Alberta’s own perfect storm of market conditions means even a $3 billion deficit is no longer the worst case scenario.

Forget Premier Alison Redford’s campaign promise of a balanced budget. Even the revised promise of a balanced operating budget’s a crap shoot. Last year’s wildly optimistic three-year business plan is out the window, said Finance Minister Doug Horner.

Asked about new taxes or tax hikes, Horner hedged Wednesday.

“Not at this time, no, and I think we’ll see how things pan out in the next year or two, and hopefully, market access is going to provide the ability for us to get the real value for our product,” he said.

Talk starts now — everything’s on the table, including public sector salary increases.

“It’s not the greatest Christmas news for the cabinet ministers to hear but the reality is the reality and we have to adjust ... they’re going to have to live within their means, they’re going to have to ensure that we’re very aggressive at reining in and restraining our spending for us to meet our targets,” Horner said.

The widening gap between the WTI and Albertan bitumen (up to $40 a barrel) is complicated by flagging pipeline capacity with hold-ups on the Keystone pipeline to the Gulf Coast, and the Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat, B.C. and Asia beyond.

“We have a situation here that is growing faster than anyone predicted ... the market access is causing us back-up even faster than we thought because of the new production numbers in the U.S., because of the delay in the U.S. recovery ... they’re our one customer for the majority of our business,” Horner said.

An unbalanced operational budget would be the first in Alberta since 1994, said Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith.

“This government has been all over the map on the upcoming budget but finally we’re getting the truth: It’s in shambles and they have no idea what to do about it,” she said.

“They’ve made billions of dollars in election promises and they’re now in a position of having to break them or rack up debt,” Smith said, predicting “a string of deficits that would make Don Getty blush.”

Don’t blame the Tories for over-promising during the election and under-delivering now, Horner said.

“Anyone who tells you they knew this was going to happen back in January of this year is simply trying to make themselves look better. Frankly, I don’t buy that, I don’t think Albertans buy that,” he said.