The 2019-20 Budget is balanced and is providing support for mental health and for vulnerable families to increasing funding to classrooms and improvements to highway safety.

To improve safety at highway intersections, the budget is providing $13 million a year to enhance intersection safety, Estevan MLA and Highways and Infrastructures Minister Lori Carr, "This program that we are going to be investing in, is going to provide an extra $65 million over a 5-year time frame so an extra $13 million a year. We were already spending about $7 million a year on these types of improvements, but with the tragedy at the Humboldt corner there. We decided it was something we should focus on and try to accelerate. So we have reviewed about 1300 intersections throughout the province, and we look at traffic volumes if there have been accidents previously, you know all of those sorts of things. And then we put them in order and this year we will be addressing 60 intersections."

"When you think of the intersection improvements though, it could be anything as small as additional signage, it could be lighting, rumble strips, it could be a turning lane." Carr goes on to say, "So it could be small things to big things, not every intersection needs a huge improvement. It could be just something small to make things safer."

Other improvements Carr says we will see, "Well, within our budget we are doing some passing lanes within the Estevan and Weyburn area, it all depends on how the engineering comes out on that to determine how much of that we get done this summer. But that will be really significant to get those passing lanes in to make our highways safer. We are also doing some work on highway 18 between Torquay and Oungre. That is a road that has been needing some upgrades for some time now, so we are getting some investments done in our area."

The budget also includes more than $60 million for twinning and passing lane projects. Overall, the budget provides funding to improve about 1,000 kilometers of the highway network in 2019-20.

"I am really excited about the budget this year, and I would argue that its the right balance. For the city of Estevan, I am really pleased that revenue sharing is coming in again, and they're going to get a 4% lift. This year they are going to receive just about $2.1 million from the province, for the operating budget for the city of Estevan this year. So that will be just fantastic for them."

In 2019-20, the Government of Saskatchewan will distribute $251 million to municipalities in Municipal Revenue Sharing. This is the equivalent of .75 of one full point of Provincial Sales Tax.