The Legislative Building in Wascana Park in Regina. Mar. 15, 2024 (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

By CJME News

BUDGET DAY

Spending expected as 2024-25 Saskatchewan budget set to be released

Mar 20, 2024 | 7:50 AM

Explaining how it’s going to run the province, where the dollars are going to go and where its priorities lie, the Government of Saskatchewan is set to unveil its budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year Wednesday afternoon.

Most of the details of the budget are under lock and key until Finance Minister Donna Harpauer delivers the budget in the Assembly, but Premier Scott Moe has let fly a few hints, including what will likely be the theme of the budget: “Classrooms, care and communities.”

Two weeks ago, Moe announced in a video on social media that the education budget would be given a big boost, laid out as the government and the teachers’ union continue their dispute.

Moe said the money for education will rise by $180 million, to $2.2 billion. He said $356 million of that will be allocated to classroom supports, an increase of more than $45 million from the previous year.

Last week, in his address at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities annual convention, Moe announced municipal revenue-sharing will rise again to $340.2 million, up about $42.3 million from the year before.

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In a video released Tuesday, Moe also announced that health-care funding will increase in the coming budget to $726 million, an increase of more than 10 per cent over last year.

This will be Harpauer’s final budget — she won’t be running for election again. Going into this seventh and last budget, she said she has mixed feelings.

“There are things that I had hoped to do that I’d spoken to in the past that we’re not in a fiscal position to do yet, however I do feel very confident in the decisions we did make in our fiscal situation,” said Harpauer.

She believes the government has listened to the people of Saskatchewan and hopes people will be able to find something they can feel good about, though she also admits that you never know what the reaction will be when a budget comes out.

Harpauer said people will be able to see in the budget the pressures of a growing province.

“We have more students, we have more patients going into our health-care facilities, we have more people living in our province and we need to step up and address the challenges that come with growth, but it’s also exciting because that means future revenues,” she explained.

She said the government has come a long way in stepping up to meet the challenges of growth.

The coming growing season is a concern for many after a dry winter and predictions of another dry summer ahead. Harpauer has often said the part of the budget that keeps her up at night is agriculture and the crops, but she said the government is still budgeting that portion based on historical averages, saying you can’t predict the unpredictable.

“Heaven knows, in my years of doing budgets, I’ve seen some pretty incredible unpredictables such as a pandemic, the war in Europe (and) the largest drought impact that we’ve ever experienced,” Harpauer said.

NDP focusing on spending, says Moe adding too much to debt

Ahead of the budget being revealed, Saskatchewan’s Official Opposition is pointing to the province’s debt.

At the mid-year financial update for ’23-24, the government put the province’s gross debt at almost $31.6 billion. The public accounts from 2017-18, the latter half of which being when Scott Moe was elected to the Saskatchewan Party leadership and premiership as well, showed a public debt of $9.26 billion and GBE (Crowns) debt of $8.36 billion, together at $17.62 billion.

NDP Leader Carla Beck pointed to those numbers earlier this week, saying Moe has nearly doubled the province’s debt in his six years at the helm, and she expects it will be even worse when the budget is unveiled.

“This is what happens when you have a government that’s been in power for over 17 years, when they’ve stopped listening and when they’ve run out of ideas. We have a government that would rather throw money at problems than they would get to the table and actually work to solve those problems,” said Beck.

The NDP’s finance critic, Trent Wotherspoon, said there’s very little to show for that increased debt, pointing to what his party calls fiscal mismanagement in the form of the province paying a big pricetag for mammograms in Calgary, social services paying inflated rates at MLA-owned motels, and costly plans like creating a whole new Sask. Revenue Agency.

“It’s time to open up the books and look at where all these expenditures are going because they add up and we pay for them year in, year out,” said Wotherspoon.

He also talked about last year’s budget, saying it forecast a $1-billion surplus, then was down to a deficit by mid-year. And with another $757 million authorized in spending waivers last month, Wotherspoon believes the province will finish the year at a $1-billion deficit.

“Budget day after budget day, it’s been a load of baloney that we’ve got from this Sask. Party government instead of a solid fiscal plan, one that balances the priorities that Saskatchewan people are facing, seizing the opportunity in front of us, and balancing the fiscal responsibilities as well,” said Wotherspoon.

Looking ahead to the election likely to happen in the fall, Beck said the province needs change and the NDP is ready to deliver it.