Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party is looking to slash Alberta’s tax rate to the lowest in Canada within four years of taking office if elected to form government in the oil-rich province.

The UCP plan would reduce the business tax rate to 8 per cent by 2022 from its current rate of 12 per cent, starting with a one percentage point reduction on July 1 and continuing to decline the tax rate by one point in subsequent years.

The cut would result in Alberta’s tax revenues falling by about $348 million in the first year of the rate reduction, but would be offset by the cancellation of Rachel Notley’s proposed $3.7 billion plan to lease rail cars to boost shipments of crude oil out of the province, Kenney told BNN Bloomberg in an interview.

“We can easily offset that first year reduction in revenues with wasteful spending,” he said.

Kenney said his opposition to the crude-by-rail plan have not changed, despite news on Monday that Enbridge is pushing back the expected in-service date for its Line 3 replacement pipeline to the second half of next year.

“The private sector is ready, willing and able to move more oil by rail,” he said. “All the government has done is move the cost and the risk of doing that from the private sector to the backs of taxpayers.”

Kenney said the tax plan has been analyzed by Calgary's School of Public Policy economists Bev Dalby and Jack Mintz who both suggest the cut will ultimately lead to higher economic growth – and thus higher tax revenue – in Alberta.

Albertans will head to the polls later this year with a provincial election scheduled to take place no later than May 31, 2019.