Moe still murky on budget, recalling legislature

Premier seems comfortable spending tax dollars under emergency provision

Contrary to what you might have heard from Premier Scott Moe on Monday, his Saskatchewan Party government tabled neither a 202021 budget nor the spending estimates for said budget in the legislature.

And one can only wonder if this is now about governing unencumbered by legislative scrutiny from the NDP Opposition until perhaps after the Oct. 26 election.

That might be overly suspicious conjecture, but it is clear Moe seems a little too comfortable spending our tax dollars on the authority of a temporary emergency provision rather than proper legislative authority.

This flies in the face of centuries of democratic principles and conventions, but don’t take my word for it. Ask any British monarch since King John in 1215 about our unwritten conventions that evolved into concepts like “grievance before supply,” where kings would have to first hear the concerns of the peasants’ representatives in parliament before hitting them with tax levies.

Fast forward to today’s modern Westminster-model parliaments and it translates into why we have budgets in March before the start of a new fiscal year April

1 — a convention to which the Sask. Party government has subscribed every year except 2016 when it went to the polls in April before presenting its deficit-plagued 2016-17 budget in June. (Hmmm? Wasn’t it Moe’s intention to go to the polls in April — perhaps before the 2020-21 budget could have been passed — until those plans were derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic’s arrival in Saskatchewan?)

On Monday, Moe told the province spending estimates were “tabled” March 18 when Finance Minister Donna Harpauer revealed to reporters pending estimates for the 2020-21 fiscal year that did not include any revenue projections because of the wild unpredictability that the COVID-19 pandemic was having on the province.

However, the March 18 Legislative Hansard clearly reveals nothing was tabled before Government House Leader Jeremy Harrison moved adjournment.

Late Monday, executive council officials agreed that there was nothing “tabled” in the legislature and Moe misspoke.

The significance of this all boils down to a government, if not wanting to avoid presenting a real, full budget before the election, seemingly doing its utmost to avoid any form of legislative scrutiny.

Harpauer outlined two weeks ago a still unpredictable outline of our revenue, showing a potential 2020-21 budget deficit of between $1.3 billion and $3.3 billion, and one somewhat sympathizes with Harpauer’s inability to be more accurate. But isn’t that even more reason to ensure the spending of increasingly scarce tax dollars is being scrutinized?

At the time of adjournment, the legislature had passed a two-month interim supply bill that allowed it to spend until about now. And under the Financial Administration Act, the government now has a “special warrant” that permits it to spend five-twelfths of the perceived annual 2020-21 budget that will take us to the end of August.

Moe’s cabinet can get another such warrant and then another, but let’s not forget we are in murky waters of not having a 2020-21 budget actually presented in the legislature.

Remember: Even in 1991 when we teetered on bankruptcy, the Grant Devine government did at least present a budget in the legislature. Moe’s government hasn’t and will legally need to do so sometime in the 2020-21 fiscal year.

But Moe is not only obfuscating on whether we will see a budget (according to the letter from Opposition Leader Ryan Meili, Moe committed to a pre-election budget with a 28-day debate before adjournment) but whether we’ll see legislative scrutiny in any form.

Monday, Moe wouldn’t even commit to an actual or virtual sitting that the House of Commons and other provincial legislatures have somehow found a way to easily provide. He wouldn’t even commit to instructing his government to hold committee meetings — virtual or otherwise — that have always been held when the legislature is not in session. Moe questioned the security of Zoom now being used by assemblies all over North America, including the U.S. Senate. Huh?

This isn’t accountability. This is nonsense. The peasantry demands more. Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-post and Saskatoon Starphoenix.

Moe is not only obfuscating on whether we will see a budget ... but whether we’ll see legislative scrutiny ...