Article content

The UCP government’s four-year mandate could include performance-based education funding, legislated public service salaries, project costs downloaded onto municipalities and private services in health care, if it adopts a host of recommendations contained in a government-ordered report unveiled Tuesday.

Finance Minister Travis Toews wouldn’t say how many of the recommendations his government will follow, but there’s no doubt the MacKinnon panel report will guide the UCP government over its four-year term.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or 'Alberta faces a critical financial situation': Government panel recommends sweeping reforms Back to video

“We’ll be putting a lot of stock into these recommendations, there’s no doubt about it,” Toews said.

Twenty-six recommendations jammed the 82-page report authored by the MacKinnon panel — a group hand-picked by the UCP to examine Alberta government spending. It was headed by former Saskatchewan finance minister Janice MacKinnon.

The report came complete with a 150-page fiscal analysis by accounting giant KPMG and issued a stark warning: Operating expenses must be cut by at least $600 million to have any hope of balancing the budget by 2022-23.