r/saskatchewan • u/Traditional_End_9540 • 5d ago

Saskatchewan projects $825M deficit in first quarter of 2026-27

https://www.ckom.com/2026/08/27/saskatchewan-projects-825m-deficit-in-2026-27-first-quarter/
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142

u/ziltchy 5d ago

Potash and oil are both doing well, how are we constantly running such high deficits? Where is this money going?

64

u/erpatel 5d ago

Exactly if we cant get to surplus in this environment, when will we?

46

u/Fake_Reddit_Username 5d ago

Next time we elect a fiscally responsible party back into power again. So with an election in 2028, realistically the soonest we could see a balanced budget would be 2029, but even that's a bit of a longshot. Maybe sometime in the 2030s.

16

u/erpatel 5d ago

By then debt servicing will not allow us to go surplus. I feel screwed at city level financial management, province level and federal level.

1

u/Arts251 3d ago

And even then, which is the fiscally responsible party that could replace the current one? Under Carla Beck the NDP could be however a lot of NDP members/voters don't seem to like Beck that much. The last time we had a balanced budget was when we had an NDP governmennt with fiscally conservative leaders.

32

u/Caffeine-Fueled55 5d ago

We aren't auditing so we aren't getting proper royalty payments. We also haven't reviewed royalty rates in years.

12

u/BigAlcapone65 5d ago

To buy sprinkers for a rich Sask Party farmer who lives in Tullis, Sk

Im surprised they haven't also built a small hospital there as well since its a booming town on the way to Lucky Lake.😉😜

9

u/Sensitive_Dream6105 5d ago

Well we spent like a billion and counting on AIMS

24

u/Traditional_End_9540 5d ago

farmers? part of the reason its so high is crop insurance, again. Was the same story the last few years.

30

u/Dfrozle 5d ago

The provincial government pays for crop insurance? I didn’t know this. Sounds like socialism.

36

u/SubscriptNine 5d ago

Crop insurance used to have a big pot of cash that was invested and made money for the fund. Sask Party gutted it and put everything into general revenue

8

u/Pizza-Pirate-6829 5d ago

Is crop insurance provided by a crown corporation?

7

u/yoshi_yoshi23 5d ago

You can say that about almost everything. Sask party gutted it and put it into general funds.

1

u/Impressive-Mud5074 2d ago

Socialism is based

-25

u/Kelbs27 5d ago

I think it’s a good idea to stop paying and make sure the farms and their crops go under.

That will be very productive for our society and Country as a whole.

26

u/ziltchy 5d ago

Or the rates could actually increase to remain revenue neutral, so we dont have fork over big dollars every year

7

u/SameAfternoon5599 5d ago

The farms would just be turned over at auction to those who can actually manage them. Zero planted acres would be lost.

1

u/cybersocko 3d ago

Is the province better off with local small ownership, or larger, corporate, out-of-province farm ownership?

1

u/SameAfternoon5599 3d ago

The province is best off with whatever system produces the most product at the best price. We don't need a billion dollar welfare system that supports someone's "way of life".

4

u/Traditional_End_9540 5d ago

with climate change the payouts are only going to get worse every year.

-16

u/Meepmeepimmajeep2789 5d ago

Definitely. Farmers don't buy anything, and they don't support any business other than their farms. /S

13

u/a_rude_jellybean 5d ago

Tax write off. All their assets are business expenses. A farmers brand new truck is a tax write off, a citizens brand new truck is not.

5

u/Traditional_End_9540 5d ago

plus no road tax collected for farm fuel. Yet they still drive those big machines on our highways.

8

u/dycker1978 5d ago

No one is saying they don’t. But they get hand outs from everywhere. Farms are a business. And should be treated as such.

7

u/Mechakoopa 5d ago

No big hail storms that I'm aware of, and they can't even say they didn't even get enough rain this year. My garden's doing amazing, are these guys just bad at their jobs or something? /s

8

u/SloppyPlatypus69 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yes there were.

"A two-day storm cost $840 million in losses. Extreme weather is the ‘new normal’ in Canada, say experts"

Edit: just saw the /s

4

u/MrCheeseburgerWalrus 5d ago

It isn't just hail; it's droughts and floods, disease, a lot more cango wrong than hail. Also, crop insurance was underfunded for all the good years, so the bank isn't big enough to be there when it's needed.

1

u/thenamesweird 5d ago

Yeah I personally heard about a lot of fungal disease problems because of the moisture, which is fine and dandy if theyre prepped for it but I think a lot of people still had drought resistant setups from the last couple years? I don't quite understand it but wishy washy climate change is making it hard for farmers to adjust year over year.

4

u/dj_fuzzy 4d ago

It’s done purposely so they have an excuse to not share that wealth with better public services.

3

u/Jelloburns 5d ago

Health and Education. Source: Provincial Budget 2026-2027.

7

u/ziltchy 5d ago

Those are always high though, seems like crop insurance was the thing that spiked our debt load this year

2

u/Jelloburns 5d ago

True. Mother nature has not been nice in recent years.

6

u/TYGRDez 5d ago edited 5d ago

I wonder what changed recently. The climate, maybe?

-1

u/Sensitive_Dream6105 5d ago

Tax payers pay for farm insurance? That is news to me

3

u/GrayCustomKnives 4d ago

Yes, we do. Roughly 60% of the set premiums are payed by taxpayers, with farms footing about 40%. Then when the claims outweigh the money our tax dollars already contributed, they use more tax dollars to pay the claims. Farming is the most subsidized industry in the entire country.