The provincial government wants to apply its surplus of $370 million to high-priority areas, starting with $150 million for highway construction, said Finance Minister Eric Cline.

The Saskatchewan Party, meanwhile, wants the Legislature recalled to allow a full debate on the use of this surplus money, and to find out why the surplus is smaller than the $1 billion surplus they were told about by oil industry officials.

In a conference call on Friday afternoon, Cline responded to early criticisms from the opposition about his plans to divide up the surplus, gained mostly on the strength of high oil prices. The government had originally projected a surplus of $9 million for this fiscal year.

The minister rejected suggestions for a heating rebate to all Saskatchewan residents, and for deeper tax cuts, noting tax changes will come into effect Jan. 1, set in his budget brought down earlier this year.

"The opposition has claimed we're not spending the money (on highways) until the next fiscal year. How do you build highways in the middle of a Saskatchewan winter? And contrary to what (Sask. Party MLA) Ken Kravetz said, we've spent $25.5 million more on highways than what we budgeted for this year, and when the season lasted longer we authorized another $12 million. Because of the work we did this fall, we can get going earlier in the spring and do more," said Cline, adding the highways department has just held its largest winter tender call ever, for work to be done next summer.

This will include work on Highway 13 and 39 in the Weyburn area, as well as repairs to Highway 6.

The plan is that within the next five years, every paved primary and secondary highway in Saskatchewan will have been upgraded to a 20 to 25-year lifespan as a result of this extra investment, said Cline.

Weyburn-Big Muddy MLA Brenda Bakken said she didn't have any argument about money going into highways, but took issue with the fact there will be no legislative debate about how any of this surplus will be used.

"With all the things that need to be fixed in this province, we can ill afford to sit on this money. This is a one-time windfall and there are many things it could be spent on. We could've had debt reduction, or one-time tax relief. Our health boards' equipment is in such need of repair; there's no money in the budget for this at all, and this could have been a one-time expenditure," said Bakken.

On the planned home heating rebate, which will go to those families currently receiving the GST rebate, Bakken said this should have been offered to all residents of the province, not just a select few.

"All people are going to be hurt by this hike by SaskEnergy, all people in Saskatchewan who pay taxes. The rebate is benefitting some of the people; how is this fair? Why are we picking winners and losers? And why did they announce the rate hike two days before they announced this windfall? They could've stopped the increase from SaskEnergy and taken the loss within the corporation," said Bakken.

Spreading out the heating rebate to everyone would have reduced the rebate cheque to an insignificant amount like $50, said Cline.

Asked if health care facilities shouldn't be a higher priority, Cline said he doesn't know yet how the balance of the surplus will be divided, with some to go to health and some to education. He pointed out the government wants to see what recommendations will come from the Fyke Commission on Health Care before they start designating funds to that sector, and in regards to education, he would like to see the government's share of the cost of education to be higher, but he won't know by how much until the budget is set next spring.

This response to health care disappointed the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations, whose president Brian Rourke said health districts are struggling with their budgets right now and could have used some of that money this year rather than having to wait until the next fiscal year.

Another big issuezis that the surplus was supposed to have been in the order of $1-1.5 billion, according to figures provided them by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said Bakken.

"We brought it up and asked where this money is. I don't know, but the oil industry had the figures and were willing to say in public how much they've been paying the government. Who's right here? They've already paid the bill. My question is, where's the rest of the money?" asked Bakken.

Asked if the provincial home heating rebate will piggyback on the federal one, Cline said that it will, and added the comment, "There's a lot of talk about how wonderful it would be for everyone to get this rebate, or rather than a one-time rebate give people ongoing tax relief. This will start on Jan. 1 when the flat tax is abolished and other tax changes come into effect."

The province hopes the oil prices stays up, but not so high that it hurts consumers and the agricultural sector, said Cline.

"We don't want a return to $10-11 a barrel oil; we want it up so oil people are encouraged to invest. However, I have said we might not want $35-a-barrel oil, but more in the range of $25," he said.