Falling oil prices are already having an effect on government spending in Saskatchewan, with the Premier calling for a freeze on non-essential hiring and travel ahead of the spring budget.

Brad Wall sat down with CBC News for a year-end interview and painted a restrained picture of the province's next budget.

"I think you'll see that the theme of the budget is going to be about protecting our economy," Wall said.

Wall stressed that the government will be working towards maintaining a balanced budget when it's presented in March, but added a number of areas will see little to no increase in funding.

"It may mean saying to all our third party partners plan on zero per cent. Plan on between zero and one percent possibly, or certainly, something under cost of living," Wall said.

According to Wall, health care, education, universities and municipalities could all be affected.

"We all have shared in increased revenues, we're going to have to share in some of the not-so-fun part of a challenging revenue picture," he said.

Wall said the budget will work on protecting growth and infrastructure and he stressed that Saskatchewan has other strong resource sectors.

Memo urges ministers to limit spending

Meanwhile, Wall is encouraging all government ministries to freeze their spending now.

The current budget year, which ends on March 31, is also seeing the effects of falling revenues.

Wall said he put forward a memo to all his cabinet ministers encouraging fiscal restraint.

"We need to stop any unnecessary travel, we need to stop any discretionary hiring, we need to freeze the third party work that's not essential to the course of government," he told reporters Wednesday.

According to Wall, essential staff in health care, education, social services and public safety will still be filled when necessary, but ministries that do not fit this criteria will have to hold off.

The hiring freeze is expected to be passed at Wednesday's cabinet meeting and take effect immediately afterwards.