Editorial – Confusion will arise from dual release – Yorkton This Week (press release)

Wednesday, March 22, may go down as one of the more important in recent memory because both the Saskatchewan and federal budgets for 2017-18 were unveiled.

It will also be remembered as confusing since social media and coffee shop talk will soon intertwine the two budgets to the point where what is good and what is bad, and which government is the culprit will be shrouded in uncertainty.

It may be a cynical position to take, but its hard not to imagine the decision not to change their release date, at least provincially, was because of some anonymity of decision associated with the dual release.

There is little secret the provincial government is not going to be people friendly.

When your budget is off course by a billion plus, and the plus seeming to creep higher every time the books are looked at again, something needs to be done as Premier Brad Wall has indicated.

The managers we the voters elected in the Saskatchewan Party are now scrambling to get the books back in order, and there is little doubt our collective pocket books will be thinner because it.

The federal budget has tended to be big picture in recent years. The individual seems less directly impacted, although broader programs such as capital gains taxes, and investment rules, can have an effect.

The combination of the two releases today though will make this year interesting.

We have a federal government that has suggested it wants to see Canada move to a more innovative economy.

For example the Conference Board of Canada ranked the country 14 out of 16 nations in terms of the number of patents per capita, so streamlining the system, and encouraging more patents seems a direction they may go today.

It is part of a vision which sees an economy less resource based moving forward.

It has been a vision Wall has not been supportive of in the past with Saskatchewans resources; uranium, oil, gas and potash, being seen as cornerstones.

But of late Wall has spoke of a new reality, one where resources may not be the government wealth generator they have been.

Strangely, Wall and Trudeau may actually be on the same page in terms of recognizing change is coming in terms of economics, but how they see us adapting is not likely to sync very well.

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Editorial - Confusion will arise from dual release - Yorkton This Week (press release)