In April, the provincial government updated their Term Debt Issues document, which lists all the term debt they still have outstanding.
I thought I’d summarize the new term debt taken out during 2024.
| # of term debts | Total term debt | |
|---|---|---|
| January | 2 | $1.336 billion |
| February | 1 | $0.600 billion |
| March | 1 | $0.750 billion |
| April | 1 | $1.500 billion |
| May | 2 | $2.100 billion |
| June | 1 | $1.500 billion |
| November | 1 | $0.600 billion |
| Total | 9 | $8.386 billion |
The earliest any of these 6 term debts matures is one of those taken out in May, and it matures in June 2029; the June debt also matures that month. The term debt taken out in March is set to mature in late 2054, the latest of the 9 debts.
The February debt and one of the January debts mature in 2033; the other January debt, as well as the April debt and the other May debt all mature in 2034, and the November debt matures in 2035.
Missing from the report is the purpose of the debt. Prior versions had the purpose listed as “government” or “on-lending”; although there was one from 2010 that was labelled “TPP liabilities”.
The interest rates on these 3 debts range from 3.13% to 5.20%. However, the effective cost of debt (or the interest rate after tax deductions) ranges from 3.17% to 5.26%, which is a wider gap than the range of 3.91% to 4.57% in 2023 and up from the range of 2.82% to 4.68% we saw in 2022.
This new $8.386 billion brings the total existing term debt traded by the provincial government since the UCP were elected to $44.758 billion, spread out over 94 transactions.
Keep in mind that this isn’t the total amount of term debt the UCP has taken out, as a handful of debts have since matured.
If we add the new debt borrowed during 2024 and subtract any term debts that matured last year, the total amount of term debt owed by the Alberta government sits at $91.199 billion, as of the end of 2024. Nearly half of that total debt (49.08%) was issued since the UCP were first elected over 6 years ago.
Even though the government owes less than $100 billion at the moment, there was a point during the UCP administration when Alberta’s total term debt was above $100 billion. However, several terms debts issued under the PCs and NDP have since matured, which has brought down the overall debt still owed.
A little less than half of the still outstanding debt (43.59%) was issued during the NDP administration. The remaining 7.3% or so was issued under the PC government, dating back to 2005. That means that nearly 93% of the debt that Alberta currently owes was incurred under the NDP and UCP.
The UCP borrowing activities has been climbing recently, after shrinking in 2022. They borrowed 4 term debts during 2022, but 6 in 2023 and 9 in 2024, as outlined earlier in this article.
During 2021, however, they took out 20, at a combined value of $9.31 billion.
Either way, here’s how the value of the debts look like broken down by month during the UCP’s term:
And by budget year.
Obviously, the pandemic had a lot to do with this. Their 3 highest months were during the first 5 months of the pandemic, totalling $11.8 billion.
The next largest month, was 6 months before the pandemic, however: September 2019 saw the UCP issuing $3 billion in term debts.
In fact, before the pandemic, the UCP had already borrowed nearly $4.6 billion in term debts. So, for every $10 or so in term debt the UCP has issued since taking power, $1 of it was issued before the pandemic.
It’s interesting to see that the UCP has borrowed more term debt in the current budget year than they did in the 2022–2023 budget year, both in terms of the number of debts and the total value of those debts.
Keep in mind that the data for the 2024–2025 doesn’t include the first quarter of 2025, so it could end up even higher.
It’ll be interesting to see how the next 2 years of Danielle Smith’s second term as premier plays out. Will she continue to increase the debt each year, or will this be the highest she goes?
