Moe hints at funding hikes, big-ticket items in budget

Schools, health care, communities are this year's priorities, he says

The provincial budget will not be public until Wednesday afternoon when outgoing Finance Minister Donna Harpauer rises from her seat and presents it on the floor of the legislative assembly.

But already, the government has either signalled or outright announced some big-ticket items and funding bumps coming in its 2024-25 financial blueprint.

For one, education funding is set to go up $180 million for a total of $2.2 billion overall. The nuance of where that money is going is yet to be seen, as is the capital budget for education. Speaking Monday during question period, Premier Scott Moe seemed to signal that new-school builds would be part of the picture.

“We are building schools, and I dare say you might see a few more in just two days when the deputy premier rises to her feet,” said Moe.

From the pool of $2.2 billion, $356 million will be allocated to “classroom supports,” according to Moe. That works out to a 15-percent increase, or $45 million more compared to the previous budget.

Moe took to social media shortly before 7 p.m. on Monday to talk up the budget in a video, touching on the increase to education funding among other items.

The budget will “deliver the largest ever increase in municipal revenue sharing for Saskatchewan communities,” he said, adding the increase will be “up $42 million” for a total of $340.2 million.

There will also be an increase of $726 million “or more than 10 per cent,” for health care, according to the video. Where exactly that money is going is again unclear, but the province recently announced new breast-cancer care and screening initiatives and a new breast-cancer care centre to address wait times and costly out of province referrals to a Calgary clinic.

The cost of the centre and the new initiatives were not disclosed.

“Classrooms, care and communities; those are the priorities of this year's provincial budget,” said Moe on Monday.

The funding boost for education was announced last month amid an ongoing, historic labour dispute between the government and the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF). A keystone in bargaining between the two parties is classroom complexity and composition. The STF want language and funding in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to address those issues, the government is adamant a CBA is not the place for that.

Not mentioned in Moe's video are dollars for the Diefenbaker irrigation project, which the province said last week it was looking to move forward on, with or without the federal government.

When proposed in 2020, the total cost was projected to be $4 billion.

Moe said his government plans to spend $1.15 billion on Phase 1 of the project, the cost of which has increased by half a billion dollars since the project was announced.

The NDP have not been advocating for austerity or to ratchet back on spending, instead focusing on the efficacy of spending under the Sask. Party, and Moe specifically, while also raising concerns about the growing provincial debt.

“How does anyone trust what this government says on budget day?” asked finance critic Trent Wotherspoon on Monday, signalling his belief the province is set to post a $1-billion deficit, after having projected a billion-dollar surplus last year at budget time.

“We see them again spending more and Saskatchewan people getting less,” said NDP Leader Carla Beck.

Beck brought up the 3,000 vacant housing units in the province, decreases in per-student funding in Saskatchewan, while Wotherspoon highlighted concerns over the rates at motels the province have contracted for social service clients, the ballooning price for a piece of health care software, the Global Transportation Hub, and Regina bypass, while also calling the proposed marshal service “redundant” and favouring funding increases to the RCMP instead.

“It's not just about how much you spend, but it's about how effectively you spend,” said Beck, who has recently taken to conjuring the spectre of former Conservative premier Grant Devine who, as Beck said, “nearly bankrupted our province.”

In terms of the debt, the NDP flagged an increase to the provincial debt of $13,949,920,000 under Moe's tenure as premier, bringing debt including public accounts to $31,564,800,000.