Everything is on the table when it comes to balancing the provincial budget

Premier Brad Wall revealed Monday at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipality Association's 112th convention in Saskatoon that a $1.25 billion deficit is being projected when the budget drops in spring.

In explaining the deficit, Wall says that they don't want to leave this open ended, the provincial government wants to have a plan.

"We're not going to procrastinate, we're not going to do what other jurisdictions are doing and what happened in the past in this country where provinces and the federal government said ah, we'll balance it somewhere down the road and didn't set a specific goal, didn't have a basic plan to get to balance and we all saw the results of that. We're not going to do that in Saskatchewan and that means some difficult decisions."

The province has already started moving towards administrative savings following the announcement of a single health care district. Public sector workers have been targeted by the SaskParty government as well but Wall said any wage freeze action will start with elected officials. 

In fact, everything is on the table when it comes to balancing the budget.

"To focus on the expenditure side, one scenario worked up by officials says 4,900 layoffs in healthcare and facility closures, long term care and hospitals," Wall continued. "It's not anything we're wanting to do but we need to highlight all the options. We're not kicking the can down the road, we're seeking to balance this year and if it's not this year it has to be very short term, very clear transparent way to get there."

Amalgamation speculation is also surfacing in regards to the education sector as consultations are now being undertaken regarding the future of the province's school boards.

Large drops in potash prices plus the downfall in the oil and gas sector are the largest contributors to the red ink, $250  million in crop insurance claims doesn't help the situation either.