Auditor General: Yep, This Budget is Confusing

When the Alberta government tabled its latest budget back in March, there was a great deal of criticism that the changes to the way they were budgeting actually made the document more confusing in that it was more difficult to ascertain what the true deficit really was.
But when I interviewed Finance Minister Doug Horner on Budget Day, he actually asserted that the changes made the budget "easier to understand":
 
Well, I'm going to suggest that if even the Auditor General is having trouble making sense of the changes, they are certainly not "easier to understand":

The way the Redford government reports on the province’s finances and deficit is so complicated it’s hard for auditors to figure it out, let alone Albertans, auditor general Merwan Saher said Tuesday.
The auditor general said 2013-14 budget documents have been made "exponentially more complicated," obscuring the size of the actual deficit.
He questioned whether the new format for releasing fiscal data enables Albertans to hold the government accountable for its spending.
"I can tell you the very best minds in this office have found it challenging," Saher told reporters in a media teleconference after releasing a 158-page report that questioned government actions and omissions on a broad range of subjects.

More here - you can read the auditor general's latest report here.