Saskatchewan finishes 2017-18 with surprise reduction in deficit

REGINA A good crop helped the Saskatchewan government finish the last fiscal year with a deficit almost $400 million smaller than initially forecast.

The province finished 2017-18 spending $303 million more than it took in. But that’s $393 million better than what was projected in last year’s budget.

Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said Thursday that a good harvest resulted in lower crop insurance claims. The government had a $429-million decrease in expenses primarily due to a year-over-year reduction in farmer payouts.

“It is definitely a good position that we’re in from the last budget, however, there’s a lot of things that are very unpredictable in budgets,” Harpauer said. “Budgets include a lot of entities and what strengthened last year’s budget, quite frankly, was largely crop insurance.”

The increase in provincial sales tax to six per cent from five per cent meant the government took in $808 million more in PST revenue compared to a year earlier. But that was $36 million lower than the budget forecast.

“That has worked obviously quite well in helping us get back to balance and making our fiscal situation much stronger,” Harpauer said.

Oil and gas revenue contributed $657 million — an increase of $85 million over the previous year, but lower than forecast in the budget. Potash revenue totalled $309 million — up $68 million from a year earlier and $48 million higher than the budget forecast.

Opposition NDP critic Trent Wotherspoon noted the PST hike hit families hard.