Saskatchewan finance minister reveals new ‘tight’ shoes in advance of budget day

Saskatchewan’s finance minister Kevin Doherty carried on with tradition, and revealed he’ll be wearing ‘tight’ tan dress shoes when he tables the provincial budget Wednesday afternoon.

“One could view it’s going to be a tight budget tomorrow.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "One could view it's going to be a tight budget tomorrow."

It’s an age-old tradition for finance ministers to show off their new shoes before the budget.

The shoes are often a metaphor for what the budget may look like, like a window into the sole.

Doherty said he opted for the tan shoes, instead of his classic black ones to represent ‘transformational change’ coming in the province.

“This is the beginning of a process, that our government is going to undertake to look at all aspects of government, on both the expenditure side and the revenue side,” Doherty explained.

Though the details of the budget are top secret until Wednesday, what has been revealed is that the province is up against a $1 billion resource revenue shortfall.

READ MORE : Saskatchewan facing 1B resource revenue shortfall says Wall

Still, Doherty maintains the budget will meet the needs of Saskatchewan residents.

“When you’re dealing with the revenue situation that we’re dealing with, through nobody’s fault, the price of oil, price of potash, volatility of the Canadian dollar, it affects our revenues that are available to the province,” Doherty said.

“We need to balance those measures, the expenditures we have to make to meet those needs, and with the revenues that are available to us and continue to invest in infrastructure,” Doherty said.

In contrast, the opposition NDP presented not new shoes, but a shoe-repair kit.

“We know that this budget, there’s going to be a lot of cuts,” Sproule said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We know that this budget, there's going to be a lot of cuts," Sproule said.

“There’s going to be slashes, there’s going to be all kinds of holes that he will need to fill,” Cathy Sproule, NDP opposition finance critic, said.

Sproule explained the devil is in the details, and they will be scrutinizing the budget very closely.

“I think we need to see what the proposal is and then would have to talk to people,” Sproule said.

“Find out from school boards and hospitals, regional authorities and all the folks impacted to find out if this is going to work for Saskatchewan people.”