Time for this government to grow up

Seven months from today, the Saskatchewan Party government will turn 15 years old. Yet we can only dream about this administration acting its age.

The Saskatchewan Party has mastered acting like a 15-year-old human, but government years are more akin to dog years. A 15-year-old government has entered middle age and should behave in a mature way.

The Saskatchewan Party continues to engage in immature behaviour, even in its budget documents. Few teens, however, seem as obsessed with their birth years, in this case 2007.

Take the amount of money the province provides for municipalities. The budget documents describe municipal revenue sharing in the budget of $262.6 million as an increase of more than 106 per cent since the 2007-08 budget.

As juvenile as it might seem, the government persists in comparing this part of its budget to that of the NDP government before it was defeated in 2007 — 15 years ago.

The budget also mentions its contributions to municipalities as including grants-in-lieu, as though they represent some sort of generosity as opposed to paying the bills in place of the property taxes the rest of us pay.

The budget authors evidently think people have forgotten the 2017 budget, when grantsin-lieu were unexpectedly clawed back and municipalities were forced to either slash spending, raise taxes or both. That's the same year the province hiked the provincial sales tax from five to six per cent.

The province likely engages in this adolescent comparison to distract from the reality its contribution to municipalities has declined for two straight years. Municipal revenue sharing has dropped from $276.16 million two budgets ago. A more relevant way of assessing this year's municipal contribution is that it's declined by nearly six per cent from the 2020-21 budget.

The Saskatchewan Party used to crow about its commitment to sharing 20 per cent of provincial sales tax revenues with municipalities, or one percentage point. That's been reduced to three-quarters of one percentage point.

But let's play along with the 2007 comparison for a moment; back then, the province provided $127.26 million to municipalities. Any comparison from that far back needs to be adjusted for inflation. That adjustment boosts the 2007 money for municipalities to $169.53 million in 2022 dollars.

In that light, this year's municipal revenue represents only about a third more than 2007, not too great for a government that likes to portray itself as a champion of expanding the provincial economy.

If you find that comparison unconvincing, let's try municipal revenue sharing as a share of the total budget. The 2007 budget included $7.79 billion in spending, compared to $17.6 billion in this year's budget. That's a 126 per cent increase in spending over 15 years. So you could also assess this year's municipal revenue sharing, if you wanted to stick with the province's numbers, as lagging far behind the rise in the rest of government spending during a period when it skyrocketed.

In practical terms, the drop in funding means less money for Saskatchewan communities, including cities, towns, villages and rural municipalities. But since revenue sharing is calculated based on population, less funding represents particularly bad news for almost all jurisdictions outside the three largest cities: Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert. Aside from the big three, population growth in most of Saskatchewan is stagnant. Rural populations are declining.

The reduced money deserves serious acknowledgment by the province, not a sophomoric comparison to 15 years ago.

And since the province likes referencing 2007 so much, here's a few reminders. The 2007 budget marked the 14th straight balanced operating budget under the NDP.

The current Saskatchewan Party government has abandoned its 2020 campaign pledge to balance the budget in four years. The 2007 budget also followed shortly after a PST cut from seven to five per cent. This year's budget expanded the PST to new areas. And total government debt has nearly tripled from $11.2 billion in 2007 to a projected $30 billion today.

As the government enters the political equivalent of old age, it's time to retire the 2007 references. The comparisons are not flattering.