Sask. NDP blasts Moe government for $757 million in extra spending

The Opposition NDP says the people of Saskatchewan deserve answers about extra provincial spending just a month before the budget.

On Thursday, NDP Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon told reporters that the more than $750 million approved by the government through special warrants released this week was “unprecedented.”

“There are serious financial and ethical questions that this government is facing and there is no detail, no transparency and no excuse not to provide that,” Wotherspoon said.

According to the province, the $757,495,000 includes:

• $86.321 million for the Ministry of Agriculture;
• $8.968 million for the Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety;
• $94.5 million for the Ministry of Energy and Resources;
• $20.285 million for the Ministry of Environment;
• $17.688 million for the Ministry of Government Relations;
• $450.1 million for the Ministry of Health;
• $23.4 million for the Ministry of Highways;
• $1.664 million for the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General;
• $1.824 million for the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport;
• $5.0 million for the Saskatchewan Research Council;
• $8.995 million for the Ministry of SaskBuilds and Procurement; and
• $22.75 million for the Ministry of Social Services.

The government said the money to the Ministry of Health included $154.2 million for a new four-year contract with the Saskatchewan Medical Association, $132 million for programs including the Saskatoon and Regina Capacity Pressure Action Plans, and $73.6 million for medical and surgical supplies, largely due to inflation and an increase in surgical procedures.

There is $86 million more for crop insurance payments as summer drought had hampered producers.

The province also spent an additional $94 million for cleaning up abandoned uranium mines in the north, and $20 million for work involving an abandoned copper and gold mine near La Ronge.

The remaining extra dollars cover higher-than-budgeted winter maintenance for roads, pressures in youth care, gaming agreements with First Nations, staffing overtime in jails, community programs and research for small modular nuclear reactors.

“Special Warrants are used when no appropriation for the necessary expenditure exists within the current fiscal year,” the province said in an email.

“All Special Warrants are ultimately reviewed by the Legislature at the next available sitting, as Supplementary Estimates. Accounting practices set out by the Public Sector Accounting Board require expenditures to be accounted for in the fiscal year in which they occur.”

However, Wotherspoon said that most of the expenditures are things that should have already been planned for and that the provincial government should provide a financial report.

The government said it will release a third-quarter report on budget day, but Wotherspoon said it should be released as a standalone report for the sake of transparency and accountability.

Wotherspoon also said the NDP will release timely standalone third-quarter financial reports should it win office in the next provincial election.

When asked, Wotherspoon said he didn’t think the increased spending had anything to do with added inflationary pressures.

“What I think we see is a government that can’t manage the books, and if you look to the actual ways they’re spending our money, there’s just every reason why people no longer can trust this government with their finances,” Wotherspoon said.

“Look at the $100 million that they’re spending on contract nurses – a direct result of their failure to secure and retain nurses here in Saskatchewan. Or look at the money to the Sunrise Motel. Or look at the situation where they’re spending 10 times more to send women from Saskatchewan to Calgary for mammograms and they’re sending that money to a donor of the Sask. Party.”

Wotherspoon said it was a concern for the official Opposition that the government relied on special orders to reveal these expenditures because scrutinizing expenditures and ensuring value for money is a very important function of the Legislature.

“We have a government who is awful when it comes to managing our public finances and have found no end of ways to waste those hard-earned public dollars – tax dollars of Saskatchewan people,” he said.

“It’s about fighting for best value for Saskatchewan people and about transparency. At the end of the day, taxpayers deserve nothing less than honesty transparency, value for money and good management. They’re not getting any of that right now.”

Wotherspoon said requiring additional dollars is normal course of business, but the amount that the government is spending just a month before the budget is “extraordinary.”

The province forecast a deficit of more than $250 million in November.

— With files from The Canadian Press