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Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said Friday there is “not one overarching” reason for the increases.

“Each ministry would have their own rationale, depending on what the fee increase is,” she said.

NDP Finance critic Cathy Sproule said the province is increasing fees on “juice boxes, cottagers and pensioners, which seems to be an interesting choice.”

She called the move a “back door way of raising taxes.”

With the budget on the horizon, Harpauer and her colleagues are looking to shrink the province’s deficit. Earlier this month, Harpauer revealed in a third-quarter financial update that the 2017-18 deficit was on track to be $595 million, which is $101 million lower than what was expected in the budget.

“It is definitely one revenue resource that we have, so it is important in that,” she said, making clear again some of the increases are to ensure “at the very least, we’re not losing money on some of the initiatives that we have within government.”

Last year’s budget increased taxes in Saskatchewan by nearly $1 billion. Asked what she would say to ‘Joe Citizen’ who is already paying more in taxes and now seeing certain fees increase, the finance minister reiterated again some are related to cost recovery while others can be avoided paying all together.

“If you don’t break the law, you won’t be paying extra money,” she said.

Other changes include oil and gas submission penalties, cottage land lease fees, fees for pension plan returns and registrations, irrigation water operation and maintenance fees and permit fee increases through the Water Security Agency.

This isn’t an isolated decision by the government: In 2017-18, the province increased fees by $9.6 million. The three prior fiscal years combined saw fees and charges increased by a total of $3.3 million.

The changes will add about $17.7 million to the GRF in 2018-19, and about $784,000 in revenue to non-GRF agencies and funds (Water Security Agency, Commercial Revolving Fund, and Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority).