Alberta
Alberta’s Parker Thompson clinging to season lead after major push by Dutch driver

From promazdachampionship.com
TORONTO, Ont., Canada – Talented Dutch teenager Rinus VeeKay produced another copybook performance this morning on the unforgiving streets around Exhibition Place in Toronto to sweep this weekend’s Cooper Tires Pro Mazda Grand Prix of Toronto Presented by Allied Building Products.
VeeKay’s second win for Juncos Racing in as many days – and fourth of the season – enabled him to close to within seven points of Canadian Parker Thompson in the quest for the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and a scholarship valued at close to $800,000 to graduate to the top tier of the acclaimed Mazda Road to Indy open-wheel development ladder, Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires, in 2019.
Oliver Askew, from Jupiter, Fla., last year’s winner of the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, secured his best finish of the season, second, for Cape Motorsports. He also posted a new Pro Mazda race lap record of 1:07.6395 (95.057 mph). VeeKay’s teammate, Robert Megennis, from New York, N.Y., edged out Askew’s teammate, Los Angeles-based Russian Nikita Lastochkin, for the final podium place.
VeeKay had matters virtually all his own way for the majority of the 40-minute race around the 1.786-mile street circuit. He romped into a clear early advantage as Megennis, who had found a way past front row qualifier David Malukas (BN Racing) on the opening lap, adopted some aggressive defensive tactics to maintain his position.
RP Motorsports Racing had performed wonders to repair Harrison Scott’s car following his terrifying crash on Saturday. Sadly, it was to no avail as an unexplained suspension failure as he braked for Turn One on the opening lap ensured he was done for the day. The Italian team experienced more drama on Lap Five when Scott’s teammate, Mexican Raul Guzman, clipped the inside wall in Turn 11 and crashed heavily into the retaining barrier on the exit of the corner. Fellow countryman Andres Gutierrez (Team Pelfrey) also was taken out in the incident.
VeeKay once again took off at the restart as Megennis continued to ensure there was no easy passage for anyone else. Askew, who started sixth, slipped past Sting Ray Robb (Team Pelfrey) and Malukas in quick succession on the restart, then finally found a chink in Megennis’ armor on Lap 19 to move up into second. By then VeeKay was already more than 6.5 seconds to the good.
Askew was granted a lifeline when Brazilian Carlos Cunha crashed in Turn Three while attempting to pass Megennis. Cue another full-caution which was cleared in time for a two-lap dash to the finish. VeeKay, though, was able to hold on and take the victory by a margin of just over half a second. He also ensured team owner Ricardo Juncos of another PFC Award.
Megennis held on for third, despite a late challenge from Lastochkin, with Kris Wright (BN Racing) securing the Tilton Hard Charger Award after steering clear of all the trouble and rising from 12th on the grid to fifth ahead of FatBoy Racing’s Charles Finelli, from Locust Valley, N.Y., who finished sixth for the second consecutive day. Robb completed the unlapped finishers, despite a badly damaged nosecone following an incident on Lap 17 with Thompson (Exclusive Autosport), who struggled home in eighth.
What was once a commanding championship advantage for Thompson has now been trimmed dramatically as the series heads next to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, for another pair of races the weekend of July 28/29.
Alberta
Low oil prices could have big consequences for Alberta’s finances

