Saskatchewan people were smiling last week. Finance minister Janice MacKinnon brought down her new budget and there was something in it for everyone.
Billed as a good-news budget, it left the opposition parties in the awkward position of having to criticize what wasn’t there rather than what was. MacKinnon said it was a budget that gave something back to Saskatchewan and that the government was able to do it was because of the Saskatchewan people’s “determination, hard work, sacrifice and discipline.” With “sound management of the public purse” thrown in, of course.
Read Also
Rural emergency room closures continue to be vexing problem
Staffing issues are at the root of disruptions and closures in hospital emergency departments, both in rural and urban Canadian locations.
There is no doubt that Saskatchewan has been a leader in fiscal management. The government made decisions, particularly around health care, for which people will be unhappy for years to come. Education has suffered, roads have suffered, rural Saskatchewan has suffered.
The main criticism of this budget is that it does not do enough to restore what has been lost. Thirty million dollars to roads, for instance, or $51 million to health districts (actually $11 million; the minister did some fudging here, as the $51 million includes money previously given to districts); $22 million in education operating grants.
Even the reduction in the sales tax from nine to seven percent after the first shouts of joy is being put down. Five percent would have been better. No sales tax better yet.
To quote my daughter, the critics should “get a life.”
We can never restore what has been lost. No, the budget isn’t perfect.
Yes, more would have been nice.
A five percent sales tax is better than nine or seven percent any day.
But, after the last few years, isn’t it nice to be getting something back?
The road money may not be enough, the health district money may just cover EMT salary increases and the education grant money teacher salary increases, but surely something is better than nothing.
Agriculture doesn’t benefit directly in the budget, but it will indirectly through road expenditures and through the sales tax reduction, particularly on big-ticket items like machinery and fertilizer.
As a consumer and a businessperson I appreciate the budget, particularly the drop in the provincial sales tax.
I have only two questions:
Given that our province is largely resource-driven, is the budget sustainable? What will they do for an encore?
