Economists are suggesting a sales tax may help the province’s financial woes.

The comments were made during an economic summit held in Calgary Saturday.

However Premier Alison Redford has said she does not plan on putting a provincial sales tax in the next budget.

During the summit critics blamed high spending for the provincial deficit.

“It’s not something to do with oil prices. It's not something to do with pipelines or the lack of a sales tax. This crisis has been created by the PC government of this province full stop,” NDP leader Brian Mason said.

Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith agrees.

“There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of honesty about why we are here today and it’s because we have a government that's spending is out of control for at least the last decade.”

Smith conceded on Twitter that their were no easy answers.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation also criticized government spending.

“They are coming into this with a preconceived notion that they just need more money so they can spend even more. Obviously we just disagree with the premise of a lot of the questions being asked,” Alberta director Derek Fildebrandt said.

Others said they believe the province needed to look at it’s oil contracts for the answer.

Finance minster Doug Horner has said the province will be taking a balanced approach to the upcoming budget.

He also said the value of the summit was in the perspectives presented.

“I think there has been a couple of concepts thrown out there that we don’t talk enough about: the balance of getting the value of what we spend, what are the tradeoffs and what is the impact of those trades offs,” he explained.

Residents were invited to watch the summit online and questions via Twitter were also accepted.

Several comments were also posted on the Government of Alberta's YouTube page.

The province is expected to release it’s budget on March 7.

With files from Chris Epp