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CALGARY — The Alberta government is about to unveil a budget ripped from the bad old days of the 1980s, when an oil bust impoverished the province’s much-derided “blue-eyed sheiks,” and the spectre of the National Energy Program was heard in the jingle-mail of abandoned house keys sent back to the bank.

The NDP took over the province’s finances last year just as oil was beginning another long descent. After inheriting several years of systemic deficits, low taxes and dependence on resource revenue, this is the first chance in generations the progressive left has had to make its own fiscal mark on the province.

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By all accounts, it sounds like the NDP will continue many of the policies that led the province to its precarious fiscal spot in the first place.

According to statements by Alberta’s finance minister, Thursday’s budget will unveil a $10-billion deficit — the equivalent of about one-fifth of spending. The NDP has increased taxes, abolished the flat tax, raised corporate taxes and is introducing a carbon tax. However, none of these measures will come close to making up the loss in resource royalties.