The government has tabled the 2011-12 Saskatchewan budget.
Finance Minister Ken Krawetz presented the budget Monday before the house. He spoke about what he called the “Saskatchewan Advantage,” emphasizing low taxes and a more affordable province.
Each mention of the phrase was met with enthusiastic applause from supporters.
Darcy Furber, NDP MLA for Prince Albert Northcote called the Saskatchewan Advantage a “propaganda tool” that the Saskatchewan Party made up.
“If you actually talk to people about their cost of living and whether or not their wages have kept up they’ll tell you a different story.”
There are a number of promises made by the Wall to people in Prince Albert by the government that will be unfulfilled by the budget, Furber said.
He listed airport improvements, a second Prince Albert bridge and the Pineview Terrace Lodge as projects that remain unfunded under the new budget.
“It doesn’t matter how they try to sell this as a balanced budget it is absolutely not and page 61 proves it.”
Page 61 is the projected debt, which Furber said will go up by $5 million this year.
It is a balanced budget, said Nadine Wilson, MLA for Saskatchewan Rivers.
What she said she finds most agreeable is that the budget would make life more affordable for families, leaving more money in their possession by lowering income taxes.
The personal, spousal and dependent children exemption would all be raised under the new budget.
A second piece that Wilson said she was excited about was education taxes have being reduced by about 80 per cent on farm land.
Darryl Hickie, MLA for Prince Albert Carlton, agrees with Wilson.
The budget is strong and “with a very strong economy that (has) given us the chance to do some great things for the citizens,” he said.
There were two factors in the budget that were very important to him to bring to Prince Albert, Hickie said.
The first would allow for school infrastructure improvement.
“Carlton high school will now be able to proceed with its design planning and knows in the future that they will have another gymnasium,” he said.
The second major factor for Hickie was with revenue sharing that he said would allow the city to keep its tax lift low.
There was no funding mentioned for the Prince Albert Mill in the tabled budget.
According to Hickie, funds won’t be made available because the Government of Saskatchewan does not believe in funding businesses.
“We saw a business climate in Saskatchewan now where we saw three separate foreign companies bidding on that site … and that just tells you the story of Saskatchewan’s advantage.”
Ongoing discussions are taking place between the Minister of Highways and the City of Prince Albert regarding a second bridge for the city, Hickie said.
“We have a massive deficit that they’re still trying to tackle … I know right now the mayor and the RMs are going to be discussing the location of a bridge for Prince Albert,” he said.
Right now the focus is on the Highway 11 twinning project, which is part of a five-year rolling capital plan, Hickie said. The second bridge for Prince Albert is not on that five-year plan.
Debate resumes on the Provincial Budget today at 10 am.
sfroese@panow.com
