It's not the rosy economic picture the province was looking for, but Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews says we are taking steps in that direction.

He says the pandemic and recovery related initiatives are making a difference, but a significant fiscal challenge remains.

"The deficit forecast for 2020/2021 is $21.3 billion. This forecast is a $2.8 billion improvement from the first quarter, as Alberta's revenue outlook has improved over the last three months."

He says overall economic activity remains below February's level, but the forecast has now improved.

"Alberta's real GDP is now expected to contract by 8.1 per cent in 2020. Government forecasters expect real GDP to begin recovering next year with growth of 4.4 per cent. But while we're starting to see recovery, Alberta's real GDP will not return to 2019 levels until 2023."

Toews, says revenue is expected to be up by $3 billion more than projected, but he says we won't be back to where we were in 2019 until 2023.