Report says that consumers would held drive investment in the fund
A fund that was established almost 50 years ago should be revamped to pay dividends to Albertans, a new report urges.
The Heritage Fund was set up in 1976 by the Alberta government and is meant to save a share of the province’s revenues from resources for the benefit of all Albertans. But the Fraser Institute’s Tegan Hill, the think tanks’ director of Alberta Policy and co-author of An Alberta Dividend: The Key
to Growing the Heritage Fund, says that this happens infrequently.
The report found that resource revenue contributions have only been made in 11 of the 48 years the fund has been in existence and less than 4% of the total resource income has been deposited to the fund since it was founded.
“The Alberta government has promised to ‘re-build’ the Heritage Fund, but it will require a consistent commitment over the long term,” Hill said.
Given that, why would paying dividends to Albertans make sense?
Her report notes the example of a similar fund in Alaska – the Permanent Fund which was also started in 1976 but has grown to US$78.0 billion in 2022/23—or C$88.6 billion—compared to a balance of just C$19.0 billion in Alberta’s Heritage Fund.
Hill’s case is that, if Albertans had a stake in the Heritage Fund and were therefore set to benefit financially, they would pressure the government to ensure that contributions are made.
Her calculations are that, based on the Alaska model, if there was a 25% mandatory contribution from resource revenues, protected from inflation, then Albertans could expect a dividend of up to $1,108 in dividends over the next three years.
This is based on the Heritage Fund growing to between $35.8 billion and $38.7 billion by 2026/27 and paying out between $2.9 billion to $5.5 billion in dividends to Albertans.
“As demonstrated in Alaska, by giving citizens an ownership share in the state’s resource fund, they demand that sound rules regarding the governance of the fund be adhered to.” said Hill.
