By Sarah Mills

Sask. budget shoe preview hints at ‘transformational change’

May 31, 2016 | 2:39 PM

Kevin Doherty will stand and deliver his very first budget on behalf of the Saskatchewan Government Wednesday.

And as per tradition, the shoes on the finance minister’s feet are a metaphor for the numbers.

He will be sporting brand new brown shoes – lace-ups that are a little out of his style box.

“I typically wear dark suits and dark shoes and my partner Nancy said if you are talking about all this transformational change it’s time for you to transform yourself a little bit. We’re going to do something a little different, so she actually picked the shoes,” Doherty explained as he took the shoes out of the box.

Since the election, the government has been talking about the need to possibly deliver public services in a new more cost-effective and efficient way. 

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The government has already announced in the throne speech that a conversation will begin and continue into the coming years with stakeholders and others that could see changes go so far as the elimination of the health regions and a new governance model for school divisions.

No doubt this talk is needed as the government fights a deficit that the premier has already hinted will be bigger than the $427 million predicted at the fiscal third quarter.

As well, the numbers will show a $1 billion loss in non-renewable resource revenues, like oil, from budget to budget.

While the shoes on his feet are brand new, Doherty admitted they are a little tight, perhaps the most illustrative metaphor for what we may see in the budget.

“By the end of the day I think my feet might be a little sore.”

The NDP finance critic Cathy Sproule had her own budget gimmick to show-off – a shoe repair kit, to patch up the holes she says Doherty’s budget will contain.

Email smills@cjme.com

Twitter @smillsSK