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Alberta’s municipal affairs minister announced a tax relief program for rural communities Wednesday while promising fiscal restraint to balance the provincial budget.

“I won’t mince words — difficult decisions will have to be made and we will have to tighten our belts to return Alberta to fiscal balance,” Shaye Anderson said in an address at the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties (AAMDC) annual convention at the Shaw Conference Centre.

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The organization focuses on advocacy and local governance for its 69 member municipalities.

Anderson announced a program dubbed Provincial Education Requisition Credit (PERC), which will provide credits to municipalities on the education component of their property tax for oil and gas properties.

He said the 2014 economic downturn left a number of oil and gas properties abandoned.

“And that put municipalities in a tough spot,” Anderson told reporters, explaining the wells are taxed until the Alberta Energy Regulator changes the property status to “abandoned,” which can take years.