Changes in store for health, education

Finance minister hints at deep reviews of expenditures, revenue

Kevin Doherty, the province’s finance minister, usually keeps his clothing pretty traditional.

Black shoes. Black suit — maybe a dark blue suit some days.

On Wednesday, when Saskatchewan’s budget is made public, he will stand in the legislative assembly wearing brown shoes.

Transformational change for the minister’s feet, to match the transformational changes being announced.

“A little bit out of my fashion style, but I quite like them,” said Doherty.

What that change entails won’t be known until Wednesday, but it has been suggested more than once by government MLAs that there are big changes coming to two of the province’s biggest line items: Education and health care.

The ministers responsible for those portfolios, and Premier Brad Wall, have hinted changes could be on the way to how health regions and school boards are governed.

“You’re going to see the beginning of a process that our government is going to undertake to look at all aspects of government, on the expenditure side and the revenue side, and I think this will be the beginning of this process,” said Doherty, adding the changes will continue for the life cycle of the government.

That’s led to much uncertainty for those working in the sector, so a bit of clarity on what transformational change actually means will be welcomed.

What’s more clear, if only slightly, is the state of provincial finances. The premier has warned it will be a higher-than-expected deficit, though how much higher remains unknown. Earlier this week it was announced — apparently by accident during a question period debate — that there is a billion-dollar shortfall in natural non-renewable resource revenue.

Despite this, the finance minister wouldn’t go so far as to call Wednesday’s budget an austerity budget.

“It’s a balanced approach. I’d like to describe it as a controlled budget. When you’re dealing with the revenue situation that we’re dealing with, through nobody’s fault, the price of oil, the price of potash, the volatility in the Canadian dollar, it affects our revenues that are available to the province of Saskatchewan,” he said.

If such volatility is the new normal, the man in charge of managing your tax dollars says “we have to deal with that, we have to manage through that.”

There is a commitment to not raise taxes and an expectation that the government has found a way to drastically change, but not cut, the flow of money to education, health and social services.

“The people of this province expect us to continue to provide the services that they want and deserve, and so we need to balance those measures with respect to the expenditures we have to make to meet those needs, with the revenues that are available to us and continue to invest in infrastructure,” Doherty said.

Sticking with the shoe as a metaphor, Doherty admitted while slipping on his new brown ones that “they are tight.”

The tradition of journalists watching finance ministers putting on their shoes, and that turning into a giant metaphor for what the budget will look like the next day, stems from the United Kingdom. It first took place in Canada, apparently, under the Saskatchewan-born prime minister John Diefenbaker government in 1960.

Cathy Sproule, finance critic for the Opposition NDP, got in on the metaphor Tuesday. She showed off not shoes, but a shoe repair kit to give to Doherty. “We thought (he) has a big task in front of him, things have not been left in very good shape, and so with the shoes he’s going to be wearing — big shoes to fill, obviously — but he’s going to need some support,” she said.

The budget will be made public Wednesday afternoon.