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On Wednesday's episode of The Gunn Show, Kris Sims, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, laid out her case: Alberta has gone from a feared nine-figure deficit to a multi-billion-dollar surplus in a matter of months, and Kris says that windfall belongs back in the pockets of the Albertans who were overtaxed to create it — starting with a cut to the provincial fuel tax.

Sheila opened by noting that even as a trade war rages and "it feels as though the world is burning down all around us," Alberta is sitting on some good fiscal news.

Kris agreed and said the win needs to be celebrated.

"Just for people listening to this, celebrate the wins when you get them. We have to, we must," Kris said.

Back in February's budget, Alberta was staring down a deficit of roughly nine billion dollars, which Kris said would have pushed the province's debt past $100 billion for the first time in its history.

"It was gross," she said.

Then came the escalation between the United States and Iran in the Middle East in early March, which sent the price of a barrel of oil climbing. According to the province's newly released first-quarter budget update, Alberta is now on track for a roughly two-billion-dollar surplus.

Kris said that flip has predictably triggered debate in Edmonton and in the legislative press gallery over how the government should "spend" the extra cash. She and Sheila agreed that the answer is pretty simple. 

"They should give it back to us," said Sheila. "When the government is in surplus, that's not a good thing. That means they've taken too much money from you. And so we should get a tax cut."

Kris put the responsibility squarely on finance minister Jason Nixon, noting this isn't his first turn in the role.

"He knows the ins and outs. He knows how to work the budget. He knows which bureaucrats to push," Kris said, adding that Alberta's own legislation ties fuel tax relief to the price of oil — a threshold the province has now cleared.

"The ball has been placed on the tee for finance minister Jason Nixon," she said. "We should be paying zero instead of 13 cents per litre of gas and diesel. That's the tax cut that they can make right now."

The conversation also touched on Ottawa, where Prime Minister Mark Carney's government confirmed it is extending its suspension of the federal fuel excise tax through January 31, 2027, before it returns at half rate and then fully by April 1, 2027. 

While both affirmed this to be a good start, Sheila pressed on the logic of "temporary" tax relief at all. 

"If cutting taxes makes life more affordable and your mission, your stated mission, is making life more affordable, how can you then down the road justify putting it back on?" she asked. Kris didn't disagree.

The pair also broke down what fuel taxes actually cost Albertans at the pump using a 27-cent-per-litre rate: about $20 in taxes on a 75-litre minivan fill-up, $30 on a full-size pickup truck, and roughly $270 in diesel taxes alone on a big rig hauling freight into the province.

"That goes into the cost of groceries," Sheila said. "The guy hauling the groceries to the grocery store, if he has to pay more, shipping goes into the cost of your groceries. So this adds to your food inflation, not just hitting you at the pump — it's getting you coming and going."

Kris agreed, pointing out that a single shipment can pass through three or four trucks before it reaches a grocery store shelf, each leg adding its own fuel tax cost to the final price.

"This is where you get the layer cake from hell on the cost of fuel and how it makes everything else cost more," she said.

With the Bank of Canada also holding its interest rate steady, Kris said Albertans are due a string of wins — if provincial politicians choose to act on them.

"I'm very confident we can," she said of the push for a fuel tax cut. "We need to take wins when we get them."