REGINA - This year’s Saskatchewan budget is sinking deeper into the red, mainly due to the cost of fighting the summer’s wildfires.
Finance Minister Jim Reiter, in a midterm update on the budget, says the projected year-end deficit is expected to be $427 million.
It’s a major swing from when the budget was introduced in the spring.
At that time, Premier Scott Moe’s government was projecting a $12-million surplus, but in August the bottom line was revised to a $349-million deficit before sinking further in the latest update.
Along with forest fire costs, the province is spending more on health care.
Total exports have also fallen by $1.4 billion because of lower oil and gas prices while tariffs from China and the United States have had marginal effects.
mainly due to the cost of fighting the summer’s wildfires.
When people say “we can’t afford to do
Xto combat global warming” what they’re really saying is that “doingXwill be expensive for me. Let everyone else pay for it.”Climate inaction is yet another case of socialising costs to benefit short-term profits for the few and we need to start talking about it like this.
Carney’s new pipeline plan is a classic case. He’s just racking up the cost of survival in the future so his rich friends can get richer right now. It’s theft.
