I wish I could be more sympathetic to the Albertans.  Unfortunately, a lot of their misfortune is of their own doing.  In the 1980s, when I lived in Alberta, there was a popular bumper sticker: "Dear Lord. Please let there be another oil boom.  I promise I won't pi$$ it all away next time."  Well, there was and they did.  Since the late 1940s Alberta was provided with the riches and royalties to develop the petroleum and secondary and tertiary industries and they never did.  Each time the pi$$ed it all away and now, once again, they are in financial dire straits and expecting BC to allow them to crap in their own backyard with environmental and oil spill inevitable disasters.
All one ever had to do was drive down the suburban streets of Calgary on garbage day and see the refuse from their hedonistic shopping sprees.  I do not think I have ever a place that had so much garbage waiting to be carried away.  Not to mention the jacked-up black F-150s, sleds, and boats parked in the driveway