Highwood MLA Wayne Anderson is voicing his and the Wildrose Party's frustrations after Tuesday's throne speech at the legislature.

He says the carbon tax announcement along with the increase in minimum wage isn't going to help many Albertans get through some tough times.

"It's a tax and spend throne speech, probably going to end up with a tax and spend budget again and we're really disappointed that this government refuses to bring out a budget in a timely and efficient matter," he says. "Looks like it's going to be mid-April until we see some real numbers and then we get to debate this thing in May so it should have been done now, not later."

Anderson says there are ways the government can help local businesses and get the 100,000 Albertans who've lost their jobs recently back to work.

"Let's introduce lower taxes and we'll probably and hopefully provide some incentives for people to keep their current employees, if not hire new employers. Secondly, let's reduce the tax burden on the individuals you don't need to increase minimum wage but reduce business taxes for small businesses and then reduce the tax pressure."

With reports that the province's projected deficit is over $10 billion, Anderson says now is not the time to have reckless spending by the Notley government but rather to think like a family home and how they deal with day to day spending.

"You go inside the house and you say 'What can we do to increase our efficiencies as families and as businesses?' Well this government has to do the same thing. It's time they started looking inside their own house and say 'Where are we overspending? Why are we spending so much money on bureaucracy? And how are we going to increase our efficiencies to reduce our cost back to the tax payers."

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com