Sask. opposition says province's expense budget is irrelevant because it doesn't address COVID-19

Saskatchewan's provincial Opposition says the government's expense budget, released Wednesday, is a complete waste of time given that it doesn't offer plans to address the growing COVID-19 crisis.

On Wednesday afternoon, the province released its plans for spending across government. The government did not release revenue projections, saying things are currently too volatile to do so. 

Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said the province decided to release its expenditure plans to send a strong, stable message.

"So that vital spending in health care and education and in other areas can proceed. This will provide stability and much-needed new spending at the start of the fiscal year," said Harpauer at a news conference Wednesday. 

The leader of the NDP, Ryan Meili, chastised the government for releasing a document he said is already out of date, given the fast and unpredictable growth of the pandemic. 

He said this spending plan is a waste of time. 

"Seriously, this isn't what we should be focused on today. What we should be focused on today is our real response to COVID-19, not back-casting to what they thought might happen," said Meili. 

He said the government should be spending its time releasing as much information as possible about the government's plans to tackle the COVID-19 outbreak. 

"The best way to make sure people are able to stay calm is to tell them the truth. And people need to know exactly what's going on in Saskatchewan and they need to know in a timely fashion," Meili said at a news conference at the legislature.

'We're going to have to borrow'

Jim Farney, department head of politics and international studies at the University of Regina, said releasing the spending estimate without a revenue forecast is code for "we're going to have to borrow."

"This was supposed to be the budget that was balanced. It's clear that it's not going to be now," Farney told The Afternoon Edition.

"They needed to put a marker down to say 'this is what we would have done had things stayed normal.'"

He said the coronavirus outbreak has caused a massive change in the economy, and the economic models that we use to forecast revenue are breaking.

"It's almost as if we were trying to have a budget at the outbreak of the Second World War, to be honest."