Released on December 13, 2007
Sound financial management will be the foundation of the Saskatchewan Government and its growth agenda.
That was the message from Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer today as he introduced the new government's first piece of legislation - The Saskatchewan Growth and Financial Security Act.
"We are committed to balanced budgets and economic growth, and The Saskatchewan Growth and Financial Security Act takes a number of steps to ensure this happens," Gantefoer said. "Sound financial management and a growing economy will ensure a more secure future for all Saskatchewan people."
The Growth and Financial Security Act:
- Requires the government to balance the General Revenue Fund (GRF) budget each fiscal year;
- Requires four-year financial plans and public debt management plans to be prepared annually;
- Winds up the Fiscal Stabilization Fund and Saskatchewan Infrastructure Fund and transfers the balances to the newly created Growth and Financial Security Fund (GFSF);
- Requires annual surpluses in the GRF to be applied as follows:
- 50 per cent to the GFSF; and
- 50 per cent to the Debt Retirement Fund (DRF)
- Requires Treasury Board to monitor the size of the public service as compared to the size of the population of the province.
Gantefoer said the four-year forecast released with the Mid-Year Financial Report last month identified some serious financial challenges left behind by the previous administration.
"With this Act, we are reducing the risk of those challenges in the future - by mandating balanced budgets, by ensuring that surpluses go toward debt pay-down and investment in economic growth initiatives, by tabling four-year financial plans with each and every Budget, by finding efficiencies," Gantefoer said. "With this Act, we are implementing stronger guiding financial principles to increase accountability and better secure the financial future for Saskatchewan people."
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For more information, contact:
Bonny Braden
Media Services
Regina
Phone: 306-787-0906
Email: bonny.braden@gov.sk.ca
Cell: 306-541-7068