Estevan Mercury
Regina – On Aug. 27, the Saskatchewan Party government released its first quarter fiscal update for the 2020 fiscal year, which revealed a $2.1 billion deficit, but one that was $296 million less than projected in the June 15 budget. In reaction the Official Opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) called on the Legislature to be convened to scrutinize the fiscal update.
This is the first update of a budget released since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
NDP Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon said the update is “grossly inadequate in any level of detail, no scrutiny at all provided to the assumptions that they've brought forward.”
Wotherspoon said the Saskatchewan Party government has in the past not been honest with Saskatchewan people about the finances of the province, and then broken its promises to “ram forward an agenda of deep cuts and selloffs and unfair tax hikes.”
Wotherspoon noted the update has some projections for coming years, “but with little detail, and no analysis behind that, and those numbers should always be included in the budget.”
As a result, those numbers were not debated or scrutinized in the assembly, he noted.
Wotherspoon called it “a situation where the Sask Party is telling a tale on the eve of an election, that they want Saskatchewan people to believe.”
He said the NDP was calling for the Legislature to be convened to scrutinize the multi-year numbers and the fiscal update.
He called legislation that would see fiscal forecasts and four-year planning cycles to be fully included in the budget process so the government couldn’t “just pick and choose when they're going to present them or not.”
The NDP would also legislate that fiscal reports be “verified and signed off by the provincial auditor before an election.”
Wotherspoon said the government’s plan “leaves us in recession” and “fails to step up to the needs of Saskatchewan people at this critical time in our classrooms, from mental health and addictions within our province, and so much more.”
He noted the update said 24,000 workers in Saskatchewan were expected to lose their jobs this year, a 50 per cent increase from the number stated in the budget.
“The numbers presented here today don't have any detail to substantiate what's been put forward, nor do we have any scrutiny to provide the answers in the detail that Saskatchewan people need.”
He said the government’s gross domestic product (GDP) numbers “are completely out of line with the average of private sector forecasters.”
Wotherspoon didn’t think it is time for austerity or cuts by the government. “The deep cuts that were brought forward by the Sask Party have devastated things like our classrooms. We have an economy that's in recession and people out of work. It certainly is not a time for more austerity and more cuts within Saskatchewan right now. It's a time for the government to step up and to do their part and to make the investments that make a difference in people's lives, in classrooms, and to create the jobs of course and the economic recovery that people need and deserve.”
The NDP would focus on a Saskatchewan-first procurement strategy, scrapping the PST on construction labour, and “firing up our construction industry right now.”
He pointed out EVRAZ, Regina’s steel mill, has hundreds of jobs at risk. News stories the day before reported EVRAZ had lost out on a TC Energy 48-inch pipeline project bid in Alberta, and its order book was running out. Wotherspoon expressed concern that a SaskEnergy project involving 24-inch pipe could see its pipe sourced out of Korea instead of EVRAZ.
Wotherspoon said Alberta Premier Jason Kenney should be pressured by Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to see that Canadian pipe is used on Canadian pipeline projects.
