Opinion: Sask. must balance budget, resist spending impulse

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Finance Minister Jim Reiter needs to deliver a balanced budget on March 19. Not balanced some time in the future, balanced on March 19.

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On budget day in 2024, the government promised a $1-billion surplus. That surplus ended up shrinking to $182 million, according to the latest public accounts. That’s because while government revenue increased by 6.7 per cent during the year, the government also decided to spend 11.5 per cent more.

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If the government had only spent what it said it would on budget day, the surplus would have been $2.3 billion. That’s money that could have been used to pay back debt or provide tax relief, but provincial politicians couldn’t resist the impulse to spend.

This year is the same sad story for taxpayers. So far, government revenue is up $275 million compared to the 2024 budget, but the government is also spending $746 million more. That’s like winning the lottery and still maxing out your credit card.

If the government had held the line on spending this year, it would be looking at a $2-million deficit instead of the $744-million deficit it is currently projecting. Once again, the government couldn’t resist the impulse to spend.

What good are budgets if the government keeps deciding to spend more halfway through the year? When regular Saskatchewanians get an unexpected bonus at work, they pay off their credit card; they don’t go out and finance a new truck.

In both years, the government blamed a large part of the increased spending on crop insurance payments. Failing to account for increased crop insurance once might be a mistake, but doing it twice is an unacceptable pattern.

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Taxpayers deserve a government that lives up to its word and only spends what it says it will on budget day. That’s because every time the government fails to balance the budget or increases the deficit, taxpayers are paying more because of increased debt and interest payments.

The government increased the debt by more than 227 per cent, from $6.4 billion to more than $21 billion, over the last decade. Because of the debt, taxpayers are on hook for $728 million in interest payments this year.

That’s a cost of $587 per Saskatchewanian. The government spends more in interest payments than on both economic development and transportation.

The government needs to present a balanced budget, but it also needs to present a plan that won’t see the government spending truckloads more money halfway through the year. That means the government can start to pay back debt and reduce the money spent every year on interest payments.

There’s a straightforward path to balance, but Reiter needs to succeed where his predecessors have failed and resist the impulse to spend.

Over the last five years, government revenue has increased on average by about seven per cent per year. If the government just holds spending at current all-time high levels in 2025, the government will eliminate the deficit through revenue growth and instead project about a $660-million surplus on budget day.

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That surplus could then be used to pay back debt or provide tax relief to Saskatchewanians. A one percentage point cut in the PST would save the average Saskatchewan family about $337 per year and be fully covered by this surplus.

The Saskatchewan Party says that one of it’s guiding principles is the “steady, gradual reduction in government spending and taxation while maintaining a firm commitment to balanced budgets.”

The government needs to get back to those principles. On March 19, it’s time to get Saskatchewan back into the black and keep it there.

Gage Haubrich is the Prairie director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

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