On Monday, the Sask. Party released a fiscal update that showed, even with $400 million in surprise funding received through a national lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies, they still failed to balance the budget, reporting a deficit of $249 million. The funding from the settlement in future years will be much smaller, meaning the province is in worse fiscal shape than the government is reporting.
“The Sask. Party is failing to manage our finances and failing the people of this province on every front,” said Trent Wotherspoon, Saskatchewan NDP Finance Shadow Minister. “A billion dollars in additional spending and nothing to show for it — our healthcare is last in the country and families here report higher financial anxiety than anywhere else in Canada.
“In Saskatoon, we see a record number of drug overdose deaths and we’re facing a housing crisis in that city, here in Regina and right across much of Saskatchewan for that matter.
“Under Scott Moe our economic growth is among the lowest in the country and all the while this government has nearly doubled the debt while piling on an additional $16 billion.
“We need a government focused on building a bright future for Saskatchewan. Instead, we have the Sask. Party taking us backwards.”
Wotherspoon said clearly the Sask. Party’s budget isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. This year’s version was tabled on March 19; however, at the end of the fiscal year, just 12 days later, the government had missed its targets for revenue by $448 million and expenses by $505 million.
All of this comes, as the Sask. Party continues to pile taxes onto families already struggling to make ends meet — the Sask. Party collected $46 million more in personal income tax than last year, and $245 million more in provincial sales tax than last year.
“This government taxes food and children’s clothing and delivers nothing in return to Saskatchewan families,” Wotherspoon.
“We face so much uncertainty right now with threats of a Donald Trump-led trade war, a separatism movement that will undermine our economy and rising costs on every day goods.
“We need a government that recognizes these challenges and works to help the people of Saskatchewan through them, not a bunch of Sask. Party cronies working to pay off their friends and insiders.”
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