REGINA – Monday’s announcement that the province will be running a deficit is not sitting well with the opposition NDP, who are calling on a government recall to go over the province’s finances.
Opposition Leader Cam Broten accused the Saskatchewan Party government of violating The Growth and Financial Security Act, the province’s balanced budget legislation, by running deficits in this fiscal year and next year.
“We’re looking at all the legislation, and in our view it’s not a problem,” said Premier Brad Wall on Monday.
The legislation operates on a general revenue accounting principle, but the province doesn’t use that anymore. It now also uses a system that includes non-cash accounting entries.
“There have been accounting changes, but if you look at the remarks of the Sask Party finance minister in committee around this legislation the spirit absolutely talks about the need to be open and clear with Saskatchewan people with what the true state is and we don’t know,” said Broten.
The Saskatchewan Party says they will not recall the legislature ahead of the election.
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The legislation allows for deficits in “unforeseen extraordinary events,” such as the forest fires in northern Saskatchewan last year and low resource prices. Finance Minister Kevin Doherty said this has left about a $500 million hole in the province’s revenue.
“We’re still consolidating our numbers for Q3, for the third quarter of the financial year. I’ll be presenting those numbers at to the province of Saskatchewan towards the end of February. Shortly thereafter the premier’s going to call the election, and we’ll be into an election campaign,” he explained.
“We’re going to have an opportunity for the month of March, leading up to April 4th for the entire province to have a debate.”
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