Right-wing think tank the Fraser Institute has ranked the fiscal performance of provincial political leaders in Canada with Alberta’s Danielle Smith ranking highest among sitting premiers for fiscal management.

The study noted that Saskatchewan’s Premier Scott Moe has one of the lowest corporate tax rates but oversaw the only corporate tax rate increase during this period.

In terms of personal income tax Alberta’s Danielle Smith again ranked first with Scott Moe towards the back of the pack although the study author did note that Saskatchewan benefited from comparatively low marginal tax rates across income levels of $50,000, $75,000, and $150,000.

When it comes to government spending Saskatchewan under Scott Moe along with Francois Legault of Quebec saw the highest growth in program spending relative to inflation plus population growth (3.0 percentage point difference).

In terms of deficit and debt again Legault and Moe managed a score above 60 which put Moe in sixth place in that category but overall, out of ten premiers, Saskatchewan ranked seventh.

How the rankings were achieved:

The relative performance of each premier is measured from the time they first held office until the last fiscal year for which historical data is available (2023/24). Given the varied tenures of each premier, the period of time in which they are evaluated differs. The premiers from Saskatchewan and Ontario, Scott Moe and Doug Ford, were evaluated for the longest period (2018/19 to 2023/24), whereas Premiers David Eby and Danielle Smith from British Columbia and Alberta, respectively, had the shortest evaluation period (2023/24) (see table 1). Premiers received an overall score out of 100 and rank out of 10 based on their relative performance on three core components of fiscal policy: 1) government spending, 2) taxes, and 3) deficits and debt.