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Trying to balance the budget in short order, says Gantefoer, is worrisome.

“If you’re faster than that, I worry about the medicine killing the patient and it’s going to be too hard for the people to bear, and that is not necessary if you take a long vision for the province,” he says.

Much of the ideas being floated by the province to combat the deficit are aimed at the public sector. Wage freezes, salary roll backs, layoffs and forced unpaid days off are, as Wall and Doherty put it “on the table.”

Charles Smith is an associate professor of political science at University of Saskatchewan’s St. Thomas More College.

He says there are different areas the province could look at to keep the pain of an austerity budget limited, but would avoid looking to cut $1.2 billion in spending all in one go just to balance the books.

“You don’t actually cut and burn during downturns, because that will inevitably make the situation worse,” he says.

Smith believes Saskatchewan’s current government did not plan well for a downturn that, in this cyclical economy, was unavoidable.

Now, he says the response is ideological, as Saskatchewan’s government has done its best to avoid tax increases and because of that, has been left with the option of cutting.

“This is a government that is very comfortable taking on or challenging the public sector,” he says, noting the province’s relationship with unions in the province.

Jason Childs, an economist at the University of Regina, says the province was basing its budget on price forecasts that ended up being wrong, because natural resources didn’t recover as expected.

“Realistically, there is going to have to be some pain somewhere. Cuts are going to have to be part of the solution,” he says, adding that tax increases should also be considered to bring in more revenue for the province.

dfraser@postmedia.com

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