REGINA -- The province is just over one week away from the unveiling of next year’s budget, but the Government of Saskatchewan will not be heading back to the drawing board amid plunging oil prices.

Speaking to reporters at the Saskatchewan Legislative Building Monday, Premier Scott Moe said the province is in a good position to deal with a short term drop in natural resource prices.

“We are in a position of stability when it comes to working our way through the economic fallout of the coronavirus,” said Moe.

Previously the provincial budget has relied heavily on natural resource revenues, accounting for as much as 32 per cent of provincial revenues. Moe says now only 11 per cent of the province’s revenues rely on those resources.

“We have been transitioning away from that, to ensure that we have a stable budget where we aren’t hiring nurses, hiring physicians, hiring educators across this province or firing them, based on the price of oil,” said Moe.

Opposition leader Ryan Meili is looking for more of a reaction from the government as the province approaches the release of next year’s finances.

“Everything has changed, and we already had serious concerns that we weren’t going to see a very honest or valid budget,” said Meili. “[The government] knew that there were economic troubles on the horizon, not of this magnitude, but they were already trying to cover that up.”

But the government is remaining optimistic that these market setbacks are only temporary.

“The fact of the matter is, we are now sitting in week 49 of a 52 week year here when we are experiencing these drops. They are drops that are not even yet affecting next year’s budget,” said Moe.

“You can’t kneejerk react with each and every price change of course,” said Donna Harpauer, the Minister of Finance.

Harpauer added the government will only look to make changes to the budget down the road, if the economic issues affecting the province become a long and sustained problem.

“Should this continue for a few months is when it will actually affect the budget prices, because the projections that we have, have to be averaged over the entire 12 months. So the time to adjust, quite frankly will be Q1.”

Saskatchewan’s budget will be released on March 18.