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Lost in the hullabaloo over Rachel Notley’s NDP snuffing out the 44-year Tory dynasty has been the magnitude of the fiscal squeeze now facing the province.

The collapse of crude oil prices that had former Progressive Conservative premier Jim Prentice warning Albertans to brace for a $7-billion hole in provincial revenues will result in his NDP successors tabling a budget Tuesday that forecasts the largest-ever deficit in the province’s history.

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Finance Minister Joe Ceci hinted this week the deficit will be just shy of $6.5 billion — nearly $1.5 billion more than Prentice forecast last March in a budget that was never passed.

Non-renewable resource revenue was projected to fall from $8.9 billion to $3.6 billion this year and income tax revenue was expected to tumble with it.

It’s a gigantic hole — and analysts say there aren’t any palatable solutions in sight.

The Parkland Institute, a University of Alberta public policy think-tank, didn’t mince words in a report this week.