BR Alta Debt Warning – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Jan 22, 2016

EDMONTON – Tough news for Alberta — a credit-rating agency says the province is close to its debt ceiling and Quebec mayors are slamming the Energy East pipeline project.

Toronto-based agency D-B-R-S has affirmed Alberta’s top-drawer triple-A credit rating, but has downgraded the province’s fiscal outlook from stable to negative.

It says with oil prices so low and the government’s borrowing plans so high, Alberta will exceed its own self-imposed legislated debt limits this fiscal year.

Finance Minister Joe Ceci says the government doesn’t agree with the assessment, saying the debt-to-G-D-P ratio is currently at about four per cent.

Meanwhile, a group of Quebec mayors is criticizing the pipeline from Alberta to New Brunswick as too environmentally risky.

Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous says that doesn’t take into account Alberta’s steps to clean up its environmental record.

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(The Canadian Press)

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