The province ended the 2017-18 fiscal year with a lower than expected deficit.

“It’s very encouraging, our deficit is only $303 million dollars, which is $393 million dollars less than what was predicted in the 2017-18 budget,” said Finance Minister Donna Harpauer. “It’s encouraging that the economy is heading in the right direction.”

“However, there’s still caution because we still have a deficit. We’re still determined to come back to balance,” she added.

She said the anticipated expenses for agriculture insurance was the largest contributor to the improvement.

“Budgets include a lot of entities, and what strengthened last year’s budget, quite frankly, was largely crop insurance. There was a good crop year, and therefore, crop insurance claims were less than what was anticipated,” explained Harpauer.