Prince Albert MLA defends provincial budget
The member of the Saskatchewan legislature for the riding of Prince Albert Carlton has been put in full defensive mode over this week’s provincial budget.
Both Mayor Greg Dionne and Councilor Don Cody have been very vocal about how they feel regarding the province decreasing funds for municipal revenue sharing. Prince Albert lost $2.5 million in grants-in-lieu payments in 2017, and over $3 million this year. The city will only see $6.33 million in 2018, down from $6.77 million.
Joe Hargrave said the revenue sharing formula is based on the provincial sales tax paid by the province (cities receive one per-cent of that) and added Prince Albert city council should not be surprised by what they get this year.
“The PST is not calculated from January last year, it’s basically calculated from two years ago before everything works its way through so they knew it was coming,” Hargrave said. He added the funding the city gets now is 110 per cent higher than what they received from the previous government.