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill
Amid the tariff war, the price of West Texas Intermediate oil—a common benchmark—recently dropped below US$60 per barrel. Given every $1 drop in oil prices is an estimated $750 million hit to provincial revenues, if oil prices remain low for long, there could be big implications for Alberta’s budget.
The Smith government already projects a $5.2 billion budget deficit in 2025/26 with continued deficits over the following two years. This year’s deficit is based on oil prices averaging US$68.00 per barrel. While the budget does include a $4 billion “contingency” for unforeseen events, given the economic and fiscal impact of Trump’s tariffs, it could quickly be eaten up.
Budget deficits come with costs for Albertans, who will already pay a projected $600 each in provincial government debt interest in 2025/26. That’s money that could have gone towards health care and education, or even tax relief.
Unfortunately, this is all part of the resource revenue rollercoaster that’s are all too familiar to Albertans.
Resource revenue (including oil and gas royalties) is inherently volatile. In the last 10 years alone, it has been as high as $25.2 billion in 2022/23 and as low as $2.8 billion in 2015/16. The provincial government typically enjoys budget surpluses—and increases government spending—when oil prices and resource revenue is relatively high, but is thrown into deficits when resource revenues inevitably fall.
Fortunately, the Smith government can mitigate this volatility.
The key is limiting the level of resource revenue included in the budget to a set stable amount. Any resource revenue above that stable amount is automatically saved in a rainy-day fund to be withdrawn to maintain that stable amount in the budget during years of relatively low resource revenue. The logic is simple: save during the good times so you can weather the storm during bad times.
Indeed, if the Smith government had created a rainy-day account in 2023, for example, it could have already built up a sizeable fund to help stabilize the budget when resource revenue declines. While the Smith government has deposited some money in the Heritage Fund in recent years, it has not created a dedicated rainy-day account or introduced a similar mechanism to help stabilize provincial finances.
Limiting the amount of resource revenue in the budget, particularly during times of relatively high resource revenue, also tempers demand for higher spending, which is only fiscally sustainable with permanently high resource revenues. In other words, if the government creates a rainy-day account, spending would become more closely align with stable ongoing levels of revenue.
And it’s not too late. To end the boom-bust cycle and finally help stabilize provincial finances, the Smith government should create a rainy-day account.
Alberta
Governments in Alberta should spur homebuilding amid population explosion

From the Fraser Institute
By Tegan Hill and Austin Thompson
In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.
Alberta has long been viewed as an oasis in Canada’s overheated housing market—a refuge for Canadians priced out of high-cost centres such as Vancouver and Toronto. But the oasis is starting to dry up. House prices and rents in the province have spiked by about one-third since the start of the pandemic. According to a recent Maru poll, more than 70 per cent of Calgarians and Edmontonians doubt they will ever be able to afford a home in their city. Which raises the question: how much longer can this go on?
Alberta’s housing affordability problem reflects a simple reality—not enough homes have been built to accommodate the province’s growing population. The result? More Albertans competing for the same homes and rental units, pushing prices higher.
Population growth has always been volatile in Alberta, but the recent surge, fuelled by record levels of immigration, is unprecedented. Alberta has set new population growth records every year since 2022, culminating in the largest-ever increase of 186,704 new residents in 2024—nearly 70 per cent more than the largest pre-pandemic increase in 2013.
Homebuilding has increased, but not enough to keep pace with the rise in population. In 2024, construction started on 47,827 housing units—the most since 48,336 units in 2007 when population growth was less than half of what it was in 2024.
Moreover, from 1972 to 2019, Alberta added 2.1 new residents (on average) for every housing unit started compared to 3.9 new residents for every housing unit started in 2024. Put differently, today nearly twice as many new residents are potentially competing for each new home compared to historical norms.
While Alberta attracts more Canadians from other provinces than any other province, federal immigration and residency policies drive Alberta’s population growth. So while the provincial government has little control over its population growth, provincial and municipal governments can affect the pace of homebuilding.
For example, recent provincial amendments to the city charters in Calgary and Edmonton have helped standardize building codes, which should minimize cost and complexity for builders who operate across different jurisdictions. Municipal zoning reforms in Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer have made it easier to build higher-density housing, and Lethbridge and Medicine Hat may soon follow suit. These changes should make it easier and faster to build homes, helping Alberta maintain some of the least restrictive building rules and quickest approval timelines in Canada.
There is, however, room for improvement. Policymakers at both the provincial and municipal level should streamline rules for building, reduce regulatory uncertainty and development costs, and shorten timelines for permit approvals. Calgary, for instance, imposes fees on developers to fund a wide array of public infrastructure—including roads, sewers, libraries, even buses—while Edmonton currently only imposes fees to fund the construction of new firehalls.
It’s difficult to say how long Alberta’s housing affordability woes will endure, but the situation is unlikely to improve unless homebuilding increases, spurred by government policies that facilitate more development.
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