Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says the NDP government may not balance the books by 2018 after all.

During the provincial election campaign in April, the Alberta NDP made a multi-billion dollar fiscal "miscalculation" that saw the party promise to balance the budget by 2018-19, a full year after the Wildrose and Progressive Conservative plans.

But Notley backed away from that timeframe on Tuesday night, telling reporters the government is "working on that issue."

"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," she said.

Notley pointed to "spending pressures and spending priorities" in the upcoming budget. With the budget set for release during the week of Oct. 26, critics said the change in tune isn't unexpected.

"It doesn't come as a surprise," said Wildrose Leader Brian Jean on Wednesday.

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"The NDP do this wherever they come into power. They tax money faster than they can raise it and it's hard to believe, but it is possible if you're an NDP government."

Jean expects record debt under the NDP and says Alberta may see "deficit after deficit for years to come."

Calling for the government to release their budget now, Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark said the drop in oil prices is a challenge exacerbated by policy reviews on energy development and climate change.

"If the New Democrats are going to try and artificially accelerate Alberta away from oil and gas, it's going to be near impossible to balance the budget so they've put us in a tough spot. It's time to see a plan."

"When the Premier uses phrases like 'balancing promises,' it sure sounds a lot like breaking promises to me," added PC Leader Ric McIver.

"I'm not convinced the NDP government wants to balance the budget because that means doing things like controlling expenditures and they have already said they're completely unwilling to do that."

Meanwhile, Notley also spoke about U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's opposition to TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline.

The Premier said she will not undertake diplomatic missions to advocate for Keystone in the U.S. as she's more in favour of pipelines to the east and west coast of Canada rather than the U.S. Gulf Coast.

matthew.dykstra@sunmedia.ca

@SunMattDykstra