Sask Party Deficit Math

By Erin Weir 
Progressive Economics Forum

October 15th, 2011

The Saskatchewan NDP is proposing to collect higher potash royalties and save a portion of the proceeds in a new Bright Futures Fund. The NDP has also expressed its willingness to negotiate with First Nations about the possibility of resource revenue sharing.

The right-wing Saskatchewan Party strangely claims that the NDP’s plan “would plunge the province back into 1980s-style budget deficits.” In the 1980s, the Progressive Conservative party (whose legislative caucus later formed the Sask Party) governed the province. The current Sask Party leader was a ministerial assistant to that deficit-running government.

Today’s Sask Party calculations count contributions to the Bright Futures Fund and revenue sharing with First Nations as expenditures without accounting for additional royalty revenues. The ridiculous premise is that an NDP government would try to save and share nonexistent revenue.

It appears that health minister Don McMorris may still be pushing the calculator buttons at Sask Party headquarters.