Gage Haubrich
Canadian Taxpayers Federation
More money does not mean less problems.
If elected, Saskatchewan NDP leader Carla Beck has promised to axe the provincial 15 cent-per-litre gas tax for at least six-months. And she’s promised not to hike any provincial taxes over their hypothetical first term in government.
That’s great news for taxpayers. It would mean that less money will be taken out of our pockets and sent to Regina.
But the calculations become a lot more difficult when combined with the NDP’s plan to increase government spending and balance the budget within four years.
Now, the NDP hasn’t yet released its balanced budget plan, but at this point it looks like they’re going to have some tough math equations to solve.
And this isn’t out of the ordinary for politicians. They tend to promise a lot and then make excuses on why they can’t deliver on those promises once in office.
Take the Manitoba NDP who were elected in 2023. Its platform promised a $287-million deficit this year, not the almost $800 million deficit that it handed taxpayers. And of course, they blamed it on the outgoing government.
Saskatchewan’s current finance minister puts it well.
“You simply cannot cut taxes, increase spending and not borrow simultaneously,” said Finance Minister Donna Harpauer when asked about the NDP’s plan to cut the gas tax.
But the finance minister isn’t off the hook either. Since 2015, the provincial government has only balanced two out of its last 10 budgets. In that time, the government has increased the provincial debt by more than $14 billion and wasted almost $4.7 billion on interest charges to pay for the debt.
That’s a less than stellar fiscal performance, but it could be a lot worse.
For example, the NDP recently committed to spending $2 billion more on education over the next four years if elected. That works out to $500 million more per year spent on just education, not to mention their other spending promises.
That alone means that the current budget’s projected surpluses for the next three years would now be awash with red ink.
Premier Scott Moe and the current government also need to take some blame here. Harpauer said the reason the government didn’t balance the budget this year, despite promising to, is because other members of the legislature were pushing for large spending increases.
Saskatchewan needs a government that can actually balance the budget, not just come up with excuses for why it didn’t after the fact.
Current deficits mean future tax hikes and no-one knows that better than the Saskatchewan NDP.
After years of deficit spending in the 1980s, Saskatchewan had the highest debt levels in the country and was in danger of going bankrupt. Former premier Roy Romanow cut spending and hiked the gas tax, provincial sales tax and business taxes to deal with the situation.
All politicians are tempted to use taxpayers’ money to fix problems from education to health care, but that temptation ignores a key point.
The Saskatchewan government already spends more per capita than any other province in Western Canada.
Alberta is spending much less per person than Saskatchewan, but regularly beats or ties Saskatchewan in both health-care wait times and student performance.
Both the NDP and the current government need to come up with a solution that isn’t just throwing more money at the problem, because it’s clear that hasn’t been working.
Looking at it this way has two major benefits – taxpayers won’t be left with a huge bill because of government overspending and patients and students might get a solution that works instead of the status quo.
Both parties looking to govern Saskatchewan need a plan that actually helps taxpayers, not just a bigger cheque that will drive the provincial deficit and debt higher.
Gage Haubrich is the Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
