‘Balanced shoes, balanced budget’: black flats for Donna Harpauer’s budget shoes

Saskatchewan Finance Minister Donna Harpauer will be wearing a new pair of sensible, black flats to deliver her second budget, representing a promised balanced budget with a slight surplus.

The Saskatchewan budget will be tabled on Wednesday around 2:15 p.m. CST and is titled The Right Balance.

“Balanced shoe, balanced budget and it will go the mile, go the length here,” Harpauer said.

Harpauer added the shoes don’t pinch at all.

“They’re not pinching at all. We just tightened our little belts and we’re back in the black,” she said.

As of the 2018-19 mid-year fiscal update in November, Saskatchewan was expected to finish the fiscal year with a $348 million deficit. The three-year back-to-balance plan began with the 2017-18 austerity budget when the deficit exceeded one billion dollars.

Wednesday’s budget is the final year of the back-to-balance plan.

Opposition finance critic Trent Wotherspoon bucked tradition and instead of unveiling footwear brought out a level.

“We’re going to be going through the budget line by line, making sure the government is on the level with Saskatchewan people when they’re calling this budget a so-called balance,” Wotherspoon said.

“Because I can assure you it’s not a balanced budget if the Sask. Party piles on debt on our Crown corporations and things like P3s like they have year after year after year.”

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Wotherspoon added they will be keeping a close eye on health and education spending, plus PST on things like construction projects. The Sask. NDP has previously linked that PST to job losses in the sector.

Members of the construction industry have said the PST does affect projects, but there are additional factors, like the federal government’s mortgage stress test, reducing the demand for new home builds.

When deciding what shoes best represented the budget Harpauer said that a pair of bedazzled New Balance sneakers was pitched, but she shot that idea down because she does have to wear the shoes afterall.