Saskatchewan’s ’23-24 budget sees $1B surplus, health care top priority

The numbers in the new budget are looking pretty rosy for the Government of Saskatchewan, and one doesn’t have to be wearing glasses of the same colour to see why.

The province is expecting a $1-billion surplus for the 2023-24 fiscal year, buoyed by tax revenue and strong resource revenue once again.

“I’ve spoken to this a number of times and I’m still very firm on this: We have to be very careful as a government to not take one-time revenue and incorporate it and bake it into our year-over-year operational costs,” Finance Minister Donna Harpauer told reporters Wednesday.

The minister explained that, when volatile revenue goes down as it always does, then the government is left scrambling to pay for those operations.

“I have lived through the downturns on those revenues and if you’ve baked it into your operational costs, then the following year, where do you find that money to continue the program or the expenditure?” Harpauer said.

In the 2022-23 budget, the province was forecasting a deficit of $463 million, which was completely erased within a matter of months by skyrocketing resource prices — an effect of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

By the first quarter of that fiscal year, the province had done a complete 180 with a $1.51-billion change to expect a $1.04-billion surplus.

This year, the budget keeps the status quo when it comes to taxes and incentives. There are no new tax increases or expansions in the 2023-24 year, but there also aren’t any new tax reductions.

The province will be using the entirety of that $1-billion surplus to pay down debt. That will save $44 million in interest costs this year. The province also paid down debt last fiscal year, and it said between these two years, $117 million has been saved in interest payments.

“There is going to be pressures that, ‘Why didn’t you spend it all?’ and, ‘Why didn’t you spend more here as opposed to there?’ ” said Harpauer, noting the government opted to focus on the most vulnerable people and on health care.

“Every year you kind of pick priorities and work on those priorities and see what the next year brings and hopefully you can have another priority.”

Total revenue is forecast at $19.7 billion for 2023-24, up 14.7 per cent from last year. The province is forecasting oil at $79.50 a barrel, and potash at $369 a tonne.

Asked what could affect the province’s revenue, Harpauer said the obvious thing is crop failure. Others are the commodity prices and the cost of construction.

“We have committed a lot to capital spending and we’re finding with tenders that going out there, they’re coming in significantly higher than what was anticipated or what was the norm prior,” she said.

The total expenses for the coming year are expected to be $18.7 billion, up 5.9 per cent from last year.

Health

The focus in this budget is clearly health as the province tries to right a ship thrown severely askew by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In total, $7.1 billion is expected to be spent on health care. The ministry’s budget is $6.9 million, up 6.7 per cent over last year.

There’s an additional $98.8 million to fund the Health Human Resources Action Plan, the framework the province is using to find, hire and keep more health-care workers.

Another $55.5 million will be used to recruit 250 full-time positions, and to expand part-time positions, in rural and remote areas of the province; that’s $44.9 million more than last year. There will also be support for internationally educated health-care workers.

About $25.2 million from the Ministry of Advanced Education will expand training programs at the College of Medicine in Saskatoon for new academic and research positions, special residency, and family medicine. More than 550 seats will be added across 18 health training programs.

The 150-seat expansion in the nursing program will be continued with $10 million, and another $2.4 million will help train internationally educated health-care workers.

Government will also look to help with the licensing of internationally educated health-care workers who are already in Saskatchewan with $5.2 million from the Ministry of Immigration and Career Training.

“We’ve all heard those stories of someone who is a health-care professional and he’s driving an Uber, and so we need to do better in that area, which will help the immediate,” Harpauer said.

The province will also put $39 million into getting more long-term care beds, with $5.5 million to be used to hire 75 more continuing care assistants and finish the three-year commitment to hire 300 more CCAS for home and supports in long-term care.

Surgeries

The surgical wait list ballooned during the pandemic but the province is trying to hit warp speed to get it down again.

This budget adds another $42.5 million to perform 6,000 more surgeries and bring the total that will be done in 2023-24 to 103,000. It’s expected that will reduce the wait list to pre-pandemic levels — getting surgery within one year from being placed on the list — by March 2024, which is one year ahead of schedule. The government’s ultimate target is still to have all surgeries done within three months.

The province could be turning to private delivery of surgeries to get that many done. The details still have to be worked out but it could involve sending some patients to another province for their procedures.

Mental health and addictions

More than seven per cent of the Ministry of Health’s total budget will be spent on mental health and addictions programs and services, at $518 million.

There will be new funding for counselling and treatment services, and support for the second phase of the commitment made to add 150 treatment beds. The budget also provides funding for 50 newly established treatment spaces.

However, despite calls for years from that sector, there is no money in the budget to help fund safe consumption sites.

Saskatchewan set another record for drug overdose deaths in 2022, the third year in a row, and saw 103 suspected drug overdose deaths in the first two months of 2023.

Schools and classrooms

In the coming year the province is set to put $4 billion into education — pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 as well as post-secondary — a 6.2 per cent increase from last year.

