Rachel Notley says priorities are job creation, education and health care

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley addressed many of the criticisms lobbed at her party from the Tories in the past week during an interview on CBC Radio Wednesday morning.

One day after she accused Premier Jim Prentice of fearmongering Albertans with his suggestion that the NDP would turn their back on the province's oil industry, Notley responded with a laugh, saying all parties do dabble in the practise from time to time.

But she also reiterated her earlier message.

"Really, we've been trying to focus on the good parts of our policy in terms of our focus on job creation, on protecting our education and improving our health care. But that being said, you know, I think there's been a lot of .. fearmongering by the Tories about what might happen should we be elected."

When pressed by Edmonton AM host Mark Connolly on the billion dollar error in the party's original budget platform just one day after delivering it, Notley delivered her standard line saying "sometimes errors are made — the key is how you respond to those errors when they're made."

Asked whether she was worried if the miscalculation would affect Albertans' faith in the party, Notley was quick to point out the province's finance minister made a similar-sized error when he projected Alberta would be facing a half-billion dollar deficit in January, when in fact there was a half billion surplus.

Changes to taxation

"We want to make it a bit more fair," said Notley when asked about her plans for tax changes, which would include cancelling the health care premium introduced in the last Tory budget and ditching the flat tax.

Under the NDP plan, she said, 90 per cent of Albertans would end up paying fewer taxes than they would under Prentice's proposed tax model. Only those who make more than $125,000 per year would see an increase. Likewise, 'profitable corporations — not small businesses' would go from 10 per cent to 12, she added.

"We still believe that we remain competitive relative to other provinces by doing that and that we can ensure the ongoing competitive advantage that Alberta will enjoy."

Future pipelines

Notley also responded to Prentice's criticism that Alberta's NDP will take an anti-pipeline stance on principle, following the lead set by the party in other provinces.

Last weekend, Notley said her party would move away from the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would transport oil from Alberta's oil patch to the B.C. coast.

On Wednesday, however, Notley said the decision to distance the party from Northern Gateway was made based on experts' analysis suggesting the project will not be moving forward quickly.

She said Alberta would be better served in the immediate by sitting down with industry leaders to determine a more realistic focus for its efforts that will being success sooner rather than later — "and Gateway is just not one of those projects, and most experts will tell you that."