The “erratic and unpredictable” threats of the rates of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, have made this year’s Saskatchewan budget difficult to project, according to the Minister of Finance, Jim Reiter.
“This budget is presented at a time of incredible uncertainty caused by the words and actions of the president of the United States on rates,” Reiter said as he got up in the provincial legislature on Wednesday to deliver his first budget as Minister of Finance.
Reiter’s budget emphasizes the issues we have frequently heard from Premier Scott MOE: Health, Education and Public Security.
It is projected that a thin surplus of $ 12.1 million means the 2025/26 budget, entitled “Delivery for you”, it is projected to balance. But it does not take into account the consequences of US or Chinese rates, including a 100 percent of the canola import rate that will begin on Thursday.
The Saskatchewan approach is a deviation from recent budgets in Alberta and BC, each with dedicated contingency funds of $ 4 billion.
Non -factorized tariff threat
While the United States remains the largest shopping partner of Saskatchewan, with approximately $ 27 billion in exports Crossing the border every year, Reiter said that the fluidity of the tariff situation made it impossible to develop the direct effects in this budget.
“We do not know if the rates will last three days, three months or three years, we do not know what rate these rates will be imposed over time,” says the budget.
Instead, the province is depositing a strong financial perspective and a “responsible” expense to resist the impacts of tariffs.
The province carried out an analysis of the potential effect of US tariffs, observing a “worst case” of the United States 10 percent of the United States on Canadian energy and 25 percent in all other Canadian exports.
He discovered that, under those rates, the value of Saskatchewan’s exports to the United States would fall by 30.4 percent or $ 8.2 billion, the revenues of the province would be reduced up to $ 1.4 billion and its real gross domestic product would be reduced by up to $ 4.9 billion.
As is the tradition, Saskatchewan finance minister Jim Reiter bought new shoes for the day of the provincial budget. When buying, he made sure to avoid American manufacturing footwear and China, a comment on the current trade war.
On Wednesday, MOE defended the decision not to include tariff contingencies.
“Why at the beginning of a budget only money loans, would you pay interest on that money and make it sit there in case you need it?” asked.
Moe said the decision will give the province the financial freedom to act as necessary.
Projected debt to increase $ 2.5 billion
On Wednesday, Reiter promoted previously announced reductions in the fees of the Province’s Property Tax Prosecutor in all property classes and approximately $ 250 million in fiscal savings, mainly through the modification of personal income tax exemptions.
It is projected that the province’s revenues will increase by $ 1.2 billion from last year to a total of $ 21.1 billion. That is mainly driven by the increase in corporate income tax, PST and Uranium royalties.
Meanwhile, the province is expected to spend $ 21 billion in this fiscal year, an increase of $ 909 million of last year’s budget.
The province of the province is expected to increase at $ 2.5 billion to $ 38.3 billion.
Moe described the budget as “delivering the priorities we had heard not only through the most recent campaign, until that campaign.”
The opposition’s NDP said the budget offers very little that the Government did not promise or described previously.
Among the new ads is a two percent increase for the said/sis program, which operates with an increase of $ 11 million.
The province will also begin to collect PST for vaping products. The measure is expected to generate less than $ 3 million a year, and it is promoted as a health initiative instead of an income generator.
Budget a ‘fiction work’: opposition
The NDP of the opposition criticized what he called a lack of planning of the provincial government.
“The Sask party budget does not focus on the future. It is not even based on the reality of the serious challenges that Saskatchewan faces today,” said Saskatchewan’s NDP leader Carla Beck.
Beck described the budget as a “fiction work” that pretends that the last three months of tariff threats did not happen.
The NDP finance critic, Trent Wotherspoon, said the budget “is not worth the document in which it is written” and that it is nonsense to trust the financial numbers of the province.
“They have a fiscal history that cannot be trusted,” he said.
The province has been based repeatedly on special orders, injections of funds carried out outside the regular budget process.
The government uses special orders to “address cost pressures and respond to emerging problems.” The province issued $ 923.1 million in special orders last month and $ 750 million in special orders in February 2024.
Address waiting times, primary care
The Ministry of Health will see its budget promoted by $ 485 million, for a total of $ 8.1 billion.
Reiter said that the province will use that money to connect all residents with a primary health care provider, while reducing surgical waiting times when performing 450,000 procedures for four years.
The Saskatchewan cancer agency will receive an increase of $ 30 million, while the Saskatchewan health authority will see its budget promoted by 5.6 percent for a total of $ 4.9 billion.
The expense occurs when the province has been increasingly criticized for long waiting lists in breasts and diagnostic images. Currently, the province is paying a private clinic in Calgary to perform mammograms and biopsies for patients with urgent cases who would otherwise be waiting for months in Saskatchewan.
The budget reiterates that urgent care centers are planned for Moose Jaw, Prince Albert and North Battleford. An installation that ends in Saskatoon will enter line this year, while a Regina installation opened in July 2024.
The idea is to help relieve pressure on overloaded emergency rooms of the province. Although the provincial government has said that the installation operates 24 hours a day, the urgent center of attention in Regina has not yet adopted those hours due to the endowment of limited personnel.
Reiter said the province Human Health Resources Action Plan It is intended to address that shortage.
He added that the planning has begun an additional urgent care center each in Regina and Saskatoon.
The budget does not provide funds for safe consumption sites, and the province continues to focus on treatment beds as a solution for the addiction crisis.
Limited increase in educational operating spending
The Ministry of Education will see impulse to its School Operating Budget ($ 186 million) and a school capital budget ($ 191 million), which raises the total financing of the Ministry to $ 2.4 billion.
The majority of the increase in the operational budget, $ 130 million, is derived from the salary obligations that the province agreed as part of the recently arbitrated collective agreement Between the province and its teachers.
Infant garden literacy for grade 3 is receiving an impulse of $ 2 million, while the remaining $ 54 million will be allocated to non -teachers, transport and 50 specialized support increases.
From the capital budget of $ 191 million, $ 28.5 million will be allocated to relocable classrooms. The remaining balance will be for the continuous financing of 21 new or consolidated schools, as well as:
- The replacement of the South Corman Park school.
- Previous planning for public and Catholic primary school of joint use in the northeast of Saskatoon.
- Prior planning for new public and Catholic primary schools in West Saskatoon.
- Ceiling and exterior repairs at the Canora Compound School.
- Renovation of Barr Col Col Col Col Col Col Col Col Colster.
- Raveo replacement at St. Olivier school in Radville.
Medical care, homeless people, housing: he told us what should be the expenditure priorities of the provincial government. The budget was launched on March 19, 2025.
Police surveillance, security and municipal funds
Saskatchewan’s Public Security and Public Surveillance is established at $ 798 million, with $ 119 million of ESO for the Saskatchewan Public Security Agency and $ 271 million for the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General.
Reiter said that the government is still committed to hiring 100 new municipal police officers. He also announced plans to open new courts of the statutes in Rosthern and Fort Qu’appelle to remove pressure from the rest of the judicial system.
As announced above, Saskatchewan is also increasing its participation in municipal income by $ 22 million to a total of $ 362 million.
It will also dedicate $ 9 million to start repair and renewal projects of several years for 285 units owned by the Saskatchewan housing corporation in Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Albert.
Regina units have been previously marked as a concern for the Provincial Auditor.
