The combination of worsening economic conditions and the government's refusal to change course on spending means Alberta will rack up debt more quickly, with a projected budget deficit of $28.9 billion over the next three years. For context, that's roughly 50 per cent more than currently sits in the Heritage Fund, a "nest egg" that took decades to build.

The contracts will be posted to the public online and updated on a quarterly basis.

There was a good reason why Klein and his finance minister Jim Dinning acted when they did. Interest payments on provincial debt were consuming more and more tax dollars, diverting money away from the very programs Klein's critics claimed to value.