The Smith government recently announced it would quadruple spending on school construction from $2.1 billion to $8.6 billion over the next three years to build 30 new schools and create 200,000 more student spaces. While this spending may be warranted given record-high population growth, the province simply can’t afford it without reining in spending in other areas.

Here’s the problem. Today’s relatively high — but very volatile — resource revenue helps finance today’s spending. For perspective, over the last 10 years, resource revenue, which includes oil and gas royalties, has been as low at $2.8 billion in 2015-16 and as high........

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