Orders\/Orders_in_Council\/2020\/2020_108.html\">changed to $9 billion last month<\/a>. In February, he filed for another approval\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.qp.alberta.ca\/documents\/Orders\/Orders_in_Council\/2020\/2020_033.html\">$2.8 billion for securities from Agriculture Financial Services Corporation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These three orders in council are the only ones authorized by the Lieutenant Governor since the UCP government was elected, and every one of them expressed an explicit purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yesterday\u2019s announcement had no purpose listed. It\u2019s just requesting the approval of $25 billion, the largest approval yet. In fact, it\u2019s more than all the other approvals combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are certainly plenty of places they could spend it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making up for the loss of $4.7 billion from the corporate income tax cuts implemented last February and this past January (and every January until the election), for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or perhaps covering up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/03\/06\/alberta-is-not-maintaining-healthcare-spending\/\">$2.7 billion shortfall in healthcare<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/13\/alberta-is-not-maintaining-education-spending\/\">$2.5 billion shortfall in K\u201312 education<\/a>, or the $6 billion shortfall in postsecondary funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this point, however, it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess. Either way, it\u2019s certainly going to push the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alberta.ca\/budget-highlights.aspx\">$95.6 billion debt that they forecasted<\/a> for this year past the $100 billion mark. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Alberta minister of finance was given the okay to lend the provincial government $25 billion, the largest approval during his term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[106],"tags":[85,86,103],"class_list":["post-4810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-politics","tag-travis-toews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/12\/money-2180330_1920.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4NkW7-1fA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4648,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/15\/travis-toews-lets-himself-lend-1-25b-to-oil-refinery\/","url_meta":{"origin":4810,"position":0},"title":"Travis Toews lets himself lend $1.25B to oil refinery","author":"Kim Siever","date":"15 April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Did you know that Keystone XL isn\u2019t the only oil and gas project that the UCP government plans to spend over $1 billion on?","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4592,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/13\/alberta-is-not-maintaining-education-spending\/","url_meta":{"origin":4810,"position":1},"title":"Alberta is not maintaining education spending","author":"Kim Siever","date":"13 April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The education minister is trying to suggest that Alberta is maintaining spending, assuaging fears that they\u2019re making spending cuts to education.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/child-830988_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/child-830988_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/child-830988_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/child-830988_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/child-830988_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4237,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/03\/06\/alberta-is-not-maintaining-healthcare-spending\/","url_meta":{"origin":4810,"position":2},"title":"Alberta is not maintaining healthcare spending","author":"Kim Siever","date":"6 March 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The health minister is trying to suggest that Alberta is maintaining spending, assuaging fears that they\u2019re making spending cuts to healthcare.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/doctor-1149149_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/doctor-1149149_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/doctor-1149149_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/doctor-1149149_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/02\/doctor-1149149_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4388,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/03\/31\/10-things-to-know-about-albertas-keystone-xl-announcement\/","url_meta":{"origin":4810,"position":3},"title":"10 things to know about Alberta\u2019s Keystone XL announcement","author":"Kim Siever","date":"31 March 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You\u2019ve probably seen the announcement by this point that the Alberta government is spending $1.5 billion on the Keystone XL pipeline. Here are 10 things you should realize about it. 1. The $1.5 billion the Alberta government is using to buy shares in the company is only part of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/oil-pump-jack-1407715_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C927&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4562,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/11\/6-myths-the-ucp-keeps-spreading-about-doctors\/","url_meta":{"origin":4810,"position":4},"title":"6 myths the UCP keeps spreading about doctors","author":"Kim Siever","date":"11 April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently encountered a thread on Twitter outlining several myths that the Alberta health minister keeps perpetuating as he continues fighting against doctors.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/anesthesia-4677401_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4514,"url":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/2020\/04\/21\/a-list-of-alberta-communities-losing-doctor-care\/","url_meta":{"origin":4810,"position":5},"title":"A list of Alberta communities losing doctor care","author":"Kim Siever","date":"21 April 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"According to the AMA, 400 clinics in Alberta are laying off support staff or considering closing. Here are some of them.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/hospital-661274_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/hospital-661274_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/hospital-661274_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/hospital-661274_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/04\/hospital-661274_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4810"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4814,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4810\/revisions\/4814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/siever.ca\/kim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}