Tory leadership candidates aren’t shying away from a controversial legacy of former premier Alison Redford — taking on debt to pay for infrastructure — with Jim Prentice saying Friday the Alberta government must be prepared to borrow to pay for needed roads, schools and hospitals.

In a speech to the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Prentice said those projects must be built over the next five years and the government needs to pay for infrastructure by accessing debt capital markets.

The former federal cabinet minister pointed to new neighbourhoods in Calgary with thousands of young families and no schools, thanks to booming growth that has seen the province’s population top four million.

“This isn’t about ideology, it is about people and the basic responsibilities of government,” said Prentice, one of three candidates vying to head Alberta’s four-decade-old Progressive Conservative dynasty.

Prentice — who served as the Conservative MP for Calgary Centre-North between 2004 and 2010 before leaving to become vice-chairman of CIBC — said under his plan, half of all future government surpluses would be put into a debt retirement fund.

The other half would go into the Alberta Heritage and Savings Trust Fund.

In the spring budget, the PC government projected it would post a $1.1-billion surplus this year while taking on $5.1 billion in debt to pay for public infrastructure, part of a plan which will see the province’s total liability rise to $18.4 billion by 2015-16.

The Tory strategy — hatched under then-premier Redford — has faced ferocious criticism from the Wildrose party and groups such as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, although it has attracted praise from organizations such as the Alberta Chambers of Commerce.

Redford resigned in March amid controversies over her expenses, management style and a growing caucus revolt. PC members will vote for a new leader — and Alberta premier — in September.

Tory MLAs Ric McIver and Thomas Lukaszuk have also stepped down from cabinet to run for the party leadership.

McIver, who in the transportation and infrastructure portfolios oversaw massive amounts of capital spending, said Friday there is enormous public demand for the province to build — and a willingness to borrow money to pay for it.

“We need to work hard to do that with a balanced budget and ... that means we ought to do the hard work on the decisions on where we draw the line” on spending, McIver said.

“Albertans are pretty widely agreed they want that, they want infrastructure.”

In an interview, Lukaszuk said taking on debt to pay for schools and hospitals makes strong financial sense given the low interest rates Alberta gets with its triple-A credit rating.

It is also logical to spread out the payment for assets that will be used well in the future, rather than “wait until we get enough cash in the kitty,” he said.

“Most rational Albertans see the wisdom in that,” he said.

Debt has long been a contentious issue in Alberta, with former premier Ralph Klein’s PC government boasting “paid in full” when the province’s debt was eliminated in 2005.

“We were always so proud of that sign ... but sometimes in politics, like anything in life, you get so fixated on a single goal that you overlook other, equally important, aspects,” said Lukaszuk, a backbencher in Klein’s government at the time.