Meili lays out 2018 budget wish list
NDP leader hopes government spends in areas with ‘higher return on investment’
Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili jokes that last year’s provincial budget was only good for the Opposition — because it gave the party no end of things to criticize.
While the economy has not picked up in the last year, much has changed since the spring of 2018. Meili said he hopes that means next week’s provincial budget will be drastically different from the austerity budget announced last year by then-premier Brad Wall.
Meili said he wants to see more money for mental health, education, social services and northern initiatives.
“We have a new premier, we have a new finance minister, new leader of the Opposition. There’s a lot of change. We hope to see some change,” Meili said Thursday at a news conference in Saskatoon.
“What we would see as really positive investments are in some of those areas that have the higher return on investment. Mental health is one of those where, for each dollar you put into mental health, you see increases in your GDP and productivity; you also see significant drops in the downstream costs.”
The provincial budget is set to be released Tuesday. Meili said there’s “no question” in his mind the province will run a deficit in 2018, adding the government nonetheless needs to make strategic investments to avoid slowing down the economy.
Premier Scott Moe, elected as leader of the Saskatchewan Party earlier this year, ran on a platform that promised to restore education funding. Meili said he hopes Moe makes good on that promise in this budget.
“We’ve got to be looking at the way in which we use our choices now, the way we spend money now, to be planning not for the next budget or the next election, but the next 20 years,” he said.
The government should control spending by re-evaluating how much it invests in “mega projects” such as the Regina bypass, he added.
Moe has warned Saskatchewan residents they are in for yet another “tight budget,” but has said his government has been “feverishly” consulting with stakeholders to avoid some of the unpopular surprises that came out in last year’s budget.