Revenue, spending down in province in Q3

Saskatchewan’s revenue is down $168.9 million from midyear projections, but the province maintains it is on track to get back to balance by 2019-20.

Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said she is “very encouraged” that the province is “starting to gain momentum in growth once again.”

In its third-quarter financial update, released Friday, the economics of the province show it is now planning to post a deficit of $595 million in 201718, which is $13.6 million higher than what was expected in the mid-year update but lower than the $685 million deficit expected last March.

Government spending is expected to drop $153.3 million from the mid-year projection, or $273.1 million since the budget was released last March.

The drop in spending is, according to the province, largely due to a reduction in crop insurance claims.

Whether or not the province can continue to have its drops in spending outpace its drops in revenue remains to be seen, but Harpauer said, “that’s the deliberation that we’re undergoing right now with our next budget.”

Helping the cause of curbing spending will be Premier Scott Moe’s goal of reducing the size of government.

The province is looking to shed 1,250 jobs in executive government and Crown corporations through attrition. Such a move is in line with Sask. Party trends, as it has previously cut 15 per cent of the public service, or $200 million, through attrition.

Those moves coincide with the continued goal, announced last year, of reducing public sector wages by 3.5 per cent — but that measure has had little success at the bargaining table with unions so far.

Harpauer said Friday the province is “always looking for efficiencies in government” and “going forward we’re going to be doing the same.”

How the province intends to go about doing that will become clearer in the 2018-19 budget, when it is released on April 10.

“What they’re doing is basically picking the pockets of pretty much everyone,” NDP opposition finance critic Cathy Sproule said, noting there were cuts to education, agriculture and community development in the last budget in order to pay down the province’s 201718 projected $17.7 billion in public debt.

“I don’t think they are going to be able to get back to balance in three years,” she said.