 At the outset of his premiership , Greenfield served as Provincial Treasurer as well as Premier . In both of these capacities , he was faced with a provincial deficit , which reached an accumulated total of $ 4 million between his taking office and the end of the 1922 fiscal year . One reason for this was the government 's involvement in railways : it had found itself the owner of four uncompleted money @-@ losing railway lines after the private syndicates set up to run them collapsed due to construction cost overruns . By 1922 , the government had lost a total of $ 6 @.@ 7 million on the endeavor , with an additional $ 5 million expected to follow that year — 37 % of the estimated 1922 provincial budget . Greenfield wanted to sell the lines to the Canadian Pacific Railway ( CPR ) , a course of action that was endorsed by Brownlee , but many farmers despised the CPR and most UFA MLAs preferred to keep the lines government @-@ operated . Moreover , Greenfield 's own Minister of Railways , Vernor Smith , was among this faction . This problem plagued Greenfield for his entire term as Premier , and it was not until Brownlee succeeded him that a resolution came in the form of a $ 25 million sale to the major lines . 
