Saskatchewan’s finance minister says it’s going to be tough to eliminate the province’s deficit by 2024 and the government is likely to pick a new goal.

Donna Harpauer says the province’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is going slower than hoped.

During last fall’s provincial election, Premier Scott Moe campaigned on a promise to eliminate Saskatchewan’s $2-billion deficit by 2024.

He also promised it wouldn’t happen through increasing taxes or slashing services.

Harpauer says the Saskatchewan Party government believes in having a plan for eliminating the deficit, but it won’t make irresponsible cuts to meet its goal.

She says with a slower economic recovery, it’s going to be “very, very difficult” to get back to balance by 2024.

Harpauer says more will be said about the deficit when the 2021-22 budget is presented April 6.

“We still haven’t taken in our final projections, so I guess there’s a faint hope,” Harpauer stated on Monday.

“The way the projections are coming in, in all good likelihood, we’ll have to change that goalpost.”

(Canadian Press)