By Bryan Eneas

Doherty appears in P.A., provides answers to business owners

Mar 24, 2017 | 5:00 PM

This year’s “tough budget” features a variety of cuts which had members of the Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce and business owners curious as to what the minister was going to say during his P.A. visit today.

On March 24, once he had read through his speech at the Prince Albert Inn a few of those business owners had their chance to question Kevin Doherty.

Ron Horn, this year’s legacy award winner raised a few concerns he had about his business and how the budget will affect his day to day operations.

“When we see [the PST] went from seven to five [per cent], it was a very good move… when it goes the other way now, when I sell a family a couple of kayaks, they’re looking [to see if] they can probably save themselves about $400 by picking [them] up in Edmonton or Calgary,” Horn stated.

Doherty said in this instance it doesn’t matter if the PST is five or six per cent until Alberta “does something.”

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“I acknowledge your concern; it’s very difficult living next to a province which does not have a provincial sales tax,” Doherty said. “They have a carbon tax… we say we’re not having a carbon tax.”

The minister of finance said he will be working with businesses when it comes to implementing the increase. 

“Certainly in the restaurant industry and some of these other sectors it will be new,” Doherty said. “The Ministry of Finance fielded some 1,600 calls from business owners in the province working with them as to how they change their cashiering system… we’re not gonna demand perfection on April 1, there will be a transition period and we’ll work with them to get through that.”

Doherty touted the increase as a shift from taxing income, to taxing consumption.

Doherty’s address highlighted how this year’s budget is a focus on the core services provincial governments provide: healthcare, education, highways and infrastructure, the justice system and social services.

“When you’re faced with a $1.2 billion hole in your budget because resource revenues have gone down and stayed down, what do you do?” Doherty asked. “You can’t shut down all the hospitals, you can’t shut down all the schools; that was not a path we were going to go down.”

A second hospital for Prince Albert came up during the brief question period. Doherty said a new hospital is “on the list” of items to deal with in the next three years.

“I just don’t have the money for it right now,” Doherty said. “I’m just being honest with you.”

Doherty defended the wind down of STC as a move which was made with the utmost care. He said Minster Joe Hargrave took the decision very seriously and considered all of the options available to him.

“If we are swimming in money and resource revenues were through the roof, and we had lots of cash available then I think subsidizing a bus company would be a nice to have, we would continue doing that,” Doherty said.

He said STC’s assets would be dispersed over time after the corporation winds down.

Overall, Doherty touted the 2017 budget, titled “meeting the challenge” as a means to an end.

“I acknowledge it’s a difficult budget, it’s a tough budget, but more importantly it’s a plan; its plan to get our province back to balance in three years-time,” Doherty said.

Bryan.Eneas@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @BryanEneas