HOW DO WE GET BACK TO BALANCE?

Be careful of the things you wish for; you might get them even if you can’t afford them. On Thursday, Albertans got a lot of things they have long wanted in an era of crumbling infrastructure and ballooning population, including promises of 24 new and modernized schools, renovated and new hospitals and a courthouse in Red Deer to replace one so crowded some hearings are forced into hotels.

And that’s just on the capital side. Finance Minister Joe Ceci also promised more Crown prosecutors to unclog the court system, better seniors’ home care and a previously announced 25-per-cent reduction in school fees.

The provincial budget, with a record $9.2 billion in capital spending and $6.4 billion in borrowing to pay for day-to-day expenses, has the feel of a credit-card buying spree. That’s fine if there’s money in the bank to cover the bills. What Albertans are missing in this $54.9-billion budget is a methodical plan for getting the fiscal books back in order.

Spending is what Albertans told him they wanted during his pre-budget research, Ceci said.

“Families want our government to keep investing in long-overdue repairs and modernizations of our schools and our hospitals and they want us to keep improving their roads and highways,” Ceci said. “They want us to make things more affordable.”

Ceci scratched many of the itches piled up over decades of neglect from previous Progressive Conservative regimes in health, education and transportation infrastructure.

There are also no new levies — not even sin taxes on alcohol or tobacco, usually a mainstay of budgets. For Albertans still getting used to the carbon levy, that should come as a relief.

Neither do residents have to worry about cuts to services or government workers losing jobs in mass layoffs.

But here’s where they do have to worry: Ceci offered little in the way of a road map to balance the province’s books and settle up the mounting bills.

The numbers are daunting indeed.

The NDP government is borrowing $5.9 billion in 2017-18 to pay for capital projects, plus another $6.4 billion to keep the lights on.

The overall provincial debt is expected to reach $45 billion in 2017-18, and a staggering $71 billion in 2019-20.

Ceci projects a $10.3-billion deficit this year. That’s expected to drop slightly to $9.7 billion next year and to $7.2 billion the year after.

He says the government is still on track to balance the budget by 2023-24, but there are precious few details to his strategy other than counting on the economy and oil prices to recover.

“We will plan to reduce the deficit year to year and return to balance,” Ceci said. “This will be achieved by keeping spending below population plus inflation.”

There is good in this budget. The government is finally addressing the province’s long-standing infrastructure deficit. It’s borrowing to pay for that capital investment in a downturn when costs are lower and it can stimulate the economy with construction.

But borrowing to pay for government operations must be viewed with caution. It’s a last resort in a crunch to forestall brutal cuts in jobs and services, but it’s no long-term fix and it risks credit downgrades and unsustainable debt for future generations.

The government must show Albertans there is a precise and workable blueprint to balance the budget by diversifying revenue streams that goes beyond hope of “green shoots” and the price of a barrel of oil.