With Alberta Budget Day due around Feb. 28, Lloydminster’s Cenovus Energy Hub will be waiting with bated breath to see whether Alberta will match Saskatchewan’s near $17 million contribution.
The $100 million build has funding from the federal government, the City of Lloydminster, and corporate community sponsors and hopes to be ready by fall.
Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright MLA Garth Rowswell has the entertainment centre on the list of projects that hope to qualify for support under the Alberta Fund.
“In the 2023/24 year we had a $4.3 billion surplus. Half of that has to go to debt. Twenty-five per cent goes to the Heritage Savings Trust Fund. The other 25 per cent goes into an Alberta Fund that’s used for one-time projects that do not fit into any other program.”
The final dollar amount going to that fund is uncertain, but Rowswell is basing the numbers on what was available from that surplus which was reported in June last year.
“The minister and the Treasury Board know how much they are allocating to the Alberta Fund. I don’t know that number,” says Rowswell who adds that maybe 90 per cent or all of it could go to service the debt.
“My job was to get the project on the list to be considered. We’re on the list.”
When the budget comes out in February, “people will know soon after that if the Cenovus Hub met the standard to receive funding,” notes Rowswell.
Premier Danielle Smith is speculating on the state of finances given unstable oil prices. Alberta based the 2024/25 budget on a US$74.00 average with a $16.00 variance of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to West Canada Select (WCS). The WTI has averaged about $77.00.
“That means WCS at $60. So every dollar above 60 bucks means about $600 million in government revenue,” says Rowswell.
The previous budget also estimated the Canadian dollar at 74 cents US.
“So, as the Canadian dollar value goes down, we get more money because that raises the WCS,” says Rowswell.
In November government projections gave a surplus of $4.6 billion based on revenue from the expanded Trans Mountain Pipeline and personal income tax.
But hopes remain pegged to the price of oil to sustain projects like Lloydminster’s Cenovus Energy Hub.
