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As well, individuals making more than $100,000 annually will see their tax rate increase by 0.5 percentage points in each of the next three years, leading to an 11.5 per cent tax rate by 2018.

Those who earn over $250,000 annually will be subject to an additional 0.5 percentage point tax rate for three years — topping out at 12 per cent in 2018 — in what the government is calling a “temporary tax.”

Beyond the income tax measures, the government is introducing a series of user fee hikes and increases to liquor, tobacco and fuel taxes, but Campbell said Alberta remains the lowest-taxed jurisdiction in Canada.

And he said the government is protecting low-income Albertans by exempting them from the health levy and income tax hike, and by enhancing the family employment tax credit and creating a new working family supplement.

The new health-care levy — which tops out at a maximum of $1,000 for those earning over $130,000 annually — is expected to bring in $396 million this year and $530 million when fully implemented in 2016.

The tax hikes on high earners are projected to take in $330 million in 2016, rising to $730 million by 2018-19.

But Prentice’s rejection of the flat tax turns the corner on one of the signature moves of former Tory premier Ralph Klein and provides political ammunition to his opponents as he prepares to call an early election.

While the NDP and Liberals have long called for the government to scrap the flat tax, NDP Leader Rachel Notley and interim Liberal Leader David Swann both said Thursday Prentice did not go far enough in the income tax changes. They believe he should have also raised corporate tax rates, which were left untouched.