By Jeff Labine

P.A. prepares for provincial budget

Mar 21, 2017 | 12:00 PM

Prince Albert is bracing for what’s expected to be a tough budget from governing SaskParty.

There’s a lot of unanswered questions surrounding how the government plans to tackle the projected $1.2-billion deficit. Premier Brad Wall has attempted to prepare the province. He recently took to Facebook where he hinted there could be changes coming to provincial taxes.

Donna Brooks, the CEO of the city’s YWCA, said she simply wants to walk away from the budget unscathed.

“Whenever there’s a looming deficit and you have a provincial budget coming down, of course it makes you nervous,” she said. 

The YWCA’s homeless and crisis shelters are considered essential programs. Brooks admitted to not being terribly concerned, but acknowledged nothing is certain until the provincial budget is tabled.  

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She said she would like to see the budget impact everyone equally across the board.

“As a society, we all benefited from the good times,” she said. “We all just have to tighten our belts.”

Larry Fladager, the CEO for the Prince Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, said he’s waiting with anticipation to see how the government tackles the revenue shortfall in the resource sector. Fladager said he would like to see a reduction in spending in targeted areas rather than tax hikes, as hikes could hurt businesses.

He said Wall’s Facebook video shows he’s warming up the province to the idea of increases. He hoped there wouldn’t be increases to income and business taxes.

“It’s hard to speculate – some people think it’s going to be the sales tax, others the sin tax with cigarettes, liquor those kind of thing,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t know if those will make a huge difference in the bottom line if you are talking about $1.2 billion.”

Fladager said he hopes the government makes good on its promise for transformational change, including eliminating duplication and redundancies in health care and education.

Mayor Greg Dionne, who is on the road to Regina, said he’s a little nervous about Wednesday. A sign for him that change is coming, is the fact few details about the budget have been leaked.

Dionne did not agree with increasing the PST as he argues there’s other avenues the province can explore.

“One of the biggest concerns we have is we are spending a billion dollars repairing the Trans-Canada Highway and the bypass around Regina,” he said. “The whole province is going to pay for that. I think what this government has to do – all governments, us included – is really get out of the box.”

Dionne suggested the bypass and new highway construction could be covered by user fees or tolls instead of putting the financial burden on the rest of the province. He said once the roadway is paid for, the toll can come off.

But for the most part, Dionne wants to see the budget be fair and equal to everyone.

“Before we raise the PST, who’s exempt from paying the PST and what is exempt,” he said. “You have to look at that first because if you don’t want to rely on resource revenue and look more on taxation, well, then your taxation has to be more equal and fair.”

The provincial budget will be presented Wednesday afternoon.

Jeff.labine@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @labinereporter

EDITOR’S NOTE: A correction was made to this story. An earlier version identified the CEO of the P.A. and District Chamber of Commerce  as Jim Fladager. His name is, in fact, Larry.