A bunch of Alberta's former finance ministers are calling on Progressive Conservative leadership candidates to reinstate former premier Ralph Klein's provincial budget presentation.

A new budget presentation introduced in 2013 by Finance Minister Doug Horner has been heavily criticized by opposition MLAs, local economists and even Alberta's Auditor General Merwan Saher.

On Thursday, former finance ministers and treasury board presidents Stockwell Day, Steve West, Greg Melchin, Lloyd Snelgrove, Lyle Oberg, and Ted Morton sent a letter to leadership candidates Jim Prentice, Thomas Lukaszuk and Ric McIver, asking them to "return to the 1997 Klein public accounting rules that were repealed in Budget 2013."

"We believe that Albertans want to return to a consolidated annual budget that clearly communicates the Government's bottom-line and ends the confusing and misleading tripartite reporting of Operations, Capital and Spending," reads the letter.

The politicians warn that a return to the $23 billion in net debt racked up during the deficits of the 1980s will mean Albertans will again experience "the tough medicine required to get out of the deficit/debt spiral."

In response, Prentice said it's "very clear" that changes in the budget need to be made "to increase transparency and eliminate partisanship" but said it's "not as simple as turning the clock back to 1997."

"There's been changes to accounting measures since 1997 so what I've suggested is we need the Auditor General at the table, we need representatives of the rating agencies at the table, we also need people from the chamber of commerce to arrive at a form of budget reporting that is accepted in this province."

Lukaszuk said he agrees with the letter "generally speaking" and has booked a meeting with Saher to hear his advice and to come up with an improved presentation that "very likely may look like premier Klein's way."

In a statement, McIver said he will form an all-party working group that will establish an agreeable budget format "so that our bosses stop hearing debates about what the budget says, and start hearing debates about what the budget does."

Horner has stated that a return to the 1997 Klein-era accounting would not be in line with practice changes made by the Public Sector Accounting Board in 2003. The provincial budget is a policy document, and its presentation is a decision of government.

matthew.dykstra@sunmedia.ca

@SunMattDykstra