Alberta witnessed a focused, steady premier announcing a state of public emergency this week.

Jason Kenney, known for his ability to inject a partisan agenda into virtually every situation, played it refreshingly straight as he imposed sweeping public closures and outlined immediate and coming fiscal measures to get the province through the Covid-19 crisis.

With the confirmed case number escalating daily and now covering the entire province, he gave a statesmanlike turn at his Tuesday newser.

Alberta now falls largely in line with other provinces no gatherings over 50 people, schools, bars, and all things social pretty well shut down.  After lagging behind other jurisdictions the province finally closed casinos.

The emergency has forced the UCP government to take a few measures which are galling in terms of its hardline fiscal stand.

Plans to tighten the health care budget are fast evaporating.  The province injected a further $500 million back into its budget for health.  A plan to mess with doctors' pay practices has been rolled back in part.  It just doesn't pay to continue goading the most crucial segment of the professional population.

Kenney also raised the spectre that at some point the province might have to invoke the Emergency Management Act, which would let the government seize private property.  He used the example of commandeering hotels to act as makeshift hospitals.  Property rights are generally a no-go zone for populist political regimes.

Kenney's demeanour, plus the reassuringly thorough briefings from Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Hinshaw, should leave Albertans with some comfort that the authorities know what they're doing.

The one clanging sour note in that sea of competence is the UCP's determination to ram through its now thoroughly outdated spring budget with just three hours of opposition blustering.

Bright and early Wednesday morning Kenney and Finance Minister Travis Toews posted a folksy Twitter video outlining the connection between the current crisis and the need to pass the budget.

Toews boldly stated not passing the document would have left the government without funding on April 1.  The shortened debate was necessary because Covid-19 could shut down the legislature sitting at any moment, said Kenney.

That skips over a few obvious objections.  Last spring the UCP delayed the budget until fall to get a handle on what the previous NDP regime had left behind.  Saskatchewan is nodding to the changed circumstances by delaying its full spring budget.  That province will announce spending plans so departments and institutions will have guidance on how much money they can expect.  If estimates don't pass now the government can fund operations with special warrants, the usual way governments handle the absence of a budget.

Kenney himself admits that in the three weeks since the budget was introduced, everything has changed.

"We've seen collapse in the global economy… and a huge collapse in energy prices," he said.

For a province with an enormous revenue stake in the energy industry, that pretty well wipes any credibility for the province's previous revenue projections.

Kenney says the government is already working on a revised fiscal plan as the province turns its attention to the future.

That plan will be crucial to the Alberta recovery and Kenney is indicating a pretty well complete departure from the underlying principles of the spring budget.

During his Tuesday newser the premier was as serious and sober about the malaise of the economy as he was about the physical threat of the virus.

"There is disorder in the markets", he said, and that will require measures to increase basic liquidity rather than conventional stimulus, in the short run.

But in the longer run, he is already predicting Alberta will need fiscal stimulus of between $3 and $3.5 billion to get back on its feet.

The province will likely have to step up infrastructure spending, he suggested.  WCB premiums and business taxes might be deferred.

Perhaps the UCP just needed to have one last fiscally conservative hurrah with the passage of that spring budget, because to save the faltering provincial economy, the purse strings will have to be not just loosened, but perhaps completely cut.

Photo Credit: Discover Airdrie