The ambitious agenda of the Kenney Government will see MLAs return for the fall sitting two weeks earlier than originally planned.

Airdrie-Cochrane MLA Peter Guthrie says returning to the legislature on Oct. 8 follows a summer of heavy lifting by the government as it attempts to incorporate changes promises in the spring election.

"We have so much legislation in the works," says Guthrie. "We were originally going to go back on Oct. 22 and go until the first week of December, but we're working on 40 pieces of legislation right now. We're going to try and narrow that down to about 25 but realistically we can't get through that amount this fall. We need to get in a couple of weeks early to get a head start on it."

Guthrie says it follows a summer of extensive consultation by about half of the government's ministries. 

"This fall, we'll start to gather up that information and use it in the legislation we're putting forward. It has been a very active summer for this government."

No firm date has been set for the release of the anticipated budget, says Jess Sinclair, press secretary to Government House Leader Jason Nixon.

"The government received the report from the MacKinnon Panel only weeks ago and we are still actively working on Budget 2019," says Sinclair. "As we complete the important work of getting the province back on a path to fiscal balance we will have more information on the timing of the release of a budget."

Regardless of when the budget is released, Guthrie says the government will still have a lot of red ink on the ledger for the current government fiscal year that started Apr. 1.

"Being seven to eight months into the year, we're still going to have a significant deficit this year. I think there was a $6.7 billion deficit last year and if we're carrying on with the same spending that trend will continue into this year. We need to get ourselves aligned for balance and I think we'll start to see some signs of that in this upcoming budget."