The province might be headed towards a deficit three times the original projection, but at Sunday’s Pride Parade here in Calgary, Premier Alison Redford indicated her new Tory government plans to stay the course.

The Premier said while revenue projections might be down, and the deficit for the fiscal year could come in as high as $3-billion, Albertans won’t be asked to pay the price for the potential miscalculation.

“We will not be increasing taxes,” said Redford, addressing reporters at the Pride Parade. “That is a committment that I’ve made.  That is absolutely not on the books.  But we know, and what I’ve always said and what Minister Horner talks about, is the fact in a volatile economy you’re always going to have to make choices.”

Those choices include last week’s decision to scrap a provincial training facility for police and peace officers in Fort MacLeod, a project that had been in the planning stages for seven years.

“Now I believe that as a government, it’s important for us to listen to our stakeholders,” added Redford who says her government will deal with the higher than anticipated deficit projection by scrutinizing operating and capital costs. “And as stewards of the fiscal purse, it would have been folly to go out and spend $120-million on a project for stakeholders when our stakeholders have told us that they don’t want it.  And in really difficult fiscal times, one of the things you have to do is make the tough decisions.”

As for the staggering miscalculation of the deficit for the fiscal year, Redford insisted that she and her Conservative government didn’t mislead voters with their budget which was unveiled shortly before last spring’s election.

“It was not at all misleading,” said Redford. “We are committed to exactly what we’ve said.  Throughout the election and since that time, and what I will say for the next nine months, is that the proof of our sincerity, our honesty and our transparency will be at the end of this fiscal year when we have kept our committment to Albertans.”

The original deficit projection for the current fiscal year was $8860-million.