REGINA - The 2025 Saskatchewan provincial budget is balanced.
That is the big story to emerge from the release of the 2025 Saskatchewan provincial budget, which was officially tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday afternoon. In his budget address Finance Minister Jim Reiter confirmed the province will have a projected $12 million surplus.
Total revenues and expenditures were each in the $21 billion range, with revenues outpacing expenditures by the $12 million figure. Both revenues and expenditures were up, but revenues were up slightly more by six per cent compared to the 4.5 per cent increase for expenditures.
It is a big change from the $743 million deficit reported in the province’s midyear financial update in November, and from the $273.2 million deficit projected in the 2024 budget. The province is pointing to strong and increased revenues from corporate business taxes, the PST, and resource revenues particularly uranium.
The province is also expecting the Saskatchewan economy to continue to grow in 2025, citing private sector forecasts that real GDP is projected to grow by 1.8 per cent.
The surplus news comes at a time when much of the talk about the 2025 budget focused on the economic uncertainty created due to tariffs from China and the United States.
Reiter acknowledged the uncertainty, but said the budget would deliver on the priorities of Saskatchewan people. Those included affordability, health care, education, safer communities and responsible financial management.
Other provinces have included contingency funds earmarked in their budgets to address the uncertainty from the tariffs. That is not included in the 2025 Saskatchewan budget and one reason pointed to is the uncertain and ever changing tariff situation.
"This budget is being presented at a time of incredible uncertainty caused by the words and actions of the President of the United States on tariffs," Reiter said at an embargoed news conference Tuesday morning.
"To say he’s been erratic and unpredictable has been an understatement. We simply don’t know what tariffs the U.S. may impose or how long they may last. As a result, it was not possible to build the exact impact of the tariffs into the budget. We’ve seen some other provinces include contingencies in their budgets, but these contingencies are not surpluses that are set aside. These are even larger deficits that will be funded by borrowing.”
"… However, we have been cautious in our expenditures in today’s budget and improved on revenues to put us in the best possible financial position to weather the impacts of any tariffs. In developing this budget, we did not allow the tariff threat to back us off on any of our election commitments on affordability and safer communities, or our commitment to deliver change by addressing the challenges of growth like crowded classrooms and access to health care. This budget delivers on those commitments. The ‘25-’26 budget delivers for the people of Saskatchewan.”
Affordability a key priority
The theme of the budget is “Delivering for You,” with a focus on delivering on the priorities Saskatchewan people said were most important to them, according to Reiter.
Those priorities are in the areas of affordability, health, education, safer communities, and fiscal responsibility.
As expected, included were the initiatives in The Saskatchewan Affordability Act for an estimated tax savings of $250 million.
Included were the largest income tax changes since 2008 such as raising the basic personal exemption, spousal and equivalent-to-spousal exemption, the child exemption and the seniors supplement by $500 a year for the next four years over and above indexation.
The budget also includes an increase in monthly income assistance benefits by two per cent for Saskatchewan Income Support and Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability clients; a 25 per cent increase to the Disability Tax Credit and Caregiver Tax Credit increase; the doubling the Active Families Benefit refundable tax credit from $150 to $300 per child and doubling the income threshold to qualify to $120,000; reinstating the Home Renovation Tax Credit, which will allow homeowners to save up to $420 annually in home renovation expenses, while seniors undertaking home renovations can save up to $525; increasing the Graduate Retention Program benefit by 20 per cent to a maximum of $24,000; and permanently maintaining the small business tax rate at one per cent instead of returning to two percent.
The budget also reduces education property tax mill rates through all property classes.
While those are the major tax reductions people will see, there is one area which will see an expansion of the PST.
As of June 1, the PST base will be expanded to include sale of all vapour liquids, products and devices, in line with what the PST currently applies to tobacco products. The province says this move is to maintain tax equity between products and also to discourage vapour products from being attractive to youth and non-smokers.
Health care
On health care, the Ministry of Health is receiving a record $8.1 billion, up $485 million, or 6.4 per cent.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority gets an increase of $261 million, or 5.6 per cent, for a record $4.9 billion budget. This is aimed at better access to acute care and reducing wait times, and realigning services at Saskatoon City Hospital to address in patient capacity pressures by opening more than 100 beds. There are also goals to connect everyone in Saskatchewan with a primary care provider.
Saskatchewan Cancer Agency will be getting $279 million, for an increase of $30 million or 12.2 per cent.
