By Ryan Kiedrowski
The provincial budget is going to be in a deficit, but not quite as bad as other deficit budgets posted in the country. That’s the message taxpayers are hearing from their government as the SaskParty released “Protecting Saskatchewan”. Last year, a $12 million surplus was projected, but given external pressures such as the 2025 massive wildfire control efforts, health care and social services, plus global issues like the current Iran conflict, a $1.2 billion deficit was the result.
Ultimately, Finance Minister Jim Reiter handed down a projected $819 million budget March 18.
“We had choices, we could have increased some taxes, we could have not put as much funding into kind of key areas like healthcare,” he said. “We decided now is not the time to be doing that.”
The minister framed the budget around two main priorities: improving access to health care and easing cost-of-living pressures.
Health spending will reach a record $8.5 billion, an increase of nearly five per cent. The funding supports the government’s “Patients First” plan, which includes expanding access to primary care, increasing diagnostic capacity and adding hospital beds.
Reiter said the increased spending reflects both inflation and service expansion.
“You saw the patient first announcement … people want and deserve that service, and we’re going to do our best to provide it,” he said.
On affordability, the budget continues a multi-year plan to reduce personal income taxes. Reiter emphasized that approach over other forms of relief.
“I feel that’s key, because that lets every person keep more of their own money in their own pocket,” he said.
The government is also increasing various credits and benefits, including supports for low-income residents, seniors and families, while maintaining programs aimed at housing and student retention.
Despite the tax relief, some fees will rise. Reiter said those increases are modest and often tied to inflation or earmarked for specific programs.
“There are inflationary pressures and … our government’s not immune to that,” he said.
The deficit comes amid ongoing global instability, including fluctuating commodity prices and international trade tensions. Reiter acknowledged that volatility remains a key risk to the province’s fiscal outlook.
“What keeps me up at night … is just the absolute volatility of world markets,” he said, citing oil price swings as an example. Attempting to figure out a budget with such fluctuations is indeed a hefty challenge. He added that while there is always a possibility the deficit could grow if conditions worsen, the government believes its projections are reasonable.
“You never say never,” he said. “Budget’s a snapshot in time.”
The province also plans to manage spending through attrition in the public service, rather than layoffs. Vacant positions will be reviewed before being refilled to reduce costs without affecting frontline services.
“This is not handing out pink slips,” Reiter said, noting the vacancies will be more retirements than firings. “We’re going to put a more critical eye to make sure that position needs to be refilled.”
He said the government believes its approach strikes a balance between fiscal responsibility and supporting residents through economic pressures.
“The new provincial budget is about protecting Saskatchewan,” assured Premier Scott Moe. “We are living in a time of incredible economic and geopolitical turmoil.”
He pointed to a range of pressures affecting the province, including tariffs on agriculture, steel and forestry, as well as volatility in fuel and fertilizer costs. Despite those challenges, Moe argued Saskatchewan remains comparatively strong due to the diversity of its economy and export markets.
“Our economy in Saskatchewan is much more diverse than many areas across the nation,” he said, adding the province exports to more than 160 countries.
Moe remains optimistic, highlighting more than 60 major private-sector projects underway, representing over $60 billion in investment, including developments in uranium, potash, agriculture, energy and manufacturing. He said the scale of investment is “unlike any time in our province’s history.”
Still, the province’s finances have taken a hit, with the budget projecting deficits into the end of the decade. Moe defended the government’s decision not to return to balance until 2030-31, citing the need to maintain spending in key areas.
“I want the budget back to balance this year. We’re unable to do that while we protect our healthcare investments, our community safety investments, those types of things in what is a very uncertain world,” he said.
He also emphasized the volatility of resource revenues, noting how oil prices can shift dramatically in short periods.
“That’s how quickly things can change,” Moe said, recalling the one-week swing during his recent India trip with Prime Minister Mark Carney from under $60 to nearly $100 per barrel.
The premier said the government deliberately chose not to cut services or raise taxes, instead focusing on maintaining programs while introducing targeted affordability measures. These include personal income tax reductions and continued efforts to keep the province free of a consumer carbon tax on electricity.
