Alberta
Local golfers head to national championship

Grant Lee, Ken Griffith, Peter Innes (Club President and Senior Championship competitor)
News release from the Red Deer Golf & Country Club
The 2022 Canadian Men’s Senior Championship hosted by Red Deer Golf & Country Club
Five members of the Red Deer Golf & Country Club have qualified to play in the 2022 Canadian Men’s Senior Championship, presented by BDO, September 5-9, 2022, at the Red Deer Golf & Country Club. These players will be among the one hundred fifty-six male amateur golfers aged 55 and over who qualified for this national championship. The field will include the finest Canadian Senior Golfers from across the country and international players from the United States. The champion will earn a coveted exemption into the 2023 U.S. Senior Amateur Championship.
Ken Griffith, Grant Lee and Peter Innes competed and qualified for the championship at the Alberta Golf Provincial qualifier in Medicine Hat and Tom Skinner and Joe Gascon earned their way by qualifying through an exemption competition at the RDGCC Club Championship in August. “This is a
major accomplishment for our Club,” says Head Professional, Dean Manz. “To have five players from our Club participate in this national championship is recording setting for our Club (for us), and it speaks to the high caliber of golf played at our Club.”

Joe Gascon, Tom Skinner
Other notable central Alberta golfers who qualified for this championship include, Frank Van Dornick, Camrose Golf Club, Keith Newton, Olds Golf Club.
The attached Backgrounder provides a summary of the accomplishments for RDGCC golfers.
A complete list of all Player’s competing can be viewed:
https://gc-2022canadianmensseniorchampionshippre.golfgenius.com/pages/8185216125898901540
The Canadian Men’s Senior Championship has been held since 1962 and has become one of Canada’s most popular amateur golf events. The Senior Championship is played over 72 holes with a cut after 36 holes. The Super Senior Championship is contested concurrently during the championship. The Senior Inter-Provincial Team Championship, established in 1977, runs concurrently with the first 36 holes of the tournament.
Over 100 volunteers from both the Red Deer Golf & Country Club and the community will be on hand to host the National and International competitors and their families.
We thank our local sponsors, the City of Red Deer, ATB, Kipp Scott, Red Deer Golf & Country Club, NOVA Chemicals, Apex Oilfield Services, Roll’n Oilfield Services, Copies Now, Heck Petroleum, IFR Workwear, Phone Experts, Reid & Wright Advertising, Red Deer Bottling for support of this national
championship.
Ken Griffith
2022 Red Deer Golf and Country Club Men’s Championship – (Champion)
2022 Red Deer Golf and Country Club Senior Club Championship – (Champion)
2022 Alberta Senior Amateur Championship – (3rd place, Interprovincial Team Member)
2022 Alberta Mid Master Championship – (5th place)
2022 Alberta Mid Amateur Championship – (18 place)
2021 Central Alberta Senior Open Championship – (Champion)
2021 Alberta Senior Amateur Championship – (2nd place, Interprovincial Team Member)
2021 Alberta Mid Amateur Championship – (18 place)
2021 Red Deer Golf and Country Club Senior Club Championship – (Champion)
2021 Olds Senior Amateur Open Championship – (Champion)
2020 Alberta Senior Amateur Championship – (T 4th place)
2020 Central Alberta Senior Amateur Championship – (3rd place)
2020 Alberta Mid Amateur Championship – (18th place)
2020 Alberta Mid Master Amateur Championship – (3rd place)
2020 Red Deer Golf and Country Club Senior Club Championship – (Champion)
2019 Canadian Senior Amateur Championship – (9th place)
2019 Canadian Senior Amateur Championship – Interprovincial Team Championship – (Champion)
2019 Alberta Senior Amateur Provincial Championship – (Champion)
2019 Central Alberta Senior Amateur Championship – (Champion, Interprovincial Team Member)
2019 Alberta Mid Amateur Championship – (17 place)
2019 Alberta Mid Master Amateur Championship – (3rd place)
2019 Red Deer Golf and Country Club Senior Club Championship – (Champion)
2018 Canadian Senior Amateur Championship – (5th place)
2018 Canadian Senior Amateur Championship – Interprovincial Team Championship – (2nd place)
2018 Canadian Mid Amateur Championship – (28th place)
2018 Alberta Senior Amateur Provincial Championship – (3rd place, Interprovincial Team Member)
2018 Central Alberta Senior Amateur Championship – (Champion)
2018 Alberta Mid Amateur Championship – (8th place)
2018 Alberta Mid Master Championship – (2nd place)
2018 New Zealand Senior Amateur Championship – (5th place)
2017 Canadian Senior Amateur Championship – (15th place)
2017 Canadian Senior Amateur Championship – Interprovincial Team Championship – (Champion)
2017 Alberta Senior Amateur Provincial Championship (3rd place, Interprovincial Team Member)
2017 Central Alberta Senior Amateur Championship – (Champion)
2017 Alberta Springs Golf Course Club Championship – (Champion)
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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