WEYBURN - Two major budgets are on their way for us here in Saskatchewan, and both have the potential to harm or help each and every person.
The provincial budget from the Saskatchewan Party will be brought down on Wednesday, March 22, and then the Liberals will bring in the federal budget on Tuesday, March 28 in the House of Commons.
It’s likely too late for either of these governments to make adjustments, but nonetheless there are some hopes and dreams for fairness that both documents will be more helpful than they have been in the past.
For the provincial budget, the hopes and dreams include the introduction of dollars to enable the construction of Weyburn’s new hospital on Fifth Avenue North this year.
This project has been talked about and dreamed about for a very, very long time in Weyburn, and more than once people openly doubted that the city would actually see a new hospital facility built here.
The land has been bought, the processes through city planning have been ongoing, and now fencing has been put in place, in anticipation perhaps of ground-breaking this spring.
Among other wishes or hopes is that health care itself will be adequately funded, in part due to whatever the Liberals set in their budget on March 28. They have the responsibility for funding, and the province has the responsibility to administer and provide for the health care services in the province – perhaps we will see some coordination in this regard.
Hopefully too, the province will not have to agree to Justin Trudeau’s wish for control over how health care dollars are spent here, since that is actually not allowed jurisdictionally by the constitution we live under.
There are other wishes as well, by school boards, municipalities and other branches of local governments, that the budget will not claw back or cut or limit budgetary amounts, and maybe there will be some relief for residents, such as of fuel and other taxes.
In regard to the federal budget, we can’t really hope for much while the Liberals are in charge, other than hoping they don’t again balloon the spending far beyond the money they have and increase our debt and deficit again.
We in the West are hopeful for fair treatment for once in regard to the punitive carbon taxes, but knowing Trudeau’s disdain and hate of the energy sector, that’s not very likely to happen as we will again be oppressed by unfair taxes just because we live west of the Ontario border.
Will the federal budget once more favour the residents of Ontario and Quebec, or will the Liberals actually acknowledge there are other Canadians in this land who need a break now and again too?
