From The Globe and Mail:
The stinging impact of a year of persistently low oil prices has left economic wreckage across Canada, with the distress particularly acute in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador.
With unemployment rates shooting up and both economies in distress, the two provinces unveiled dramatically different approaches to dealing with their deficits on Thursday.
Alberta’s New Democrats took a hard turn against the province’s fiscally conservative past, adopting a plan that will lead to record debt. Newfoundland and Labrador has instead embraced austerity, tax hikes and layoffs.
Alberta has opted for years of deep deficits as the province tries to cope with a collapse in oil prices without resorting to the type of austerity programs that have left scars in the past.
