Sask. forecasting $1.1B surplus in 2022-23, spending up due to affordability cheques
Sask. forecasting $1.1B surplus in 2022-23, spending up due to affordability cheques
Saskatchewan is forecasting a $1.1 billion surplus for 2022-23 in its mid-year financial report released on Tuesday.
That figure is up by $1.6 billion from the last provincial budget released in March, according to the province. The surplus was forecast at $1.04 billion in the government’s first quarter fiscal update, released in August.
Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said resources and a strong economy are the reason for the increase.
"Revenue is forecast to be up from budget, largely the result of high potash and oil prices, as well as higher taxation revenue which reflects solid economic growth,” Harpauer said in a release.
“Using higher-than-expected revenue to help people and businesses address higher costs due to inflation, while reducing the province's debt, is growth that works for everyone."
The province is currently forecasting revenue to be $19.5 billion, a 13.7 per cent increase ($2.4 billion) from the original prediction when the last provincial budget was released.
However, it also cautioned that potash prices have declined in the latter half of 2022, mainly due to supply from Russia and Belarus reaching the market.
According to the province, expenses are up $795 million from budget and $286.8 million since its first quarter report.
The province said most of that increase ($450 million) is due to the Saskatchewan Affordability Tax Credit, which will see around 900,000 $500 cheques mailed out to people over 18-years-of-age who filed their taxes in Saskatchewan last year.
Harpauer said at this time paying down the province’s deficit will be their priority now that affordability issues have been addressed to an extent.
“We felt strengthening the debt position that we are in was a better decision because it also helps us in future budgets.”
According to Harpauer, about 600,000 affordability cheques have been mailed out so far.
“Most of them will be in the next week to ten days, there will be some lag on those who were late filers,” she said.
Another $204.3 million in expenses is from expected increases in Saskatchewan Crop Insurance indemnities and AgraStability benefits that were paid out in 2021 and 2022.
A third quarter report will be released before the province announces its next budget in 2023.
The province has not seen a fortune this large since 2008-09, when it reported a surplus of $2.97 billion.
Saskatchewan NDP finance critic Trent Wotherspoon said while Saskatchewan people are facing the worst affordability crisis in over a generation, the province is seeing the opposite with very high revenues.
“That’s a positive thing, but the disconnect is that we have a government that is just simply not up to the test of rising to the challenge that Saskatchewan people are facing,” Wotherspoon said.
“They’re leaving people drowning. We up our call once again for the government to come to their senses here in this year where we’ve seen revenues that have been driven through the roof by an external and extraordinary and unforgettable situation by way of [Vladimir] Putin in Ukraine.”
Wotherspoon said the NDP would like to see the province cancel rate hikes for power and energy and do more heavy lifting.
“We’ve got a pile of new dollars and a government that is simply unwilling to provide the relief that Saskatchewan people need,” Wotherspoon said.
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Regina’s David Prisciak.
Beyonce stands alone on her Grammy throne: With her fourth win Sunday night, she has become the most decorated artist in the show's history surpassing the 26-year-old record once held by the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti.
Groups that advocate for seafarers are expressing concern for 11 sailors who are spending a harsh Quebec winter aboard three tugboats that have been detained for months in the port of Trois-Rivières.
She started throwing punches to get exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic, but now 17-year-old Talia Birch is gearing up to compete in the Canada Games as it opens up to female boxers for the first time
Charles Kimbrough, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor who played a straight-laced news anchor opposite Candice Bergen on “Murphy Brown,” died Jan. 11 in Culver City, California. He was 86.
Canadian researchers are drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of 'a pathological pursuit of muscularity' among Canadian boys and young men, with a new study that found one in four were at risk of developing what's known as muscle dysmorphia.
A Montreal woman is passing along her father's extensive collection of over 31,000 Expos baseball cards. April Whitzman's father, Steve Whitzman, collected the cards from 1969 to 2016. A huge Expos fan, he's got every player covered.
Singer-songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. became a first-time Grammy Award winner at the pre-broadcast ceremony where fellow Canadians Michael Buble and Drake also picked up trophies.
Canada has sent one of its military planes to Haiti to help the country cope with escalating violence. A joint statement today from National Defence Minister Anita Anand and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says Canada has deployed a CP-140 Aurora aircraft to help 'disrupt the activities of gangs' in Haiti.
Jayson Reddekopp has been a Lego collector since he was a kid. Now in his second year of university, he’s bringing his passion to life using just his Lego pieces and an iPhone.
Toronto police have identified the victim of a fatal hit-and-run on the Danforth early Sunday morning, which police say is now being treated as a homicide.
Councillors in Toronto are set to consider keeping warming centres open 24-7 for the rest of the winter amid growing calls for homelessness to be declared a public health crisis in the city.
The debate on elected officials pledging allegiance to King Charles III will shift to a small town south of Ottawa this week, as Prescott town council discusses a motion on whether to abolish the requirement for newly elected members.
Tucked away on a residential street in Langley, there's a blue cabinet filled with VHS tapes and DVDs bearing the once-familiar logo of Blockbuster video.
The City of Vancouver will be providing $2.8 million in funding to the local health authority to bolster the city’s mental health services, officials announced Sunday.
Montreal conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin scored two Grammys for his classical works Sunday evening. Nézet-Séguin won best opera recording for "Blanchard: Fire Shut Up In My Bones," and best classical solo vocal album for "Voice Of Nature - The Anthropocene."
Groups that advocate for seafarers are expressing concern for 11 sailors who are spending a harsh Quebec winter aboard three tugboats that have been detained for months in the port of Trois-Rivières.
The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) will announce its candidate for the Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne riding Monday morning, almost three months after former party leader Dominique Anglade announced her resignation.
A Victoria nurse has been suspended for five months for failing to adequately assess a patient and then falsifying a medical record regarding the assessment.
When he was 18, John Westhaver was the sole survivor of a crash the killed three friends and left him with life-threatening burns. His journey since then has taken him from anger to love.
After one of the coldest days in years for most of the Maritimes, temperatures were up significantly Sunday. Now, after the big chill came the big thaw -- and a flood of calls for local plumbers.
Cold weather alerts that blanketed eastern Canada for the past two days have largely lifted, but some Nova Scotians and New Brunswickers remain without power due to outages caused by the frigid temperatures and high winds.
New Brunswick RCMP has requested the Nova Scotia Serious Incident Response Team (SiRT) conduct an inquiry after a man died during a police response Saturday.
Greater Sudbury Police Service say it has charged a man and a woman with multiple offences following the investigation into an online ad selling a cellular phone.
Canadian researchers are drawing attention to the increasing prevalence of 'a pathological pursuit of muscularity' among Canadian boys and young men, with a new study that found one in four were at risk of developing what's known as muscle dysmorphia.
A teen is in hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries following an incident in the Greater Sudbury community of Coniston Saturday evening.
An armed robbery at Conestoga Mall, a hearing on a 2018 Kitchener house explosion, and a school cancelling Valentine's Day round out the most ready stories of the week.
