Kenneth Brown
of The Crossroads
The Saskatchewan government has announced its 2018-19 budget, and the province’s finance minister says it helps to keep the province on track.
Saskatchewan Finance Minister Donna Harpauer
Donna Harpauer, the province’s finance minister, announced it at the legislature in Regina on April 10. It is the first budget tabled under Premier Scott Moe. Harpauer said the ongoing plan will help to position the government to balance the budget by 2019.
“Our government has a plan and that plan is on track,” she said, referring to a three-year plan to reduce the province’s dependency on resource revenue and to bring the budget back to balance. “This year’s budget keeps that plan on track by controlling government spending, by making important investments in health care, education and social services for Saskatchewan people, and by keeping our economy strong.”
The 2018-19 budget includes $14.61 billion in expenditures and $14.24 billion in revenues with a deficit of $365.3 million. The budget has record investments of $5.36 billion in health care and $1.18 billion in social services, along with $2.5 billion in education.
According to estimates, it also invests $924 million in highways and infrastructure, more than $376 million in agriculture, more than $725 million in advanced education, $405 million in corrections and policing, nearly $160 million in environment, more than $143 million in justice, about $70 million in parks, sport and culture and more than $79 million in energy and resources.
[emember_protected for=”2″ custom_msg=’For more on this story, please see the Apr. 13 print edition of The Cross Roads.’]
The Moe government is making an overall investment of $2.7 billion in infrastructure including $214.6 million to enhance 100 kilometres of rural highway upgrades and to complete safety projects including work to twin Highway 7 between Delisle and Vanscoy, and to plan for passing lanes on Highway 7 between Rosetown and the Alberta border.
Municipalities will benefit from more than $410 million in direct support. Municipalities will receive $241 million in municipal revenue sharing with a total of $155 million for urban municipalities, $68 million for rural municipalities and $18 million for northern municipalities.
The municipal sector will also benefit from $123.4 million for municipal infrastructure including $73.8 million for the New Building Canada Fund, and $12.5 million for the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund – both jointly funded by the federal government.
Harpauer said the government expects to return the budget to balance with a modest surplus of $6 million for 2019-20. The projected revenue of $14.24 billion is up about $80 million from 2017-18 due to higher non-renewable resource revenue, net income from government business enterprises and other own-source revenue.
She noted that non-renewable resource revenue accounts for only 10 per cent of total revenues and it is down from the all-time high of about 32 per cent in the 2008-09 budget year. She said it aligns with the plan to reduce dependency on resource revenue.
The finance minister said the projected expenditures of $14.61 billion is down about $200 million from 2017-18, so the government is controlling spending. Harpauer said the budget will make investments and keep taxes low.
“We are able to make all of these investments in this budget with no increases to tax rates,” she said, recognizing all provincial rates for income tax, sales tax and eduction property tax are the same as they were last year. “Of course, this budget has no carbon tax.”
The budget increases operational funding for school divisions by $30 million to $187 million as the premier had promised. It also includes $4.9 million for enhancements to the province’s rural crime strategy, and will help to set the stage for growth by keeping the province’s finances on track, Harpauer added.
Cathy Sproule, the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan’s finance critic, said she believes the government has put forward a “fairly muted” budget compared to the previous budget when the government took a “slash and burn” approach.
She noted that the 2018-19 budget does nothing to help the average family or to foster job creation in the province. According to Sproule, seven out of the 10 budgets announced by the current government have been deficits, so it waits to be seen if the budget is balanced by 2019-20. More statistics, analysis and commentary on the 2018-19 budget is planned for next weeks’ West Central Crossroads.
[/emember_protected] 
