Reaction to the 2014 provincial budget presented Wednesday by Finance Minister Ken Krawetz is swiftly pouring in.
Not surprisingly the opposition NDP were not pleased with what they heard from the Saskatchewan Party government.
Opposition finance critic Trent Wotherspoon said in the legislature that the NDP had outlined seven priorities that should be addressed by the budget, of which only one - no increase to the Education Property Tax - was met.
The others, which included an end to consultant contracts, funding for quality of care and minimum staffing in seniors' care homes, rerouting of standardized testing money into teaching, a multiyear plan to reduce class sizes, coming up with a cost-effective plan to build schools instead of P3s and action to address the high cost of living and increased out-of-pocket expenses for Saskatchewan families for fewer government services, were not addressed, the NDP contends.
"Those priorities, the priorities of families, of seniors, of students, those priorities were ignored by that government in this year's budget," Wotherspoon told the legislature.
"Shockingly despite the NDP's list of seven priorities, and those being a common sense, meat-and-potatoes, must-have list, the government managed to tick off just one of those seven boxes because, Mr. Speaker, this budget is a budget that is full of cuts and crumbs for Saskatchewan people. The message this budget sends to everyday families is, brace yourselves. The things you count on that really need improvement are likely to get even worse with this sort of budget."
Somewhat happier with the budget, however, was the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce. Their CEO Steve McLellan said in a news release Wednesday the budget "managed expectations across the board."
He called it a "good budget, that was balanced on many levels," but did express frustration over the government's "lack of action on the promised two per cent reduction in the corporate income tax rate." And while he welcomed the decision not to hike the Education Property Tax, he did note "an opportunity was missed to make real structural changes like differentials between business and residential tax rates and assessment cycles, which still fundamentally need to be made."
In their reaction to the budget, City of North Battleford officials made clear top priorities included infrastructure and road projects, as well as funding for crime-reduction and safer-communities initiatives they want to move forward with.
On the latter issue, Mayor Ian Hamilton was hopeful about news in the budget that additional "centres of responsibility" would be created to address those issues.
"I am encouraged by the announcement of two additional CORs in Saskatchewan and we expect to be chosen as one of the locations," said Hamilton in a statement.
"We have conducted recent presentations to the provincial government regarding the need for co-ordination of all services and assets available to those in need, and provincial officials seemed receptive. We'll have to wait to find out."
But in the news release issued Wednesday, Hamilton stated concern about a lack of specifics with the Urban Connector Program, with the City noting only $5.2 million is allocated out of the entire $405.2 million for transportation and infrastructure in Saskatchewan.
"For three years, the City of North Battleford has been waiting on funding for several agreed upon projects under this program and I am disappointed that we still have not heard anything on budget day."
