Saskatchewan is attempting something that many have tried and few, if any, have accomplished: slaying a deficit while increasing spending.

Premier Brad Wall’s government recently released its third-quarter budget update, which showed that the operational surplus of $107 million projected in the budget last spring has turned into a deficit of $427 million. Falling resource revenues are the main reason.

The government rightly points out that it cannot control the price of oil or potash. However, it can control its spending. When Saskatchewan families and businesses have less money, they typically react by spending less money. It seems the Saskatchewan government views things differently.

Last spring’s provincial budget projected spending at $14.17 billion. Then oil prices plunged further than anyone imagined. Now, the third-quarter update projects government spending to be $110 million higher. So revenues went down, but spending went up.

To be fair, massive budgets are hard to change quickly. Perhaps a longer-term plan is required to trim spending in response to falling revenues.

Last spring, the budget projected next year’s spending at $14.47 billion. That’s an increase of $192 million. And that projection was made before the price for a barrel of oil fell to $30.

Surely spending projections in the third-quarter update would be adjusted to reflect tighter revenues, right? Well, the update still projects next year’s spending at $14.47 billion and projects average spending increases of $334 million per year thereafter.

So, despite falling revenues, the Saskatchewan government is not planning to adjust its spending. The result is an operational deficit this year and another deficit next year, with balanced budgets projected after that.

“There isn’t much room left, frankly, for cuts,” said Premier Wall when he announced Saskatchewan would run operational deficits this year and next.

Saskatchewan’s plan for balance is based entirely on recovering revenues rather than more efficient spending. This defies history, as governments of every political stripe have slayed deficits by trimming spending. Ralph Klein, Mike Harris and Jean Chretien all cut spending to slay their deficits. Most recently, Stephen Harper trimmed spending to slay the deficit he created.

Even though everyone else has balanced budgets by trimming spending, it might still work to let the budget balance itself with revenue increases, right?

Well, Manitoba is trying. It started running an operational deficit of about $555 million in 2009 and counted on revenue increases to balance the budget. Revenues have increased (thanks in part to a PST hike), but Manitoba’s spending has always increased faster. And the province has run deficits ever since.

Here’s the amazing thing: The Saskatchewan government doesn’t actually need to make cuts; if it simply stops increasing spending for a year it would nearly balance its operational budget in 2017.

Maybe Saskatchewan will succeed in balancing the budget while increasing spending. But let’s look at what success will mean. According to the current plan, Saskatchewan will borrow $427 million to cover its operational deficit this year and another $259 million next year. That’s in addition to the $700 million the government is borrowing for infrastructure spending this year. It’s a total of $1.39 billion in new debt.

After the operational budget is balanced again, the government projects surpluses and contingencies totalling $308 million by 2019-20. That means even if oil prices rise and the government’s plan works, Saskatchewan is still likely to come out with more than a billion dollars in new debt.

The situation is simple. We have less money. We need to spend less money. Otherwise, we’re sending the bill to our kids and grandkids.