Donna Harpauer

Donna Harpauer is a Canadian provincial politician. She serves as the member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for the constituency of Humboldt-Watrous, and is a member of the Saskatchewan Party. First elected in 1999, Harpauer has been Saskatchewan's Minister of Finance since 2017—spanning the governments of Brad Wall and Scott Moe—and Deputy Premier since 2020.

Early life and career
Harpauer was raised on a farm near Guernsey, Saskatchewan. She received a medical laboratory technologist certificate from SIAST in Saskatoon and worked for a time in the field of microbiology.

Political career
Harpauer was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the 1999 election, defeating New Democratic Party incumbent Eric Upshall in the riding of Watrous. That riding was dissolved ahead of the 2003 election, and Harpauer was re-elected in the new constituency of Humboldt. She was re-elected again in 2007, 2011, 2016, and 2020. Harpauer has been in cabinet since the Saskatchewan Party formed government after the 2007 election, making her one of the longest serving cabinet ministers in Canada. She will have the opportunity to become the longest serving current cabinet minister in Saskatchewan after Don Morgan, who has also been in cabinet since 2007, announced that he will not seek re-election in 2024.

Harpauer's time in cabinet includes two stints as the Minister of Social Services. While in that role in 2016, Harpauer oversaw cuts to social assistance affecting approximately 2,700 people, which Harpauer said were meant to crack down on 'stacking' or 'double-dipping' on welfare benefits. When Harpauer suggested that the cutbacks were based on a recommendation from a poverty reduction working group, members of that group responded that this was false, and that they did not endorse the social assistance reforms. The cuts were criticized for reducing already meager benefits.

In 2017, Harpauer was named Minister of Finance. Harpauer was in charge of the 2017 budget, which drew criticism for its austerity, including cuts to education funding, grants for municipalities, library funding—the lone cut that was eventually reversed—and the shuttering of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company. The unpopularity of the 2017 budget contributed to Brad Wall's decision to retire in 2018.

In 2020, Scott Moe named Harpauer the first female deputy premier in the province in over three decades.

The Saskatchewan Party ran its 2020 election campaign on a promise to balance the provincial budget by 2024. Months after the election, in the spring of 2021, Harpauer admitted that it would be "very, very difficult to meet that goal", and that "in all good likelihood, we'll have to change that goalpost."

Controversies
In 2017, it was reported that when serving as Minister of Social Services in 2008, Harpauer used private email for government-related matters. In one email she told a former campaign staffer, "I will hire you by contract if need be to get around the rules defined by the [Public Service Commission]." In another email to the same person, she stated, "The Public Service Commission is getting all crappy about us hiring people without open competition... Blah... Blah... Blah. Lots of fun. I really don't care what they think!!" The former staffer said Harpauer told him to use private email because "we wanted to be free from the freedom of information requests."

In 2018, Harpauer was revealed to have twice had hotel stays for personal trips in Pinehouse—one in 2016 and another in 2018—paid for by the village. Harpauer did not disclose any gifts or benefits for the stays in her personal disclosure statements. Harpauer stated that she was unaware that the village had paid for the accommodations, and that she would repay the village.

In 2022, Harpauer was criticized for an expense of nearly $8,000 for a return charter flight between Regina and North Battleford. Harpauer defended the trip, which was made to speak at a local chamber of commerce luncheon, stating that she was "exhausted" at the time.