When Mr. Aberhart's government took office in August, 1935, it found the provincial treasury empty and a long series of budget deficits. Almost the first act of the new administration was the appointment of Mr. R. J. Magor, a well-known Montreal industrialist, to make a report on the financial position of the province preliminary to an attempt to balance the budget. After a report from Mr. Magor, the Hon. E. C. Manning, acting premier of the province, on December 5, 1935, wrote to the investment houses and chartered banks stating that the government had “been forced to the conclusion that an adjustment in our debt charges seems unavoidable if we are to meet our necessary obligations and balance our Budget”. The co-operation of the investment houses and banks was requested in setting up a medium for negotiation with the holders of Alberta securities with a view to converting the existing indebtedness of the province amounting to about $160 million into new securities bearing “an interest rate of approximately two and three quarters per cent. plus the full Sinking Fund” which the government felt “would approximate the annual capacity of the Province to pay on debt account”. Some compensation for a lower interest rate would be afforded through “alteration of maturities and increased assurance of security”, though it was asserted that the government had “not formulated any cut and dried plan because it desires fully to learn and consider the views of the holders of the securities”. With the Dominion-Provincial Conference about to meet in Ottawa and much current discussion of Loan Council schemes to refund provincial indebtedness under Dominion guarantee, Messrs. Elliott and Walker observe, concerning the attitudes of investment houses to the Alberta government's proposals, that “it was apparently considered unwise to intrude into inter-governmental plans and no complete replies to the Government's suggestions were received” (ch. ii, p. 2).