Sask Hits Record Debt in 2018

Saskatchewan is expected to hit a record level of debt in 2018, an analysis of the Saskatchewan government’s own budget documents shows.

Since 2007, Saskatchewan’s Provincial debt has steadily increased. With record government spending, and high deficit carried through Saskatchewan’s boom years, by the end of 2018 – 2019, the Sask Party government will have added over ten billion dollars to the Provincial debt.

New debt in 2018 is expected to bring the total provincial debt over twenty billion dollars in the fiscal year – a historic record high in Saskatchewan.

Government debt has doubled since Brad Wall’s Sask Party took power from the New Democratic Party in 2007. In 2007 – 2008, the total Provincial debt was just over ten billion dollars, with the NDP government under Finance Minister Pat Atkinson paying down 1.2 billion in debt between 2004 and 2007.

The loans taken by the Provincial government will cost taxpayers over six-hundred million dollars this year in interest and debt charges – a number that has increased due to the Province’s credit rating weakening under Brad Wall. Major government projects like the Global Transportation Hub/Regina Bypass, the LEAN program, and the failed Carbon Capture Sequestration (CCS) experiment have added billions in new debt.

The Province’s deficit is expected to increase significantly over the next five years under Premier Scott Moe as the government begins paying out P3 contracts to private sector contract owners on Saskatchewan schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. Reduced tax revenue due to significant out-migration and record numbers of unemployed have also caused significant stress to Saskatchewan government finances, with analysts projecting that there is little likelihood that the Saskatchewan government will meet its targets in reducing the Province’s annual deficit. An unfunded $3.3 billion health infrastructure deficit was also recently reported in the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s 2018 budget release — and an unfunded $4 billion was reported by the Provincial auditor to clean up abandoned oil wells in the Province — amounts not accounted into the overall Provincial debt.