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Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday this fall’s provincial budget will help numb the pain as Alberta deals with languishing oil prices, widespread layoffs in the energy sector and an economic downturn.

The NDP government is carving a “disciplined and clear plan that allows the government to play its shock absorber role in the short term, while returning to balance as quickly as is reasonable and possible,” Notley said in her evening speech to the Alberta Chambers of Commerce in Edmonton.

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“During price shocks like the one we’re seeing now, the provincial budget plays an important role as one of our province’s principal economic shock absorbers,” she said.

She avoided saying in her speech when the government will return to a balanced budget, despite the NDP election platform promising to be back in the black by 2018-19.

“Domestic and international investment will always be the linchpins of success for our energy industry.”

“We have to look at all of our promises in the platform and look at what’s the appropriate timing for all of them and that’s what we’re balancing right now with an understanding that the revenue projections are lower than they were when we had discussions in the spring,” Notley told reporters after the speech.