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The province’s economy is also set to grow by around 2.7 per cent this year.

The path to balance

In previous years, Ceci copped some flak from critics over the lack of a detailed plan back to a balance budget. This year, that plan takes up an entire chapter.

The minister said he’s following through on a promise to demonstrate how the budget will balance, not just when. And no, he said, it’s nothing to do with placating the credit rating agencies he expects to meet with soon.

The NDP’s three-pronged strategy to balance is contained amidst pages of the government’s explanation about how it dealt with the recession.

Photo by Ian Kucerak / Postmedia

The first step is reducing Alberta’s overall reliance on resource revenues, a dependence that has long plagued the province.

In 2016, when the price of oil collapsed, the province lost 70 per cent of its non-renewable revenues — a $6.1 billion hit in one year. The government says that won’t happen again.

It’s trying to scale back the degree to which the budget relies on the resource sector, aiming for 16 per cent by 2023, compared with an average of 23 per cent over the past 20 years.

Despite that goal, the government is also counting on the completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline and the Enbridge Line 3 expansion.

There is no Plan B; officials say their best information is that the projects will get done, so that’s what they’re relying on.