EDMONTON -- Alberta's spring legislature session will focus on diversifying the province's battered oil-based economy, laying the groundwork for a carbon tax and cracking down on payday loan operators.
Premier Rachel Notley said Tuesday there will also be $340 million in tax benefits for needy families and legislation to streamline and reduce a sprawling network of 301 boards, agencies and commissions.
The tax benefits are expected to help 380,000 children. A low-income single parent with two children would receive just over $3,000 a year.
"Today's speech from the throne outlines an ambitious agenda of support for families, our economy, our energy and our environmental future," Notley told reporters before the throne speech.
The speech, which highlights government goals and priorities, was read out in the legislature chamber by Lt.-Gov. Lois Mitchell to officially open a new session of the legislature.
The sitting is expected to run until early June and will include the 2016-17 budget in early April.
Finance Minister Joe Ceci has already said the projected deficit could be $10 billion -- double the amount of earlier forecasts.
Notley's government, which is approaching its first anniversary in power, has resisted calls to cut public-sector jobs and services to reduce the red ink in lean times.
Instead, it has increased spending for health, education and social services and ramped up capital spending to boost the economy and build schools, roads and hospitals.
Alberta's debt sits at $19 billion and will soar to almost $50 billion by the end of the decade, but Notley said spending is needed.
"I would reject the notion that we simply cover our ears, cover our eyes, cross our fingers and sit in a corner hoping that the economy recovers."
To that end, the government is putting forward a job creation and diversification bill to explore and launch possible initiatives.
In the last budget, the NDP directed $1.5 billion to ATB Financial to deliver loans to small- and medium-sized businesses. It directed another $540 million be invested from the Heritage Savings Trust Fund into Alberta-based growth companies.
The government now plans to work with its $23-billion credit-union system to encourage more such investment.
There is also to be a new advisory group for diversification and one for oilsands issues.
A climate change plan, introduced last year, is to be given regulatory teeth with legislation that will include a new broad-based carbon tax to begin Jan. 1.
Notley said Albertans will learn in the budget the cost details of the carbon levy, including "the amount of the levy, where it's applied, what the rebates look like, who they're given to (and) what we're estimating they will cost."
The carbon tax, which has been estimated to bring in $3 billion a year, is to be on everything from gas at the pumps to home heating and electricity bills.
The government estimates 60 per cent of Albertans will receive some level of rebate.
Rules are also planned to stop payday loan outfits from charging what the government terms unfairly punitive interest rates.
Legislation to give public-sector workers the right to strike while still giving the province the ability to keep essential services going is also on the agenda.