On infrastructure, the budget includes a capital plan of roughly $4.3 billion, covering schools, hospitals, highways and Crown corporation projects. Major health investments include the ongoing Prince Albert hospital redevelopment and future projects such as a new health care facility in Yorkton.
“We will build Yorkton,” Moe promised, stressing the importance of planning stages like needs assessments that often reveal expanded requirements due to population growth and increasing complexity of care.
“When we find our way through that pre-design and needs assessment, the services that we are offering need to be expanded,” he said.
Moe also defended the province’s approach to debt, arguing governments must manage long-term volatility rather than react to short-term swings in commodity prices.
“We are not going to change or alter the size of the public service essentially on the price of a barrel of oil,” he said.
Looking ahead, the premier said future deficits could be influenced by several factors, including commodity prices, trade agreements such as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and global demand for energy and resources. He also pointed to potential opportunities in energy security, including uranium, oil and emerging sectors like lithium.
On affordability, Moe acknowledged rising costs for fuel, groceries and construction, but said governments cannot fully offset global inflation.
“Can any government offset all of those pressures? I don’t see that as being a realistic,” he said. “However, can we do everything that we can … to ensure that we remain as affordable a place to live as possible? Yes, we can.”
He ruled out fuel tax relief which was a suggestion from the NDP, citing Saskatchewan’s fiscal constraints and lack of equalization payments.
“We don’t have the ability to start moving the gas price,” Moe said.
Municipal funding in the budget includes record revenue sharing and continued infrastructure support, though Moe called for a longer-term federal-provincial program to replace temporary measures.
“Our natural resources are nothing short of just that, a natural resource, until it’s the innovative, hardworking people in this province that actually bring value to those products,” he said. “That’s why we as a government are trying to do the responsible thing with this budget — protect the services and protect the way of life that we have in this province in what is a very uncertain and turbulent time globally.”
While the SaskParty believes the budget delivers during strange times, the NDP are downright dystopian.
“When the dust and all of the spin settles today, I think it’s going to be painfully clear to the people of this province that there’s absolutely nothing in this budget to help people who are already struggling with the cost of living,” said opposition leader Carla Beck. “Before this budget, Saskatchewan already had the highest financial anxiety, people worried about paying their bills, and the entire country. And we’ve had four in 10 people in this province borrowing money or going into savings just to pay for their groceries, just to put food on the table. And I know a lot of people in this province were desperately hoping that they would see some measure of relief in this budget, something to help them manage that financial anxiety. But in this budget, we see no relief.”
Despite all the rhetoric of how bad the NDP says the “Bad News Budget” is, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of proposed solutions from their side of the fence. Grasslands News asked Beck if they planned on releasing a shadow budget to illustrate how they would better balance the books but skirted the notion in her reply.
“I don’t mean this to be flippant, I don’t have confidence in the numbers in this budget – I don’t know what we would base it on, honestly,” she replied. “Again, $12 million surplus last year, $1.2 billion deficit – I sincerely wish I had more confidence in the numbers. There was a time even that I think that there was more transparency, there was more confidence. This has become a bit of a shell game with this government who will spend really hard, put their best foot forward when it comes to budget day and spending what’s in that budget.”
Need to find savings
One group says there’s no excuse for the government’s “reckless” money management, noting more spending means increased debt to an already staggering pile.
When asked what the deficit of $819 million and the actual figure of $1.2 billion effective Q3 numbers, Gage Haubrich, Prairie Director with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, noted, “both of those numbers are frankly ridiculous.”
“A regular Saskatchewan family, when you get some unexpected expenses, you’ve got to cut back on other things that aren’t essentials,” he illustrated. “The government has decided to do the opposite of that and spend more. All that does is increase the debt burden on the taxpayers, and we saw that $1 billion in debt interest payments number. It increases that as well, makes more money wasted every year. That’s where the government needs to actually find a way to cut spending and find savings, not simply grow the budget every single year.”
When asked during a scrum in the rotunda of the Legislative Building moments after Reiter tabled the budget, Haubrich was asked if there were any positives in Protecting Saskatchewan.
“Well, there’s no tax hikes, which I guess is always an okay thing for taxpayers,” he said with a chuckle. “But of course, the problem is that there’s also no tax relief. People are having trouble affording the basics as always, but there’s no new tax relief in the budget either.”
