CALGARY - Experts are debating the underlying reasons for Alberta's current fiscal troubles.
Unsurprisingly, pipeline access came up as a major challenge, with oilsands crude unable to make it to markets that will pay a fair price - a problem Premier Alison Redford has called the "bitumen bubble."
Economist Peter Tertzakian says Canada's only customer, the U.S., can meet its own energy needs but buys Canadian crude anyway because it's on sale.
Another speaker, Michael Holden of the Canada West Foundation, says Alberta shouldn't be using oil and gas sales to fund today's spending and that saving should be a priority.
He says the province shouldn't be run like a farm - relying on a bumper crop one year only to have the whole crop destroyed by hail the next.
The day's first panel session was briefly interrupted by Greenpeace protesters holding a banner reading "cut royalty breaks, not social programs."
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says it is going to the summit this weekend to spread the word that Alberta needs to go on a diet.
Federation spokesman Derek Fildebrandt says Alberta spends more per capita than almost any other province, but lags behind on health care and other services.
Fildebrandt says even with falling oil prices, the province still takes in billions of dollars in natural resource revenue and could comfortably live within its means.
He will join panel discussions with other academics and industry leaders at the economic summit on Saturday at Calgary's Mount Royal University.
The summit was announced last month by Premier Alison Redford to seek solutions on Alberta's looming financial crunch, and explore ways to lessen its dependence on the roller-coaster prices of oil and gas.
Redford estimates falling oil prices will take a $6 billion bite out of the budget her government will deliver on March 7.
© The Canadian Press, 2013