Saskatchewan Minister of Finance Jim Reiter spoke about the newly released provincial budget today at a luncheon hosted by the Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.

Reiter says that despite the budget having a deficit of $819.4 million, Saskatchewan is doing better than other provinces in the country.

“When you look at a per-capita what that deficit does in Saskatchewan, it’s about $640 per person. Next door in Alberta, who were really hard hit with oil prices until recently, it’s about $1800. Next door to them in British Columbia, it’s over $2300 per person.”

He added that the province has the best credit rating and second best debt-to-GDP rating in the country, which is what bond rating agencies look at to assign credit rating.

Along with concerns about the deficit, During the event, Reiter took a moment to address claims that the province downloads costs onto municipalities by pointing out the work the government has done for municipal revenue sharing since forming government in 2007.

“Since we’ve had the privilege of forming government, we put a formula in place. It’s three quarters of one point of the PST. So when the economy’s doing well, municipal revenue sharing goes up. Periodically, it’s easy to say ‘well the province is downloading’, nothing can be further from the truth. I think it’s important everybody knows that and understands that.”

The city of Saskatoon received over $71 million in municipal revenue sharing for this year.