Dividends could restrain government spending

Pundits have been busy criticizing Wildrose’s election plan for energy dividends as frivolous spending. Paradoxically, the plan could result in increased government savings.

The dividend money would be best spent building new schools and clinics, some say, concealing the supposition that public money is best spent by government. The record does not warrant such supposition. For decades now, the Alberta government has lost its way on what to do with our vast resource revenue as the Financial Investment and Planning Advisory Commission hinted in 2007.

The state of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, established in 1976 with an initial investment of $1.5 billion, provides an insight into the randomness of Alberta’s fiscal policy. Successive premiers have ignored the Heritage Fund other than to raid it on occasion to pay for their spending addiction.

Premier Lougheed wanted the fund to save for the future, diversify the economy and improve the quality of life of Albertans. Insofar as th…