The first quarter budget update delivered by the Saskatchewan government shows a smaller deficit and a return to surplus in 2024-25. The forecast deficit is $2.1 billion. That number is $296 million better than what the government announced in June.

The June budget also forecast a 6.3 per cent decline in Saskatchewan’s economy for 2020-21 but Thursday’s budget updates predicts the economy will contract 5.5 per cent. Real GDP growth is projected at 4.6 per cent.

To get to a surplus, Finance Minister Donna Harpauer says it’s back to austerity budgets, but there will be no tax increases. It will mean finding efficiencies where they can and no grandiose funding announcements, unless it will stimulate economic growth into the future. She says pre-COVID-19 they had an enormous cash availability and were going to be able to write down debt, which would bring down interest costs and the government would then have some money to invest in the priorities of healthcare, education and public safety, but now they are looking at efficiencies.

Revenue, thanks largely to funding from the federal government is expected to increase $398 million more than forecast in the budget and in what the finance minister describes as “modest” , the province will see a $56 million increase in resource revenue.

On the expense side, it is forecast to be $103 million more than budgeted. Finance Minister Donna Harpauer also noted that Saskatchewan is the first province to present a budget that factors in COVID-19’s economic impact.