Premier Wall foreshadows cuts in upcoming Sask. budget

Watch above: Despite the drop in oil prices, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is predicting a balanced budget when it’s delivered in the legislature next week. But, as Wendy Winiewski tells us, it won’t come without a price.

SASKATOON – When it comes to the provincial budget, “everything is on the table,” said Premier Brad Wall. He made the statement during a speech to a crowd of 2,000 delegates at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention in Saskatoon on Wednesday.

A plunge in oil to less than $50 a barrel has an estimated impact of $700 million on the provincial budget yet Wall maintains when the budget comes down on March 18, it will be balanced.

READ MORE: Province to rely on potash, agriculture during low oil prices: premier

Speaking to the crowd of rural municipal leaders from across the province, Wall foreshadowed cuts to make it happen. On the table is resource revenue sharing.

“The principle of revenue sharing was that as the province’s revenue grows so should revenue sharing grants to municipalities” said Wall. “But since we’ve implemented it, the province’s revenues have grown by 20 per cent and revenue sharing has grown by 100 per cent so it’s just one of the things on the table” he said, calling it a last resort.

READ MORE: Changes to revenue sharing ‘last resort’ for Premier Wall

In 2013-14, resource revenue sharing resulted in $260 million in provincial financial support for municipalities; nearly 30 per cent went to rural areas.

According to SARM President Ray Orb, local governments have come to rely on that funding.

“We have some concerns” he said. Yet, Orb remained hopeful.

“I’m positive that the other sectors will help us enough that if there are some provincial cutbacks, they wouldn’t be very drastic.”

Orb mentioned the continued strength of agriculture and the recent announcement by Mosaic that it would be investing an additional $1.7 billion in the province to expand its K3 potash mine near Esterhazy, Sask.

READ MORE: Mosaic investment shows Saskatchewan’s economic strength

Also at stake to balance the budget is a possible adjustment to the education property tax. In 2007, SARM successfully argued the funding structure to cover education costs relied disproportionately on farm land.

“That’s something SARM lobbied the province long and hard for that change,” said Orb. “I honestly don’t think they’re going back,” he added hopefully.

Yet Wall warns it, too, is on the table. The province’s goal was to have property tax cover just 40 per cent of education costs and the remaining 60 per cent coming from the provincial government.

Wall says they’ve exceeded that and the province is covering about 66 per cent.

“We have a very difficult budget,” Wall said. “We’re looking at just moving it back to that 40-60 per cent goal we had,” effectively placing more of the burden on property taxes.

The NDP’s deputy leader Trent Wotherspoon feels the government has racked up debt, and failed to invest in things like infrastructure during what he calls a decade-long hot resource economy.

Wotherspoon also criticized Wall for the speech given at the SARM convention, one week before the provincial budget is tabled.

“The budget has been decided,” said Wotherspoon. “For the Premier to be out playing political games and to be pretending that everything is on the table when certainly, it won’t be anymore, and fear mongering, is wrong.”