Although he's already begun the preliminary work on the 2015 budget, Finance Minister Ken Krawetz hasn't quite turned the page on 2014 just yet.
Krawetz was in Estevan Monday to speak at a luncheon organized by the Estevan Chamber of Commerce about the highlights of his budget, which was delivered on March 19.
The veteran politician from Invermay, who was a founding member of the Sask. Party, provided those in attendance with insight into the budget process and touched on some of the spending highlights.
Despite facing a $100 million decline in revenues, the government managed to keep its streak of balanced budgets intact and estimate a surplus of around $70 million, something he attributed to controlled spending by the government.
Krawetz said the process of creating the budget begins in the spring but it's in October when the ministers in the various departments begin making their submissions, which when added up, were $800 million over projected revenues.
"So now you have to make decisions because no minister brings bad ideas. Everyone has great ideas about what they should do in each of their ministries and now you have to do that analysis and say 'here's our pot of money and here's the ideas; how do we make the two work?'" Krawetz said.
One of the ideas put forward was a tax increase. Krawetz said they considered raising
education property taxes by one mill and also looked at hiking the fuel tax by two cents. Although the mill rate increase would have brought in $110 million in extra revenue and the fuel tax move would have added $70 million to their bottom line, they eventually decided against both.
Despite having to make major cuts to the various wish lists, Krawetz said the government is still spending $2.9 billion on infrastructure including $2 billion on the various Crown corporations.
"There is literally billions and billions of dollars that need to be reinvested," he said. "From 2013 to 2018, we are going to be spending on average (on Crowns) $1.7 billion. In fact, the $2 billion we are spending this year is going to be more than the average of the next five years but we have to do it; SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy all of those corporations are building and growing and meeting the challenge of making sure that we have sufficient infrastructure."
The remaining $887 million was spent throughout the other government ministries including $120 million into municipal infrastructure. He added the province is also moving forward with the Children's Hospital in Saskatoon and will be finishing up the new hospital in Moose Jaw. Work towards a new mental hospital and corrections centre in North Battleford is also progressing and a new hospital for Prince Albert is next in the pipeline.
There was also big spending in highways and infrastructure to the tune of $664 million. The big announcement for Estevan and area was the confirmation that the government will move forward with the twinning of Highway 39. Krawetz said that will be a big expense for the government moving forward. "That's a $300 million smack. It's not going to happen overnight but we have to get moving on it because we have to ensure we have other partners."
Krawetz added the province will also be spending $95 million on education infrastructure, which includes a handful of new schools. On the advanced education side, the highlights include $1 million for the Southeast Regional College in Weyburn and a new $18 million technology and trades centre in Yorkton, which will include $10 million in provincial spending. The health budget for capital projects was also $95 million, Krawetz noted.
In terms of overall spending, Krawetz said $8.2 billion alone will go to four "core" ministries - health, education, advanced education and social services.
Among the areas of note, Krawetz mentioned the government has set aside $19 million for projected enrollment increases in Saskatchewan schools, a figure he said points to the province's ongoing prosperity and population growth.
"School divisions have told us you can expect 2,140 more kids next fall than we currently have in the system," he said. "I'm hopeful that the minister of education comes to us at the end of September and says 'I need some supplementary funding because this $19 million isn't enough, we've got more kids than what we counted on' because that will mean growth for us."
Krawetz also touched on the fact the government moved to a summary budget after years of being criticized by the NDP opposition and provincial auditor for not providing taxpayers a clear look at spending and overall provincial debt.
"For so long people have said 'you are only doing the (general revenue fund) side and we can't see what the whole province is doing.' That was implemented in 2004 by the former government; up until 2004 that statement was correct there was no summary, it was only the chequebook side as I like to call it.
"There was a bit of discussion with the auditors over time who said that we have to make the chequebook side look like the summaries. When you have your chequebook and you are doing your monthly payments at the end of the month you don't put down negative $185,000 because you have a mortgage but that is what the auditor was wanting us to do. We were producing both but we were focusing on the GRF."
Krawetz said the change will require some education for the public at large and they will have to work on educating the province through avenues such as the media.
