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CALGARY – Following spending cuts across the private sector, the Alberta government tabled a budget Thursday that makes deep cuts to the public sector, but that relies on a surge in oil and gas revenues to balance the books in four years.

Alberta Finance Minister Travis Toews said his province has had “a spending problem” as he tabled a budget that included a 2.8 per cent cut to operating expenses over the next four years and a 7.7 per cent reduction in the size of the public service in the same period. Next year, the province expects to cut 764 jobs.

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Toews said the cuts are necessary to reach a balanced budget in 2022-2023. The budget also accounts for a reduction in corporate income taxes in the province to eight per cent from 12 per cent over the next four years.

“When hard-working Albertans see their incomes shrink and struggle to make ends meet, they have to face their fiscal realities — and so do governments,” the budget reads.