As we gain some weeks since the Saskatchewan budget was released, one which left many, if not most people, shaking their heads at one funding slash, or another, the actual fall-out can start to be assessed, at least to some moderate degree.
The actual hurt the average taxpayer will feel is of course yet to be fully appreciated. That will vary very much by in which community one lives, as the province’s decisions didn’t leave a level playing field at all.
Some communities, such as Yorkton lost a long-standing contract with SaskPower and SaskEnergy that allotted a portion of sales locally to the municipality based on those municipalities having their own systems taken over to create the provincial crowns.
Not all municipalities face that loss.
Similarly some municipalities will be hit directly through cuts to the regional library system, and others won’t.
The final hit on our pocketbooks will only be fully realized as municipalities unveil their final budgets and one can ascertain how many direct dollars the province drained indirectly, and if not a tax increase, just what sort of service we will need to live without because Council chose a cut over yet higher local taxes.
There will be a lot of looking back in the coming months, and beyond, in terms of the impact this budget had because the Saskatchewan Party missed its budget projections by near $1.5 billion in a single year.
One clear sign will be rusting STC signs on buildings across this province.
The provincial bus service has existed for some 70 years providing service to some 200 communities, and now it will be gone.
In a province the size of ours, with small communities from Hudson Bay and Carrot River, to Meadow Lake and Maple Creek needing connections to the increasingly centralized services located in Regina and Saskatoon, the bus service served a purpose.
Granted it was a service at a cost. Officials estimate the STC closure will save roughly $17 million per year. Facing a $1.5 billion mistake, it is understandable to look at all expenditures, but $17 million is a small cost in terms of keeping the province connected.
And, one wonders if STC was mandated to shrink that loss, over an outlined timeframe, or whether this was just a slash that just happens to hit rural Saskatchewan most directly?
Of course, it was not a budget that seemed coordinated in any fashion other than cutting spending.
It has been pointed out for example that the funding to libraries were in-part because the government is claiming that libraries should abandon community support functions in favour of solely providing access to reading materials, including through inter-library loans. However, the provincial inter-library loan system relies on STC to transport materials.
The decisions seem very much at crossed purposes, other than a pair of random slashes with at best a questionable view to the future.
