NDP finance critic tells Evan Bray the provincial budget is a failure

The Saskatchewan NDP’s finance critic told The Evan Bray Show that he can’t find anything for Saskatchewan people in the 2024-25 budget.

Trent Wotherspoon said he looked through the entire document and didn’t see anything to help residents with the cost of living.

“There’s nothing there,” Wotherspoon told Bray. “Angus Reid reported this week that six out of 10 people in Saskatchewan are struggling and finding it very difficult to put food on the table. That should shake every last member.”

The Saskatchewan government unveiled the budget Wednesday. The document didn’t include any new taxes or tax increases, but it did include a $273-million deficit.

Wotherspoon said the budget is a failure.

“When you look at the No. 1 issue facing people, the hardship that they’re facing around cost of living, this is real,” said Wotherspoon. “It’s not an academic exercise or political debate for them to look at the budget and to assess it on those terms.”

The NDP MLA said the government has mismanaged finances for a while now.

“Those costs when you deploy dollars in those ways that are wasteful, those add up,” said Wotherspoon. “Those are dollars you don’t get to use for priorities, like cost of living or health care or education.”

Wotherspoon noted the $35 billion of debt in Saskatchewan is the highest it has ever been.

“This premier has doubled the debt in Saskatchewan,” Wotherspoon said of Scott Moe. “(There’s) more debt than any premier in Saskatchewan’s history.”

The debt servicing costs went up $100 million this year, bringing it to a grand total of $900 million.

Wotherspoon said the proposed Saskatchewan Marshals Service has been a waste of money so far.

“They’ve now spent $14 million and don’t have a single pair of boots on the ground when they could’ve deployed dollars in a meaningful way on crime, front-line police forces across Saskatchewan, and the RCMP,” he said.