Grasslands News also asked Haubrich about his take on the government comparing the proposed deficit wo that of other provinces posting projections far deeper in the hole.
“I think it’s a case of where the province should be trying to be good at budgeting, not simply better than everyone else who’s worse,” he said. “You don’t want to compare yourself to people who are failing the class, you want to compare yourself to someone who’s doing well.”
The CTF are famous for roaming about the country in a big cube truck with a running ticker Debt Clock featured on the side. While it has made stops in Saskatchewan before, Haubrich anticipates a queue this year.
“Across the country, all my colleagues are dealing with similar amounts of huge debt increases from their government, so we might have a fight to see who gets to take the Debt Clock around and show taxpayers how much their governments are wasting,” he said. “But we’ll always try to bring it out – especially to the Leg!”
Towns and cities have their say
Another person we caught up with taking in all the promises on Budget Day was Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association President Randy Goulden. She gave the budget mixed reviews in her brief assessment.
“This is the 19th budget of this current government, and we’re pleased to see the increase in revenue sharing to $392 million,” she said. “And we’re pleased to see some of the additional funds going to SAMA, where our municipalities receive the assessment for our property taxes, and also where the provincial government receives their education portion of the property taxes.”
However, it’s what was missing that piqued Goulden’s interest.
“What we’re concerned about are some of the things we have not seen,” she said. “We know that our urban municipalities are currently very stressed in their budgets. We’ve heard it across the province, whether the municipalities are large or small, that they just can’t keep up with the current costs.”
Even with the increase to Municipal Revenue Sharing, Goulden feels it’s simply not enough to take some of the pressure off town some urban municipalities. Unlike the provincial or federal levels, municipalities in Saskatchewan can’t run deficit budgets by legislation; limiting options on how to come up with the cash.
“We either can increase the taxes – which is a direct indication of affordability – or we can increase fees, or we cut,” she explained. “Unfortunately, those are some of the options that we have. None of them good.”
With the annual SUMA convention mid-April, resolutions related to provincial money is likely.
“You can look forward to resolutions that are going to speak to the priorities that we’re seeing,” Goulden said, adding she looks forward to working with the premier and cabinet ministers.
Much was said about making the Yorkton Hospital an infrastructure priority in the budget, with several publicity events at the facility by politicians in recent weeks. Switching hats to her Yorkton City Councillor role, Goulden stressed the need for upgrades to the health centre.
“Our residents are looking for reliable sources of healthcare, and we know that our healthcare centre is in dire needs of upgrades,” she said. “It makes me concerned because we know that we need those adequate services. Whether you’re going in to deliver a baby and the Yorkton Health Centre delivers babies in the whole region, and some of the concerns that I’m hearing on our maternity part of our hospital, to our emergency, to some of the other services that are needed for all our citizens.”
Rural views
As for the perspective from those outside cities and towns, this was a budget “that’s acceptable in the times,” according to Bill Huber, President of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
“We’ve got a lot of challenges around the world,” he told Grasslands News, adding his gratitude for support of funding to the Rural Integrated Roads for Growth program that sees over $46 million devoted to improving roadways in the coming year. “We’ve got an extra $2 million there – which is up – and it continues to go up a little bit every year.”
Another positive point in Huber’s eyes is recently announced (at the recent SARM convention, no less) changes to the Communities in Transition program – part of which allows for any municipality to apply instead of just RMs.
“It’s certainly a step in the right direction, and it’s something that’s long overdue because there’s a lot of villages and small towns in this province that are struggling financially,” he said. “Population decreases, not enough people there to maintain the tax base, and somebody has to make sure those rate payers – whether they’re large communities or small – have the services that they need to continue living in rural Saskatchewan.”
Overall, Huber is confident that many provincial programs are working well, although there is room for needed tweaks.
“We’re always asking for a few changes to things like some of our business risk management programs,” he said. “I think they need a tweaking, especially the agri-stability part of it, where we can talk with government and crop insurance officials to see if we can get some change there. But we’ve got to remember, some of those programs are funded by the federal government 60 per cent, and there’s seven provinces enrolled in crop insurance programs, and they have to have the majority of the support from some of those other provinces, too, to move forward with changes.”
One point Huber was especially pleased to see was the decrease in the contributions municipalities are responsible for, down from 20 to 10 per cent.
