Alberta unemployment rate could hit 25%: Premier Kenney

Alberta’s unemployment rate could reach 25 per cent, Premier Jason Kenney warned Albertans during an online conference Tuesday of oil and gas leaders.

Also, in a televised address to Albertans Tuesday evening, Kenney said the province is facing a “triple threat.”

“First the greatest threat to public health in over a century, the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, the shutdown of much of the economy here and around the world leading to a deep global recession. And thirdly, the collapse in global energy prices that threatens our largest industry and with it hundreds of thousands of jobs,'” he said.

“All of this follows five years of economic fragility for our province.”

Kenney said Albertans are under huge financial stress. Small business owners wonder if they’ll ever be able to open their doors again. Families worry about just paying the rent or the mortgage or putting food on the table or whether there will be a job to return to when all this is over.

Kenney said every day he hears that anxiety and sense of powerlessness and real fear that this is creating for so many people.

“The end of the pandemic will not be the end of the economic downturn the likes of which we have not seen since the 1930s. We expect a global economic recovery from COVID-19 later this year but the crash in energy prices means that Alberta’s downturn will be deeper and recovery slower than the rest of the world,” he said.

“Our largest industry has been battered for five years and now Western Canadian oil has fallen as low in the past week as $3 a barrel. There is very real possibility that as global inventories overflow our energy will hit negative prices. We’ll be paying people to take away our energy. I cannot overstate how grave the implications of this will be for jobs, our economy and the financial security of Albertans.”

Kenney said the collapse in revenues will have an enormous impact on Alberta’s finances.

“Alberta’s budget deficit this year may triple from $7 billion to almost $20 billion. We will face a great fiscal reckoning in the future,” he said.