Finance minister picks re-soled shoes to deliver budget

Saskatchewan’s Finance Minister Kevin Doherty will be wearing an old pair of re-soled shoes when he reveals the budget Wednesday.

Tradition dictates the shoes worn by the finance minister symbolizes the theme of the budget, the title of which he revealed to be “Meeting the Challenges.”

“I took a pair of shoes that I already owned and I had them re-soled. These shoes are perfectly good to use, they just needed some tweaking, some adjustment, not unlike our economy,” Doherty stated at the legislature Tuesday.

Doherty revealed he also made a personal donation to the North Central Family Centre so kids there could receive new pairs of shoes.

Much like the premier earlier in the week, Doherty hinted again that changes would be coming to the PST and other consumption taxes.

“We need to ensure that our program funding is sustainable over the long term, so we have to change course and make a bit of a shift to where we derive our revenues from.”

The government lost $1 billion in non-renewable resources revenues in the last three years and, with programs still to fund and pay for, it lead to a deficit of $1.2 billion.

Which is why the NDP is offering an alternative pair of shoes for the finance minister.

“We thought we would be, you know, helpful and maybe provide him with these hip waders, because we know right now he is deep in red ink,” finance critic Cathy Sproule said.

“He’s got a lot of work ahead of him but we know how deep he is in this deficit so we are being helpful.”

The budget will be revealed around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday.