This column was originally printed in the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Great athletes get angry after a tough loss. They don’t blame the refs, their teammates or the opposition. Instead, there’s a determination to turn every ounce of frustration into hours of hard work to get better.

Finance Minister Kevin Doherty had that look when he briefed stakeholders before delivering his budget speech. He’s so frustrated with soaring debt that he’s going to implement “transformational change” to find hundreds of millions in savings without reducing services or raising taxes.

Why is Minister Doherty so fired up? This year Saskatchewan projects an operational deficit of $434 million in addition to $1 billion in borrowing for infrastructure. The government has promised to hold the line on spending and balance the operational budget next year (although it seems clear it will continue to borrow hundreds of millions for infrastructure in the coming years.)

Moody’s, an international bond rating agency, noted the government released few details about its plan. The government itself said it’s not going to pre-judge where the search for savings will lead. But it provided a few examples.

The government is closing the jail at Buffalo Narrows to save about $1 million per year. The 18 inmates will be moved to other facilities where they can be housed and fed for less money. Meanwhile, the public will still be protected. It’s a good example of delivering the same services with less taxpayers’ money.

Of course, the government could have saved $3 million by not paying Skip the Dishes to train its employees to deliver food from restaurants. The government should have slammed the door on that kind of waste long ago. Heaven help the bureaucrat who asks Minister Doherty for that kind of corporate welfare this year.

This commitment to transformational change raises important questions. How many school boards are necessary to teach kids to read? How many health regions are necessary to support the doctors and nurses caring for the sick and injured? How many overlapping programs do our universities and colleges need to offer?

The government is also promising to apply transformational change to the tax code. This is good news for everyone who mutters profanities while filling out tax returns. But so far, the changes have been one sided.

The government is ending the Active Families Benefit which means parents who feel like they’re spending every evening at the rink or ball diamond no longer have to keep receipts organized for their taxes. However, the government comes out ahead by $5.5 million on the deal.

Applying transformational change to the tax code must create efficiencies without costing taxpayers more money. For example, the government dishes out about $16 million in tax credits for labour-sponsored venture capital funds. Why is the government picking a few favoured funds and giving them preferential treatment? The government needs to close these corporate loopholes and convert them into simple and efficient broad-based tax relief such a drop in the small business tax rate. (As an aside, last time Saskatchewan trimmed business taxes, revenues from those taxes actually went up as entrepreneurs re-invested and expanded).

Politicians should also get rid of the tax breaks for political donations. There’s no way to justify giving bigger tax breaks for donations to political parties rather than charities. Closing that loophole would save nearly $2 million.

The discussion of transformational change hasn’t quite extended addressing the boom-and-bust cycle that keeps hitting Saskatchewan. It’s never been more obvious that we cannot continue to count on resource revenues. We’ve spent years talking about creating a heritage fund that puts resource revenues into a long-term savings account; now we need to do it.

Can Minister Doherty deliver on his promise of transformational change? Absolutely. In fact, if this plan had been set in motion last year we could have beaten the deficit already. Families and businesses across the provinces are tightening their budgets in this though economic environment – the government can do it too. And previous debt slayers such as Ralph Klein overcame much tougher challenges. Minister Doherty has put his political life on the line to balance the operational budget next year and he can do it.