‘Tremendous position of strength’: Moe defends spring budget

Premier Scott Moe started off Wednesday by touting his government’s choices in the spring budget.

“Although (tariff) challenges are in no way diminished, as they are the most significant economic challenges that we have faced for some period of time, we are not walking away from the commitments that we made to Saskatchewan people,” said Moe.

He explained his government included funding for its commitments made in the fall election in the budget, as well as commitments made in the Speech from the Throne, because he said it’s what his party heard were the priorities of the people in the province – education, health care, community safety and affordability.

Moe also gave more reasons on top of the finance minister’s, as to why no contingency fund was included in the budget numbers.

“Why would you, at the outset of a budget, just (borrow) money, pay interest on that money and have it sitting there in case you need it,” said Moe.

He also asked what amount it should have been.

“We’ve seen varying amounts across the nation, which tells you nobody quite knows what the impact of the tariffs might be, and we don’t even know what that might look like even in the near term – you don’t know how long they’ll be, what rate they’ll be at and whether or not they’ll even be implemented,” he said.

Moe wasn’t saying there wouldn’t have to be investments and supports if the tariff situation were prolonged, but he said that would be something the province would work out with the federal government.

He said supporting these at-risk industries should be done in more innovative ways, pointing to an announcement made the day before the budget about SaskPower and SaskEnergy choosing to source products from Evraz Steel in Regina, which has been affected by the U.S. steel and aluminum tariff.

The budget was presented as balanced, with a $12 million surplus, which Moe said would be a good thing for the tariff uncertainty ahead.

“This puts our province in, I think, a tremendous position of strength, relative to any other province across Canada today,” said Moe, remarking that he hadn’t seen any other provinces with balanced budgets so far.

When asked how reliable that number could be, without tariffs taken into account, Moe said there’s variability and risk in every provincial budget – this year there’s just additional risk.