The Editor:
The recently-released first quarter financial update shows the province is running at least a $292 million deficit and is piling up more than $1.5 billion of new debt this year alone.
This is an alarming sign of the Sask. Party government's failure to properly manage our province's finances and its inability to deliver on what matters most to Saskatchewan families.
The Sask. Party government has had record revenues year after year, but they've spent every last penny, drained the rainy day fund, and added billions to our provincial debt — $5 billion of new debt since just 2011.
With all that spending, Saskatchewan families should have seen real improvements to our hospitals, care homes, schools and roads. But we haven't seen real improvements, because this government has wasted far too much money on misplaced priorities. Now, with a drop in commodity prices, the government is scrambling, because they just rode the resource wave and never bothered to put any money away in the rainy day fund or take the right steps to diversify our economy.
This government has wasted huge amounts of money on highly paid, out-of-country consultants, the costly P3 rent-a-school scheme, dangerous and faulty smart meters, and the premier's two travel scouts.
This government is failing to take the appropriate steps to diversify our economy. The Sask. Party government killed our province's film industry, slashed supports for entrepreneurs, and continues to use its flawed procurement system which means Saskatchewan businesses keep losing out while government and Crown contracts are handed to out-of-province and out-of-country companies.
We need a government that is focused on delivering real improvements to our hospitals, care homes, schools and roads, that does so in a fiscally responsible manner, and that also invests in diversifying and strengthening our economy for the long-term.
Trent Wotherspoon
NDP deputy leader and finance critic