Of that, $3.1 billion will go to schools, early learning and childcare and libraries. That’s an increase of $192.8 million, or 6.7 per cent, over the year before.

And $2 billion will go to the province’s 27 school divisions for school operating funds — a sizable increase of $49.4 million. The province will also pay $7 million to maintain the 200-plus full-time educational assistants hired since fall 2021.

The province said more than 189,000 students will be enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in the province, which is more than there has been in each of the past 20 years.

The budget provides $23 million to fund the new distance learning Crown corporation.

Early learning and child care will see a $382.4 million in spending, a $72.1-million increase from the year before. This includes the funding for licensed child care that’s been announced to hit the $10-a-day mark as of April 1.

The University of Regina, University of Saskatchewan, and their federated and affiliate colleges will get $432 million in operating and capital monies, part of a greater $697.4 million for post-secondary institutions.

Another $171.1 million will be laid out for Sask. Polytech, the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies and the DuMont Technical Institute. Saskatchewan’s regional colleges are expected to get $35.6 million.

The province is increasing its supports to post-secondary students by $24 million to $47 million in the coming budget — attributed to the growing use of student aid and the Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship.

Income support

The province is set to increase income supports in the coming year as part of the $1.7-billion Social Services budget.

Saskatchewan Income Support, or SIS, clients will see a $30-a-month increase each to the adult basic benefit, the shelter benefit, and the alternative heating benefit. The Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability (SAID) program will see a $30 increase per month in living income benefits for clients. Those represent increases of $14.3 million and $6.4 million, respectively.

Both have long been a sore spot for advocates who say the benefits aren’t enough for people to live on.

“The changes that we’re making for our income support programs I think is important right now,” Harpauer said. “We’re hearing that inflation is going to level out, but it’s still a pressure right now and we are well aware of that and very mindful of the pressures right now.”

The provincial government will also use another $3 million to finish its three-year commitment to increase the maximum seniors income plan benefit, increasing it by $30 a month to a maximum of $360.

Another $2.9 million will be used to increase the personal care home benefit by up to $400 per month and SAID clients under the age of 65 who live in personal care homes will get up to $684 more a month.

Public safety and justice

As was previously announced, the province is putting long-awaited funding into second-stage shelters, which help provide a transition for women and families fleeing domestic violence.

That will be part of the $27.5 million set to be spent in interpersonal violence supports and services.

The province will also use $876,000 over three years to expand counselling services for clients living in second-stage housing.

When it comes to policing, the province is expecting to spend $7 million to establish the Saskatchewan Marshals Service, though it won’t be fully operational until the second half of 2026.

Mining

The only tax break expansions in the 2023-24 budget are $4 million being committed to expand the target and mineral exploration incentive to include exploration drilling for all hardrock minerals and to increase the funding limit to support the development of those commodities.

The Saskatchewan government is also increasing the Saskatchewan Mineral Exploration Tax Credit from 10 per cent to 30 per cent in a bid to attract more mineral exploration.

Municipalities

The provincial government is bumping up municipal revenue-sharing by $35.3 million to $297.9 million.

The budget includes $503 million in direct support from the province to municipalities.

There’s also $249.1 million in targeted funding for First Nations and Métis people and organizations in the budget, a 6.8 per cent increase from the previous year.

Building

The provincial government is putting billions into capital projects in this budget.

There’s $337.6 million being set aside for capital projects in health care, including $98.6 million for the Prince Albert Victoria Hospital, $38 million for the Weyburn General Hospital replacement, $20 million for the La Ronge Long Term Care Home, and $10 million for specialized long-term care bed replacements.

There’s also $10 million earmarked in this budget for the urgent care centres in Regina and Saskatoon, $10 million for the new Grenfell long-term care home, and $2.6 million to plan for several other projects including Rosthern’s hospital, a Battleford and district care centre, and an integrated care centre facility in Esterhazy. Another $500,000 is set aside to continue the planning for the replacement of the Yorkton Regional Health Centre.

The province is expecting to spend $442.9 million in transportation capital, including improvements to more than 1,000 kilometres of highways.

Education is also getting a slew of capital money — $152.3 million.

Five new school capital projects are going to start being planned for $4.4 million, including a new K-12 school in Carlyle and new K-12 Francophone schools in Prince Albert and Saskatoon. There’s also money for renovations and expansion of Balgonie’s Greenall High School and renovations to Regina’s Campbell Collegiate.

About $115.7 million will be used for the ongoing planning and construction of 15 new schools and renovations of five existing schools.

There’s also money for the Sask. Polytech campus renewal, the University of Saskatchewan’s dental clinic renovations, and ongoing maintenance.

Courts and Corrections is getting $97.4 million for capital projects, including $75.4 million to continue the construction of the new Saskatoon remand centre.

The Crowns will continue to invest into their infrastructure to the tune of $2.1 billion — $1.2 billion for SaskPower, $341.2 million for SaskEnergy, and $412.7 million for SaskTel.