“That’s huge with what a cost of a hospital is,” he said, adding it could mean saving up to $200 million.
With all the construction and renovation commitments, Huber was positive about what he heard.
“Overall, it wasn’t a bad budget,” Huber said. “It’s a budget that we can live with and work with. We have an abundance of natural resources here – oil and gas and potash and the things that we need so much here and around the world. All we need is an infrastructure system to make sure we get it to market in a timely manner.”
Largest health budget
Accounting for $8.5 billion, this year is the largest health budget ever. There’s $674 million for mental health and addictions, $636 million for infrastructure projects, $200 million for the Health Human Resources Action Plan, and $98 million to enhance care.
However, skeptics say the whole health plan is too much déjà vu for their liking, and the sky is falling.
“The system is collapsing around us,” said NDP Health critic Meara Conway. “We need a fundamental shift, and this budget ain’t it.”
Conway noted having visited the SHA website on Budget Day, discovering 100 unfilled nurse practitioner positions.
“Two dozen of those positions are from 2025,” she said. “They can announce as many positions as they want, but they appear to have no plan to fill them. And until they start engaging with frontline healthcare workers, the minister just basically acknowledged he didn’t do formal consultation on this Patient First plan.”
While Moe and Reiter are saying the Yorkton Hospital will move ahead, the NDP side don’t see it happening any time soon.
“They’re not going to build a $1.3 billion Yorkton hospital,” said Conway bluntly, saying it’s just not in the budget. “Go look at the capital spending health facility page. It’s simply not there. And if they suggest anything to the contrary, look at those line items, $100 million each year, thereabouts. They’ve given up on this promise of a Yorkton hospital. It’s really sad to see.”
Conway’s counterpart Rural and Remote Health critic Jared Clarke has been visiting the Yorkton facility in recent weeks and shared their deadline to build.
“We’ve made a commitment to have shovels in the ground within the first year of forming government in 2028,” he said. “The Yorkton Hospital is in the pre-design phase and no one can really tell us what that means.”
Clarke added that previously completed designs dating back more than a decade highlight what he called a lack of progress.
“We’ve seen actual completed designs way back from 2012,” he said. “So, we’ve gone from complete designs… to now going back into the pre-design phase 14 years later.”
SaskBuilds Minister Sean Wilson likened the plan from 2012 to using a computer of the same vintage in today’s world.
“Pre-design is to make sure you’re building the right hospital for the right area,” he explained. “There would be nothing worse than not having a pre-design and building the wrong hospital. Finishing off the pre-design phase this year and getting into design will be pretty exciting.”
Another brick in the wall
Schools were another hot topic of debate, with the SaskParty taking heat from the NDP over prioritizing the Shellbrook school in Moe’s home riding over others. Some people were also hoping to see more dollars devoted to maintenance.
“Across the province, most of the schools are older than I am – and I’ve got a lot of grey hair,” said Dr. Shawn Davidson, President of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association. “They’re fully aware that our expectation for preventative maintenance and renewal is one per cent of the insured asset value.”
Davidson noted with an insured asset value set around $15 billion, $65 million devoted to maintenance is “not anywhere close.”
“We were hoping they were going to move a little bit closer in this budget and they didn’t, so that’s disappointing for us,” he said.
According to the Budget, the province’s 27 school divisions will receive $2.5 billion in school operating funding – up 2.6 per cent ($62.2 million). As for infrastructure, some $123.8 million is earmarked for school capital projects
Transportation is another area Davidson anticipates costs rising for school boards.
“For the province as a whole, an increase in oil value has some benefits,” he acknowledged. “For school divisions, it means we have to pay more for fuel for buses, and it just means that has to be funded.”
Lately, the NDP have been vocal about seeing a high school built in communities just outside Regina.
“We’ve got White City and Emerald Park, the largest communities in this province that don’t have a high school,” said NDP Education critic Matt Love. “It’s over 5,000 people who live there. It’s the top request from that school division.”
He feels education in general is being let down.
“Right across Saskatchewan – both rural and urban – our students and teachers aren’t getting a fair shake,” Love said. “When it comes to how education funding is divided across this province, this government is letting everybody down.”
The government is allocating $3.6 billion in pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 education.
