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The New Democrats project modest growth in civil service employment for the next three years. They also pledge a balanced budget by 2019-20. There’s nothing in the budget to show both can happen without a big rebound in oil prices, and higher taxes, too.

The budget forecasts oil at US$50 a barrel this year (nearly $7 above today’s price, always a bad budget day sign); $61 in 2016-17, and $68 in 2017-18.

You get the feeling this government is just clearing its throat on the tax front.

That’s no route back to a balanced budget when spending is set to top $50 billion for the first time ever, and this year’s outlay will be $6.1-billion more than revenue.

The NDP have two familiar dreams: a renewed oil bonanza and rising tax revenue from a new boom.

But even if those dreams come true, the aggressive spending program for both operations and capital works (wow, $38 billion over five years) will demand a flood of cash, both from borrowing and higher taxes.

Ontario, with just over three times our population, has 10 times the debt

The budget contains some modest revenue measures that pummel the usual victims — smokers and drinkers — as well as anybody who buys insurance. But the total gain from all that is a paltry quarter-million dollars.

You get the feeling this government is just clearing its throat on the tax front. Finance Minister Joe Ceci has said for months that all revenue sources are in his sights.

He rules out a provincial sales tax, but give it time. The numbers point inexorably toward an Alberta harmonized sales tax. And Ceci did not promise to hold the line on oil and gas royalties.

The government will also bring in a bill to allow borrowing to reach 15 per cent of nominal GDP. This is fairly low by national standards, but it still means that within three years, Alberta could owe up to $55 billion.