REGINA — Political opponents were quick to pounce on the Saskatchewan operating deficit numbers reported in the release of the 2025-26 Public Accounts Volume 1.
The government is reporting an operating deficit of $947 million for fiscal year 2025-26. In a news release they touted an improvement of $263 million from the deficit projected at third quarter, but it is $960 million below the surplus projected at budget in 2025. Total revenue increased from budget by a modest $77 million, while expense increased by $1 billion.
"While we have seen a small increase in revenue from oil prices, we continue to face significant expense pressures, particularly with regard to utilization in health care and our correctional facilities," said Finance Minister Jim Reiter in a statement.
The numbers drew scorn from the NDP's Finance critic Trent Wotherspoon.
"Today’s year-end financial results release confirms what we already know to be true — Scott Moe and the Sask. Party are running our province’s finances into the ground and it’s hardworking and self-reliant people of this province that are paying the price," he said in a statement.
He called the $947 million deficit "nearly a billion-dollar miss by a government that has proven they can’t be trusted with our public finances, budget after budget." Wotherspoon also was critical of the government adding over $4 billion to the total public debt, and paying more than $1.073 billion to service it.
Last year when the budget was released, Wotherspoon had responded by staging a media event in which he put the budget document through a shredder machine.
"We called out this bogus budget as the nonsense it was from Day 1,' Wotherspoon said in Tuesday's news release. "Instead of owning up and being honest to Saskatchewan people and fixing their budget, they chose to try to deceive them and stuck Saskatchewan people with the costs of their government’s mismanagement."
Meanwhile the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was also critical of the deficit numbers. In a news release Tuesday, they called on the Saskatchewan government to control spending.
“Taxpayers can’t afford a government that keeps breaking its spending promises,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director, in a statement.
“When a Saskatchewan family has an unexpected car repair bill, they have to find savings in their restaurant or vacation budget and Premier Scott Moe needs to do the same.Unexpected costs are not an excuse for the government to continue to spend beyond its means, borrow more money and drive up the debt.”
The Taxpayers Federation pointed to the 2025 budget projection of $21 billion in spending, but according to the public accounts the amount spent was $22.1 billion. They also were critical of the increase in the provincial debt to $25 billion at the end of 2025-26, with the province borrowing $1.6 billion above its projections.
They also pointed to a pattern of spending going over budget by the government. They noted the province spent $970 million more than budget in 2024, in 2023 it was $2.2 billion, and in 2022 it was $1.4 billion.
“The government is wasting hundreds of millions of dollars per year on debt interest payments because it has repeatedly failed to control spending and keeps borrowing more money,” Haubrich said. “Premier Scott Moe needs to find savings and work to reduce the cost of government for taxpayers.”
