Finance Minister Jim Reiter needs to deliver a balanced budget on March 19.
Not balanced some time in the future—balanced on March 19.
On budget day in 2023, the government promised a $1-billion surplus. That surplus ended up shrinking to $182 million, according to the latest public accounts. That’s because while government revenue increased 6.7 per cent during the year, spending rose by 11.5 per cent.
Had the government only spent what it said it would on budget day, the surplus would have been $2.3 billion. That’s money that could have been used to pay down debt or provide tax relief, but provincial politicians couldn’t resist the impulse to spend.
This year tells the same sad story for taxpayers. So far, government revenue is up $275 million compared to the 2024 budget, but spending has climbed $746 million.
That’s like winning the lottery and still maxing out your credit card.
Had the government held the line on spending this year, it would be looking at a $2-million deficit instead of the $744-million shortfall it is currently projecting. Once again, the government couldn’t resist the impulse to spend.
What good are budgets if the government keeps deciding to spend more halfway through the year? When regular Saskatchewanians get an unexpected bonus at work, they pay off their credit card—they don’t go out and finance a new truck.
In both years, the government blamed a large part of the increased spending on crop insurance payments. Failing to account for increased crop insurance once might be a mistake, but doing it twice is an unacceptable pattern.
Taxpayers deserve a government that lives up to its word and only spends what it says it will on budget day.
Every time the government fails to balance the budget or increases the deficit, taxpayers end up paying more due to rising debt and interest payments.
The government increased the debt by more than 227 per cent, from $6.4 billion to more than $21 billion, over the last decade. Because of this, taxpayers are on the hook for $728 million in interest payments this year—that’s $587 per Saskatchewanian. The government spends more on interest payments than it does on both economic development and transportation.
The government needs to present a balanced budget. But it also needs to present a plan that prevents it from spending truckloads more money halfway through the year. That way, the province can start paying down debt and reduce the money spent annually on interest payments.
There’s a straightforward path to balance. But Reiter needs to succeed where his predecessors have failed and resist the impulse to spend.
Over the last five years, government revenue has increased by an average of seven per cent per year. If the government simply holds spending at current all-time high levels in 2025, it will eliminate the deficit through revenue growth and instead project about a $660-million surplus on budget day.
That surplus could then be used to pay down debt or provide tax relief to Saskatchewanians. A one per centage point cut in the provincial sales tax would save the average Saskatchewan family about $337 per year—and could be fully covered by this surplus.
The Saskatchewan Party says one of its guiding principles is the “steady, gradual reduction in government spending and taxation while maintaining a firm commitment to balanced budgets.”
The government needs to get back to those principles.
On March 19, it’s time to get Saskatchewan back into the black—and keep it there.
Gage Haubrich is the Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
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