The 2018 provincial budget may not shock residents like the 2017 budget did, but all signs are pointing towards a similar theme. 

"Our goal is to get back to balance within two years," shared Estevan MLA, Lori Carr. "And we have a plan in place so I don't think you'll see us deviating from that plan a whole lot. With the exception of the campaign promises that were made. They were going to add another $30 million to education and return some of the PST on some of the insurance premiums."

Carr is optimistic that a return to balance within Moe's time frame is realistic.

"If we stay focused and we stay on track and we ensure that spending is controlled at a government level, I truly believe we can make it."

She added that while she doesn't foresee any extra cuts, she knows there is a need to maintain controlled spending.

"We need to maintain some of the cuts that have been made to ensure that we don't go back to our old way of spending. Simply because resource revenue are still down regardless of the price of oil going up slightly. We need to become less reliant on that and part of that is just by taxation and by controlling the spending."

Carr mentioned that some stability is coming to revenue sharing. 

"At the SUMA conference, the Minister of Government Relations, Minister Keading announced that revenue sharing is going to keep the same formula for the next two years. So Estevan can be assured that this year the formula will stay the same. Revenues will be down a bit simply because PST was down. It's based on a two year lag, so two years ago, less PST was taken in so they can expect their revenues to be down. But they know that so it's no surprise to them."

"Now they have the assurance that going forward next year, revenue sharing isn't going to be touched and they can budget based on the existing formula of 1% of PST for that year. So they'll know what they're going to be getting then. It's nice for a city to be able to do that."

She added that going forward, the Minister of Government Relations will be discussing on how revenue sharing can be updated in the future.

"He wants to sit down with all of the municipalities and say, "This is what we have, where do we see it going in the future?""

READ MORE: Dan D'Autremont Shares His Thoughts on Upcoming Budget