Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce Comments on Budget

Curtis Hemming, Director of Government Relations with the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce was pleasantly surprised when the 2018-19 Provincial Budget was presented at the Legislature on Tuesday, April 10th. He said it was “surprisingly good news” for the people and businesses within the province. There wasn’t an increase in the PST, which was strongly expected, nor were there increases in personal income tax rates or corporate tax rates. Hemming said the lack of tax increases was surprising. “We’re not going to complain too much about that,” he said. Hemming surmised that some of the provincial government’s projections on future economic growth and commodity prices might be a little bit too optimistic, but time will tell if the predictions are accurate. “One item that I think has a lot of potential is a new tax credit for equity investments made into technology companies in Saskatchewan,” said Hemming. “This is something that the Saskatchewan Chamber and many other people have been wanting for years (usually under the name of an Angel Investor Tax Credit), so this has the potential to be quite important for the province. Other jurisdictions have had similar tax credits for years, so it will be nice to have this tool with which to lure technology companies to Saskatchewan and/or encourage the creation of new technology companies here.” Hemmings overall though, “a surprisingly good Budget!” The Budget: • Forecasted revenue: $14.24 billion • Forecasted spending: $14.61 billion • Forecasted deficit: $365 million • Personal income tax remains the same • PST exemption for used vehicles removed effective April 11 • PST exemption for Energy Star appliances discontinued • Saskatchewan will follow marijuana taxation guidelines as outlined by the federal government (excise tax of $1-pergram with 75 per cent of revenue for provinces) • Education investments at $3.26 billion (down 7.6 per cent) • K-12 education receives $1.87 billion in school operating funding • Funding to hire up to 400 new positions (adding teachers or educational support) • $2.5 billion investment in Pre-K-12 classrooms, child care, libraries, literacy • Infrastructure investments of $76.8 million (school projects, maintenance and renewal, portable classrooms and facility assessments) • Post-secondary education funding at $729 million (up 1.5 per cent) • Maintaining operating grants from 2017 levels • Restoring $5 million to the University of Saskatchewan • Funding $87.8 million to the College of Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan • Operating and capital grants of $470 million to University of Saskatchewan, University of Regina, and federated and affiliated colleges • Operating and capital grants of $151 million to Saskatchewan Polytechnic, Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Tech- nologies, and Gabriel Dumont Institute • Total health spending projected at $5.77 billion (increase of 2.5 per cent) • Saskatchewan Health Authority base operating funding at $3.5 billion • Amalgamation of health regions saving $9 million in administrative staff salaries • Increase of $16.8 million for physician and operating capacity for Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital • Funding for operating and accommodations costs at Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford • Additional funding of $600,000 to increase HIV medication coverage to 100 per cent • Investing in Autism Spectrum Disorder (giving funding of up to $4,000 to children under six years old) • Increase of mental health funding of $71.9 million (accounting for 5 per cent of health budget) • Community-based organizations increase funding by $10.4 million ($8.2 million for providing daily care to adults with intellectual disabilities or mental health challenges and $2.2 million for foster families and people providing daily care to families) • Saskatchewan Assistance Program budget increasing by $14.2 million • Saskatchewan Rental Housing Supplement will suspend new applications as of July 1, 2018 (eligible clients on program as of June 30, 2018, will still receive benefits) • Non-renewable resource revenue accounts for 10 per cent of province’s revenue (down from 32 per cent in 2008) • Business incentives including Saskatchewan Value-Added Agriculture Incentive and Saskatchewan Tech Start-Up Incentive • Province provides $412.9 million in support through municipal revenue sharing (based on one point of Provincial Sales Tax collected in 2016) • Government planning review of revenue sharing in light of PST increases in 2017 • SaskPower and SaskEnergy will pay grants-in-lieu of property taxes on owned real estate assets (generation, transmission, distribution, pipelines and land exempted) • SaskEnergy will collect municipal surcharge on behalf of urban municipalities at five per cent rate on customer bills • Full funding of $5.9 million for Protection and Response Team for rural crime initiative launched in 2017 ($4.9 million from SGI and $1 million from Ministry of Corrections and Policing) • Additional $2.375 million to expand early case resolution (focused on resolving cases that would otherwise require accused people to remain in remand) • Agriculture budget of $378.6 million • Increased funding for Animal Protection Services • Government providing $200 million for targeted First Nations and Métis funding • Highways and Infrastructure budget of $924 million • Safety project investment of $51 million • Continued investment of $330 million for Phase II of Regina Bypass