It’s an attempt to bury this mess on budget day because going from a billion-dollar surplus to a billion-dollar deficit is unexplainable.
Published Feb 26, 2024 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 3 minute read
It’s hard to say what’s more unbelievable.
That we might have gone from the billion-dollar surplus predicted when the 2023-24 budget was presented 11 months ago to a billion-dollar deficit now.
Article content
Or that we actually don’t know whether this is the case because the Saskatchewan Party government won’t deign to address this trifling little matter.
Let’s begin with the great unknown that is the recent $747,495,000 of closed-door cabinet spending — potentially, enough to drive this year’s deficit well past the billion-dollar mark.
Advertisement 2
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Regina Leader-Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Regina Leader-Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.
Sign In or Create an Account
or
Article content
It’s not unusual to see such special warrant-use by Saskatchewan governments as the fiscal year draws to a close and departments scramble to contend with overspending.
But, at worst, spring special warrants usually amount to $100 million or so — a rounding error in a $19-billion provincial budget. Budgeting, after all, is something less than an exact science.
However, spending nearly three-quarters of a billion at this time of year is, as NDP finance critic Trent Wotherspoon put it, “wild.”
One might think government would at least try to explain why such unprecedented and unscrutinized spending is necessary. From what little we know, it may not be completely frivolous. Unfortunately, details remain scant, requiring a lot of speculation to fill in the blanks.
The $450.1-million lion’s share of the special warrants is going to health, including $215.4 million to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), $22 million to the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency and $20.7 million for physician services that’s separate from the $154.2 million to address the new four-year contract with the Saskatchewan Medical Association.
By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
Article content
Advertisement 3
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
There is an unexplained $120 million for “out-of-province” at a time when we are picking up the hotel and travel expense costs so women can drive to private Calgary clinics for mammograms and “$132 million for human resource compensation pressures” as we pay outrageous sums for travelling nurses.
There is also “$73.6 million for medical and surgical supplies” because Saskatchewan’s surgical teams are now experiencing “the highest volumes ever recorded in the first six months of the fiscal year from April 1 to September 30,” according to one government response to reporters’ inquiries.
The Ministry of Energy spending $94 million for “the continued cleanup of the abandoned northern uranium mine sites of Gunnar and Lorado” plus the Ministry of Environment shelling out $20.2 million for remediation work and monitoring/maintaining the Anglo-Rouyn mine site is good news in an area where government constantly draws criticism.
Similarly, $22.7 million is going to social services for “pressures related to intensive third-party residential services required for the care of children and youth in the ministry’s care” and pressures related to the Autism Spectrum Disorder Individualized Funding program.
Advertisement 4
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Spending $86.3 million for “appropriation for AgriStability program payments” or $23.4 million for “higher-than-budgeted activities” in highway winter road maintenance usually produce reams of press releases to remind rural voters in an election hear why they should keep voting Saskatchewan Party.
Yet, curiously, for a government that employs hundreds of communicators to grind out such press releases, we only see the brief special warrant summaries.
Worse, government has no interest explaining the impact, claiming we will have to wait until 2024-25 budget day for the 2023-24 third-quarter update because that is the protocol. (This is untrue. Government used to put out third-quarter budget updates separate from budget day.)
But why nothing? Why not a single news release? Why not make Finance Minister Donna Harpauer available to assure us not to worry because there’s a revenue windfall to balance out this spending?
Not so much as tweet? Nothing from our high-flying premier in India — ironically, rolling up more government spending costs?
Well, when governments tell us we have to wait for busy budget day for answers, the only reasonable conclusion to draw is it’s an attempt to bury this mess on budget day because going from a billion-dollar surplus to a billion-dollar deficit boggles the mind.
Advertisement 5
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
After all, the more time we spend dwelling on how unbelievable the 2023-24 budget has been, the more likely we are to suspect the Sask. Party government’s 2024-25 election budget will be equally unbelievable.
Murray Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
Recommended from Editorial
Murray Mandryk: Bad mid-year update a worse omen for budgets to come
Sask. health unions ‘profoundly disappointed’ in budget investments
Our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark TheStarPhoenix.com and LeaderPost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here.
Article content
>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Leader Post – https://leaderpost.com/opinion/columnists/murray-mandryk-sask-needs-answers-on-747m-in-closed-door-spending