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Alberta Premier Rachel Notley reiterated her government’s promise to diversify the province’s economy by not making cutbacks to health care and education.

The premier made the comments during a speech at the Provincial Council of Alberta’s New Democrats in Edmonton Saturday afternoon.

“All of us in the public sector need to understand that in the face of this kind of fiscal challenge keeping what you have is often – or may be – as good as it’s going to get for the short term,” Notley said.

“But that is significantly better than what is on offer from our opposition who just want to make things worse.”

READ MORE: Rachel Notley says support for Trudeau carbon plan requires feds to act on pipelines

Notley also reiterated her stance on the Trudeau government’s plan to price carbon pollution.

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“We can’t move forward on the federal government’s climate change plan unless they give us the economic support that we need and help us help ourselves by moving forward on getting access to tide water.”

READ MORE: Wildrose leader Brian Jean blasts NDP at party’s AGM – ‘They’ve waged a war on business’

During the Wildrose Party’s annual general meeting in Red Deer, leader Brian Jean said the NDP have waged a war against business.

“When we look across the province and our communities we see crime skyrocketing and poverty increasing. We see a growing number of young people being trafficked into (the) sex trade against their will,” Jean said.

“We see dangerous drugs like fentanyl and other opioids killing Albertans and ripping families apart.

“And we continue to see the rights of criminals put above the rights of victims. We don’t have to put up with this!”

READ MORE: Wildrose votes to fight to repeal Alberta’s carbon tax

On Saturday, the Wildrose overwhelmingly endorsed a change to the policy manual in order to promise that they will repeal the $3 billion annual carbon tax should the party be elected government.

Notley’s NDP government is set to begin collecting the tax on Jan. 1 on everything from gas at the pumps to home heating bills.

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