Saskatchewan’s government is ending the last fiscal year deep in the red.
The province’s year-end public accounts show Saskatchewan is to post a $947-million deficit for the 2025-26 year.
It’s a major swing from the $12-million surplus the province had initially projected.
Finance Minister Jim Reiter says the deficit can be attributed to spending pressures, including higher-than-expected spending in areas like health care and correctional facilities.
“There’s always pressures on health and they were somewhat higher than anticipated, but obviously we are going to fund health care. So that was part of it. Corrections, part of that was over time in some of the cases with guards,” Reiter told Global News in an interview.
The books are showing improvements from the province’s third-quarter forecast released in March, which projected a $1.2-billion deficit.
These windfalls are also due to several factors, including an increase in oil revenues and improvements in the fiscal positions of the province’s crown corporations, said Reiter.
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“Everybody knows what’s going on with the price of oil, so that improved it by about $40-million, and some expenditures in agriculture were better than expected because of crop insurance,” he said.
While expenses were up by over $1 billion, the province reports that its revenues were also $70 million higher than budgeted.
The province says it saw a “notable increase” in spending when it came to protecting people and property during last year’s wildfire season, spending $405-million or 37 per cent more than budgeted.
Last week, Saskatchewan’s provincial auditor, Tara Clemett, noted the province needs to do a better job considering its wildfire response when planning.
“We always take her recommendations seriously,” said Reiter.
“We will take a look at it, but we have been budgeting the way the government’s budgeted in this front for many, many years.”
The province’s net debt has increased by $1.5 billion, but Reiter says Saskatchewan is in a “fortunate position” due to its strong credit rating.
“So certainly there are always challenges, but we’re in good shape moving forward.”
But any increase to the debt load should be concerning for taxpayers, said Gage Haubrich, Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“When the government spends on debt interest, that’s money that’s completely wasted. It can’t be used for hospitals, key infrastructure, or tax relief. And it’s simply happening because the government keeps spending more than it told taxpayers it would,” said Haubrich.
Haubrich says the government should focus on reducing spending and providing a financial document that realistically shows what it intends to spend on, such as wildfire protection.
Finance Minister Jim Reiter says he plans to work on reducing expenses while providing affordability relief.
With files from The Canadian Press
Health care workers haven’t had a raise in 4.5 years, but ya it’s our fault.