NDP warns against cutting services

RORY MACLEAN
News Editor

The Saskatchewan Party is in belt tightening mode on the 2010-2011 budget, but with resource revenues steadily improving from last year’s figure, opposition leader Dwain Lingenfelter says it’s no time to cut services.

“The price of oil is up 20 per cent from where it was last year,” he said.

“We also expect that revenues from potash will be back somewhere in the area of $400 million in the coming year.”

The provincial government has instituted a spending freeze in the budget, even hinting at a potential reduction, after coming short $2 billion due to sinking potash prices.

To meet this, the Sask Party has committed to a four per cent reduction in the number of civil service position in this and future years and promised to limit health spending to a three per cent increase.

Shrinking the civil service by four per cent would amount to a reduction of more than 1,500 jobs. The government has suggested this will be fulfilled not through firings but through the normal attrition rate of retirements and departures.

It is also expected to dip into financial reserves — a practice the party had strongly criticized in the previous NDP government.

But coming off years of high spending, the government is atoning for past frivolity.

In the first two Sask Party budgets, spending increased by $2 billion.

Lingenfelter believes many of the impending cuts to services would be unnecessary if the Sask Party had been more diligent in recent years, “whether it’s spending $7 million on a pavilion in Vancouver or $360,000 on the coyote bounty,” he said.

With prices on Saskatchewan’s abundant resources, including potash, oil and uranium, beginning to increase, the Sask Party’s cuts are premature, said Lingenfelter.

“We’re optimistic because of the return of prices,” he said.

The resources in question may be non-renewable, but Lingenfelter dismisses the idea that this means we should avoid depending on them for budgets at this time.

“At present rates of production we don’t have to start worrying about that for about 100 years,” he said.

“I worry more about students having enough money to live on and not being so burdened after university — you know, having $30,000 to $40,000 in loans.”

Opposition members showed support for the Saskatchewan Students’ Coalition’s recommendations in a March 18 visit to legislature.

The SSC’s proposals include a reduction in the student loan interest rate and a call for an increase to funding for the University of Saskatchewan to keep the institution from increasing tuition above the proposed 4.5 per cent hike. Ideally, the SSC would like to see tuition increases kept at two per cent — the rate of inflation.

The U of S is requesting an increase of 5.2 per cent to its annual operating grant, though it will likely not receive an increase that high.

Brett Fairbairn, U of S provost, has said a zero per cent increase or a cut to funding would mean every budgetary measure, including tuition, would be put back on the table.

Rob Norris, minister of advanced education, said the government will do what it can to ensure tuition remains “reasonable.”

On student loans, the NDP supports the SSC’s call for the student loan interest rate to be decreased from prime plus 2.5 per cent to just prime. Prime refers to the reference interest rate used by banks.

“Saskatchewan students are paying the highest interest on student loans of any students across Canada,” said Lingenfelter. “Surely there are other places where we can get that kind of revenue.”

The Sheaf will have coverage of the March 24 provincial budget and what it means for students available here on the day of the budget’s release. To stay in touch, bookmark thesheaf.com in your browser, follow us on Twitter or become a fan of the Sheaf on Facebook.