Saskatchewan will spend an extra $150 million to improve roads and highways over the next three years, thanks to higher than expected oil and gas revenues.
The province announced a $370 million surplus last week, up from $9.4 million predicted when the budget was announced last March.
None of the new money is expected to go directly to farmers.
The surplus resulted mainly from a $418 million windfall from the oil and gas sector and a $62 million transfer payment from the federal government, which is already allocated to health and post-secondary education.
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The province used some of the money to cover overspending in sev-eral departments, and has put $33 million into a health transition fund for future use.
Finance minister Eric Cline said all Saskatchewan people benefit from increased road spending.
“The majority of this spending will go into rural Saskatchewan on thin membrane surface roads, on grain hauls,” said highways minister Maynard Sonntag.
But not everyone was pleased with how the surplus will be spent.
Richard Truscott, of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the government should have paid down debt.
Gary Shaddock, president of the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association, said the money should have gone into school capital projects.
The Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations said it should have been spent on the health system.
Opposition finance critic Ken Krawetz said it should have been used for more aggressive tax cuts.
Divvied up
The surplus money will go into the government’s fiscal stabilization fund, pushing the balance to $775 million.
Cline said $337 million of that fund is already committed and he expects to spend another $148 million in the spring budget, leaving about $290 million in the fund.
Cline said deciding not to spend any of the money directly on agriculture won’t hurt calls for federal farm aid.
Dividing $148 million by 34 million cultivated acres would result in a payment of about $4.50 per acre, he added.
“You could send it out so many dollars per acre, but you wouldn’t solve anybody’s problems.”
