Incoming Alberta premier to announce cabinet on Sunday

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Rachel Notley, premier-elect of the Canadian province of Alberta, said on Wednesday she expects to announce her cabinet on May 24, a week before her left-leaning New Democratic Party takes power after dethroning the long-ruling Progressive Conservatives. Notley's victory earlier this month brought an end to the Progressive Conservatives' 44-year-old dynasty in the province, the largest oil supplier to the United States. She said she will not introduce a budget until autumn, though she will stage a speech from the throne on June 15 setting out her government's agenda. "We'll meet the legislature again in the fall to present a full provincial budget and a further set of legislative proposals," Notley said in a televised news conference in Edmonton, the provincial capital. Her government is committed, Notley said, to fulfilling its election promise of buttressing the provincially funded health care and education systems and making the tax system "more fair." She also reiterated her most controversial pledge, a review of the rates oil and gas producers pay to exploit the province's petroleum reserves. "It will be thoughtful, well informed and all parties to it will have a clear understanding of what the process itself entails before it unfolds," she said. Though she gave no timetable for the review, Notley said it will be on the agenda when her cabinet begins meeting, with the first such gathering set for Calgary on May 27. Notley`s NDP won 54 of 87 seats in the provincial legislature in the May 5 election to oust the right-wing Progressive Conservatives. She and the rest of her caucus will be formally sworn in on June 1. (Reporting by Scott Haggett; Editing by Chris Reese and Steve Orlofsky)