Missing budget update sign of bad news
One supposes it’s possible the Saskatchewan Party government’s first-quarter update of the 2016-17 budget doesn’t have all that much to tell.
By their nature of only offering a three-month picture of a 12-month budget, first-quarter budget updates are limited in what they can tell us.
There may be even less to offer this year, given the budget was delayed until June 1 because of the April 4 vote (although it was also Premier Brad Wall’s option to have presented a March budget and run on it in the spring election.)
Nevertheless, the Sask. Party’s “nothing-to-see-here” approach is unacceptable — bordering on “outrageous,” as described by interim NDP Opposition leader Trent Wotherspoon.
In fact, Finance Minister Kevin Doherty’s ominous tones in June about “transformational change” and how almost everything is on the table suggest this is a year requiring more budget scrutiny — not less.
Doherty’s explanation Thursday — that a firstquarter report is unnecessary because his government was legally required to pass spending bills (and not revenues) — is weak.
We need to see spending and revenue to see the whole picture. Were it a prettier picture, it’s a safe bet Wall’s government would want us to see it. Let’s be clear here: Pumping out the glorified spreadsheet that is the quarterly budget update — something the then-opposition Sask. Party demanded on behalf of taxpayers on 2001 — is Government 101.
As big a mess as Alberta’s Rachel Notley NDP government seems to be in, it managed to present a firstquarter update. So did the brand-spanking-new Manitoba Progressive Conservative government elected on April 19 — two weeks after Brad Wall’s third-term re-election. (The Manitoba government’s first-quarter update released Thursday showed that province’s summary deficit is $846 million — less than the billion-dollar-plus one the PCs, in opposition, predicted it would be.)
And, frankly, it’s simply become hard to trust Doherty’s “no-big-deal” explanations.
After all, both he and former finance minister Ken Krawetz insisted it was “no big deal” to borrow $700 million and $1 billion in the last two budgets, respectively. As it turns out, the Dominion Bond Rating Service (DBRS) thought it was a rather big deal.
“The government has stated it intends to return to balance in 2017-18, though this will require continued revenue growth and significant cost restraint,’’ DBRS said earlier this month. “Given the continued weakness in the economic outlook and a general reluctance to impact front line services, DBRS believes the province will be challenged to balance in 2017-18.”
It should be visible to almost everyone that this preelection spending spree was problematic ... even if the firstquarter 2016-17 budget update confirming this is invisible.
Consider other stories you have been hearing about government cuts. Thursday, the government had to clarify its own statements on cuts to Saskatoon’s Lighthouse that had suggested the emergency shelter “does not serve enough eligible clients to cover the cost of operating.” The government alleged Lighthouse was over-billing the Social Services Ministry for emergency shelter per diems and “we believe, instead using the funds on the stabilization unit.” It also said it was maintaining the facility’s 2016-17 funding of $623,000 from the Saskatoon Health Region and $137,800 for the stabilization unit.
In a somewhat similar vein, the Regina- Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) is cutting nursing positions, including seven registered psychiatric nurses — what Saskatchewan Union of Nurses president Tracy Zambory described as ‘“short-term budget-driven staffing decisions.” Zambory went on to suggest the health region and government “are not taking into account the needs of the patients they are impacting,” though the RQHR’s CEO insisted patient care will not be affected.
But even if either funding change is merited and even if the alternatives being put forward are, indeed, what governments should do to better spend tax dollars, there is little doubt the decisions are being driven by budget necessity.
It is now part of a wellestablished pattern of the Sask. Party downloading its problems on school and health region boards, and civil servants, who are expected to deal with the results of shrinking budgets.
The government should be obliged to show us exactly where that budget is at.