A worrisome lack of fiscal accountability
An unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic became justification for the Saskatchewan Party government a year ago at this time to present a “budget” with no revenue side of the ledger.
To the credit of Premier Scott Moe and Finance Minister Donna Harpauer, their government did eventually present a more meaningful 2020-21 Saskatchewan budget in June, albeit one with a record $2.4-billion deficit (later reduced to a still-record $2 billion) during a truncated legislative sitting.
But since then, sitting days at the Saskatchewan legislature have been a rarity — just eight sitting days since the passage of the budget in early July and the Oct. 26 election. As such, Saskatchewan's has become among the least democratically accountable legislatures in the country during this pandemic.
Presentation of the 202122 budget now won't happen until April 6 — well after other provinces like Alberta (whose legislature is now sitting). You may recall Moe was rightly quick to chastise the federal Liberal government last year for using the pandemic as an excuse to avoid presenting a budget.
About all we know about this upcoming 2021-22 Saskatchewan budget is that it looks like the Sask. Party won't fulfil its 2020 election promise of presenting a balanced budget by 2024.
You may also recall last fall's election campaign in which the Sask. Party went to great lengths to point out that NDP over promising/ over spending showed it had no plans for a balanced budget in this four-year term.
Monday, we saw a Sask. Party government news release suggesting that it has had to spend $322.8 million for the COVID-19 pandemic, largely being spent outside budget scrutiny.
The specific issue here isn't that it is hideously wasteful pandemic spending ... or even that untoward.
It is a reality that some emergency funding would be necessary during this pandemic. Besides, plenty of better examples of questionable spending can be found in most budgets that do get proper legislative scrutiny ... and, frankly, most every week when cabinet releases its executive council orders outside the legislative process.
But all this does is underscore exactly why we need to have budgets, legislative sittings and, generally, more thorough scrutiny of every tax dollar we contribute.
Still unanswered is why the current 2020-21 budget only set aside a woefully inadequate $200 million contingency fund that was quickly gobbled up with things like $40 million for the Safe
School Plan in August, $75.6 million extra for the Saskatchewan Health Authority, $20 million for the Saskatchewan Small Business Emergency Payment Program, $17 million for tourism, $14.2 million for Municipal Grants for Growth, $12.3 million for public safety response and $5.5 million for the fall election. Really, the Sask. Party government couldn't have honestly anticipated the pandemic would cost us more than $200 million in extra spending?
With one pen stroke, the government significantly added to its 2020-21 budget spending, possibly taking this year's deficit back close to that $2.4-billion deficit originally predicted. We don't know for sure because we aren't seeing the required third-quarter update (the budget situation as of Jan. 1).
The pandemic is now the everyday excuse to avoid accountability. Given the history upon which the Sask. Party came to be, that's disconcerting.
The Sask. Party rose nearly a quarter century ago from the ashes of the old Saskatchewan Progressive Conservatives whose last government proved to be not only one of the most corrupt in Canadian history but also one of the least accountable.
Governing by special warrant and cabinet orders became the norm for the old Grant Devine PCS, who didn't even bother to pass the last of their 13-consecutive deficit budgets — the one that chased the province to the brink of bankruptcy.
Yes, we're in a pandemic. But we're essentially witnessing the very same machinations from the Sask. Party government that started to get the old PC government — and then the rest of us — in the massive trouble this province eventually found itself in.
What's worse, though, is Moe's administration seems to be taking liberties with fundamental democratic accountability simply because it can.
We saw how this started before. We shouldn't let it start again.