Manitoba and Saskatchewan have always had a friendly rivalry that extends from our football teams to our economic standing in Canada.

For years Manitoba has been able to argue that economically, our province was the equal to our next door neighbor to the west and then some. But it seems that over the past few years the tables have turned and that was never more evident than last week when the Saskatchewan government brought forward its new provincial budget. It was a balanced budget that offered modest tax relief to Saskatchewan residents who already have a smaller tax burden than Manitobans.

That is in stark contrast to Manitoba, where the NDP government has been running deficits in the hundreds of millions of dollars and has done away with Balanced Budget Legislation as it once existed. Not only has Saskatchewan been able to produce a balanced budget it has done so with comparatively little help from Ottawa. Today Saskatchewan receives just 17% of its revenues from the federal government while Manitoba gets a whopping 37% from federal transfer and equalization payments.

And while it is true that Saskatchewan has benefited from strong commodity revenue from oil and gas, potash and agriculture it is also true that they have not been immune to the recent recession. Revenues for the government in Saskatchewan have declined as they have in other provinces.

What sets Saskatchewan apart from Manitoba is that during the past decade when revenues were strong, they carefully and steadily controlled spending and made good financial decisions. Manitoba experienced its own windfall during the past ten years through increased revenues and increased transfer payments from Ottawa.

But unlike Saskatchewan, the NDP government in Manitoba decided to spend money at an even faster rate than revenues were increasing and in doing so increased the province’s debt. At the same time Saskatchewan was paying down its debt.

And for the Manitoba NDP, it seems that they still haven’t learned. They are continuing on their plan to spend over $4 billion running the new Manitoba Hydro power line from the north to Winnipeg using a very long and expensive west side route when a cheaper more environmentally friendly route on the east side is available.

So while Premier Greg Selinger and the NDP government prepare to bring forward another provincial budget on April 12th, Manitobans can only look to our provincial friends and rivals in Saskatchewan and wonder what might have been had the province not wasted the last ten years of strong revenue growth. It’s a missed opportunity that will impact a generation of Manitobans and one that the NDP still do not seem to have learned from.