Mental health and addictions programs and services will receive $624 million or 7.7 per cent of the overall health budget, going towards better access to mental health and addictions services. The $624 million will go towards the province’s commitment towards 500 treatment spaces in the province.
The big health care commitment in this budget is to expand the number of urgent care centres across the province, due to the success of the Regina Urgent Care Centre.
The province says planning is underway for new urgent care centres in Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and North Battleford, as well as second urgent care centres in both Regina and Saskatoon.
The budget is also providing new capital funding for expansion of Complex Needs Emergency Shelters in new communities, building upon pilot projects in Regina and Saskatoon.
Overall, health capital funding is up by $140 million to $657 million - their highest ever capital budget.
Education
In Education, the Ministry of Education will get $3.5 billion, an increase of $184 million or 5.5 per cent over a year ago.
That includes an increase of $186 million, or 8.4 per cent, in school operating funding to a total of $2.4 billion.
Included is an increase of $130 million to fund the new teacher collective agreement, as well as address growing student enrolment and other needs in classrooms.
Included is funding for 50 additional specialized support classrooms to help reduce interruptions throughout the province.
There is also a $191 million school capital budget, with ongoing funding for the 21 new or consolidated schools and for three major renovations.
There is also funding to begin planning for one new replacement school, and pre-planning for four new schools in and around Saskatoon.
The post-secondary budget will see the Ministry of Advanced Education receive $788 million.
Among the commitments is health care training as part of the province's Health Human Resources Action Plan, including supporting 60 new training seats this year among the more than 900 overall for nurse practitioners, registered psychiatric nurses and medical radiologic technologists.
As well, four new training programs will be ready to accept students: in fall 2025 for physician assistant program, and in fall 2026 for speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, respiratory therapy.
Community Safety
The Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety is getting $798 million, with $119 million going to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency while the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General gets $271 million.
Included are increases to the Municipal Police Grant Program to help frontline officers respond to more calls for service, while increased funding for the RCMP will go to support operations in the province. The budget also includes funding for the previously announced commitments for 100 new municipal police officers, for 14 new Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods personnel, and for the Saskatchewan Police College to train more officers.
There is also funding to improve safety for correctional staff, offenders and the public, as well as address capacity concerns at correctional facilities.
Additional investments will be made in interpersonal violence programs and services, including second-stage housing. The budget also delivers funding to create a more accessible court system for municipal bylaw offences and ensuring cases are complete and ready to move to trial more quickly.
Other initiatives
The other initiatives announced in the 2025-26 budget include the following:
A record $362 million in municipal revenue sharing, an increase of $22 million, or 6.3 per cent, from 2024-25.
The Ministry of Social Services will get $1.6 billion in the budget, up $70 million. New funding is set for multi-year repair and renovation projects for 285 Saskatchewan Housing Corporation-owned units in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert.
There is $25 million in funding for services developed through the Provincial Approach to Homelessness. $11 million is set to increase benefits by two per cent for the Saskatchewan Income Assistance Program and Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability clients.
There is grant to Food Banks of Saskatchewan to help families and food banks with high food costs.
A $20 million increase across government to fund community-based organizations.
Creation of a new Saskatchewan Young Entrepreneur Bursary — an annual grant of $285,000 for a maximum of 57 bursaries to support youth entrepreneurship.
A new Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Tax Credit, a 45 per cent non-refundable tax credit for individuals or corporations which invest in the equity of an eligible Saskatchewan small and medium size enterprise.
Introducing the Low Productivity and Reactivation Oil Well Program, to encourage industry to make new capital investments in low-producing and inactive horizontal oil wells.
Investing in capital projects for the provincial transportation system include passing lanes for Highway 10 between Fort Qu'Appelle and Melville, and Highway 17 north of Lloydminster; Highway 39 twinning at Weyburn; ongoing corridor improvements on Highway 5 east of Saskatoon; and improvements of more than 1,000 kilometres of provincial highways.
There is also $10 million being allocated to the Creative Saskatchewan Feature Film and TV Production Grant. That is a reduction of $2 million from a year ago.
Reaction
The reaction to the budget is expected to come in quickly. Already there is an early reaction from the opposition New Democrats. At an embargoed news conference at the Legislature the NDP slammed the budget for not including a contingency to address the potential tariff threat. Opposition Leader Carla Beck dismissed the budget as a “work of fiction.”
