The latest on the province's revenues has been released, and the numbers are not optimistic heading into the budget update next week.

Saskatchewan Finance Minister Kevin Doherty announced yesterday at the Legislative Building in Regina revenues in the province are down $600 million than previously forecasted.

He added how it boils down to a further deterioration in personal income tax, provincial sales tax, corporate income tax, and fuel tax. "You combine all of those together, it's about $400 million down from what we forecasted in our budget on June 1st."

The other portion of the $600 million, totalling up to approximately $200 millon, is from a softening in the non-renewable resource sector. Doherty mentioned the reasoning behind the lower numbers are from "a softening in potash prices and uranium prices."

Pressure to the budget and the decreased revenues have also been due to utilization pressures with health care, social services, insurance claims from property flooding, and crop insurance claims. "We're getting updates from crop insurance, and there's going to be increased crop insurance payouts due to wet weather in late September and throughout October," explained Doherty. "About 20 per cent of harvest was damaged particularly on the west side of the province."

On June 1st, the 2016-2017 fiscal year budget was set at $14.46 billion for spending and projected revenues of $14.02 billion. These numbers created a projected $434-million deficit.

Residents will not know the final numbers of the updated budget until an official announcement scheduled for next week. Before the presentation is made, it will be presented to the cabinet later this week and then to the caucus early next week.