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Which brings us to the issue of the actual strength of Alberta’s economy. Yes, employment went up this past year, but that was due to an expanding public sector, not private employment.

The picture is much bleaker than the government lets on. Ignoring public administration, health, education and social services, employment from May 2018 had actually declined by 4,500 jobs by January 2019. And there has been no recovery at all since May 2015 when the NDP was elected. Net private sector employment has declined by 39,700 jobs since May 2015.

But the government has more than offset that with increases in public sector hires. The Alberta NDP added 58,600 jobs in the broad public sector — paid by taxes on the private sector.

This imbalanced growth is clearly not sustainable. Without private sector growth in investment and employment, a future Alberta government will have little choice than to cut spending far more harshly than should have been necessary. Since 2015, policies from the provincial and federal governments have piled on to an already economically challenged private sector — with new carbon taxes, personal and corporate tax hikes, minimum wage increases, and, worst of all, heavier regulatory burdens.

More bad news is coming as foreign companies bail out of the oilpatch worsening an already appalling economic environment (Devon Energy is just the latest in a string, announcing last month it wants to sell all its Alberta assets and get out). Things would be less terrible if activity picked up strongly in other sectors to make up for the energy downturn, but that hasn’t happened. Since May 2015, employment has actually fallen in agriculture, construction, manufacturing, transportation and other services.