The Saskatchewan government brought down its plan for the upcoming session with the presentation of its Throne Speech.
To say the speech lacked pizazz would be an understatement, although that should not have come as too great a surprise.
The Brad Wall led Saskatchewan Party saw its budget numbers tank well into the red in 2015-16, which left the party scrambling to right its financial ship.
The result was an austere budget for 2017-18 earlier this year, one which off-loaded a lot of the hurt to municipalities and other entities.
The combination of provincial belt-tightening, and reductions in finances to other entities such as regional parks, libraries, and municipalities meant many taxpayers ended up paying significantly more in taxes and fees.
It also did not lead to a balanced budget, but the Wall government has stated a plan to get back to a balanced ledger sooner than later.
That means programming changes, the kind which generally make a big splash in the Throne Speech, are financially not feasible.
In fact, it is highly likely when the budget comes down in spring 2018 it is another austere document.
So instead we see a Throne Speech including a rehash of some already announced efforts including to “continue reducing health care administration costs through the consolidation of the province’s 12 regional health authorities into a single Saskatchewan Health Authority.”
This will at least be interesting to watch long term as the province has set a course it expects will reduce costs and streamline services. It is a huge double expectation on behalf of the government and is paramount to its long term finances.
Perhaps most notable is a decision to repeal the provisions of Bill 40 that allow for the sale of a partial equity position in a Crown Corporation. This is a decision the government is wrapping up in the guise of listening to the public, but is just as much an admittance the sell off of Crowns would have been politically unwise.
Much of the rest of the Speech was about tinkering which will in a number of cases be positive, but not exactly major in terms of policy. They include the government laying out that it will work with municipalities to allow ride sharing-services like Uber and Lyft to operate in Saskatchewan, and a decision to amend The Privacy Act to allow greater protection against the unauthorized electronic distribution of intimate images.
The steps here are small, but given the budget situation it is all we could expect.
