REGINA — Opposition NDP Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon said he was not surprised to learn the province’s first quarter update posted a $349 million deficit.
“Who could have guessed it?” said Wotherspoon at the Legislature shortly after Finance Minister Jim Reiter released his first quarter update in Saskatoon.
“The Sask Party’s budget that they brought forward was completely nonsense. We stood out here just a few months back when it was brought forward, we put it through a shredder where it belonged, we had the Premier lay claim and boast and pretend that it was accurate. We see what the results are here today.”
He accused the Sask Party of continuing “to mismanage our province's public finances, now projecting a deficit of $349 million dollars with so very little to show for it.”
Wotherspoon also pointed to a number on page four of the update, showing the province collected $466.9 million from the OBPS, up $35.4 million.
“A massive deficit, even as the Sask Party continues to collect their industrial carbon tax after they promised to scrap it. Saying one thing, doing another.”
He said the debt is set to “increase by $430 million dollars more than they had suggested with their bogus budget on budget day. Now climbing to $38.7 billion dollars, and the cost to service that debt or to pay the interest on that record debt is well over a billion dollars and climbing fast.
“It’s the cost of mismanagement. It’s piled up year after year.”
Wotherspoon also said mismanagement “extends to our Crown corporations.” He predicted ratepayers will be “stuck with bill hikes as they look to their power bill or auto and general insurance with three major Crowns (in) serious financial trouble, (a) deficit of $300 million dollars combined.”
“The fact is the Sask Party government doesn't have a stitch of credibility when it comes to our public finances. The government tabled a bogus budget on budget day that was factually incorrect, not in line with reality in any shape or form. They were dishonest and now they're making Saskatchewan people pay the price. Of course the hard-working people of this province deserve so much better than this.”
Reiter fires back at NDP
When asked in Saskatoon whether the update proved the NDP right that a Sask Party budget could not be trusted, Reiter disagreed.
“No, I wouldn't say so,” said Reiter.
“Every budget they talk about cuts to health care and education. There haven't been cuts, but they say that all the time. ‘They're cutting, they're cutting things. They're cutting things.’ And just a few days ago, Trent Wotherspoon said ‘these guys are spending too much money.’
“Well, pick a lane, man. Is it too much — are you spending too much or not enough? To me, it destroys all their credibility on that."
Reiter called the deficit “a significant amount of money, but it's a small percentage overall. It's all there, very transparent. We're going to keep an eye on it. But again, overall, we've got the best credit rating in the country and there's a reason for it.”
Reiter also criticized the NDP over its use of a Fraser Institute study, which found the Sask Party government had the highest spending of any provincial government in the last 60 years — a study the NDP promoted at a recent news conference.
“I would just speak to the irony of the NDP criticizing spending too much after months and months and years of claiming that we've been cutting everything, and now they're having a hay day because some foundation said that we're spending too much,” Reiter said.
“It's kind of laughable to be honest with you. We're trying to spend on the services Saskatchewan people need. We're trying to keep taxes low to a minimum to provide those services and it's about finding that right balance.”
With files from Jon Perez
