NDP Deputy Leader and Municipal Affairs critic Deb Higgins said today she was disappointed that the Wall government has confirmed it will not fulfill its revenue sharing commitment to provide one full percentage point of the PST to municipalities this year. Higgins said the excuse from the Wall government for backing away from its commitment – that potash revenues were less than expected – makes no sense as the revenue sharing deal was tied to PST for the stability and certainty such a revenue stream provides.
“It’s very unfortunate that the Wall government has frozen its funding to municipalities and that they are being forced to wait yet another year for what was promised to them,” Higgins said. “Tying the agreement to PST revenues was done to avoid the volatility of our resource markets. The Wall government is now responsible for the very volatility that our towns and villages expected to be removed from this arrangement.”
Higgins said many communities in Saskatchewan are well on their way to finalizing budgets for the upcoming fiscal year and that denying this funding will have huge impacts on the services they are capable of providing.
“Many cities, towns, and villages were counting on the additional money this year, not next,” Higgins said. “This money is needed not only for services that people count on everyday but also infrastructure, capital, and other expenses that will allow our communities to grow and prosper into the future. Denying this funding even by a year – if that’s what it will ultimately amount to – is putting this growth at risk.”
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"In Opposition, I could say just about anything I wanted; and I did on a lot of occasions for 12 years... When you're the Minister, you're responsible and you have to do it right"
- Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud
Sask. Party stunned by their own miscalculation...
December 31, 2009
After gambling nearly $10 billion in spending on the notion that potash revenues would again hit $2 billion, the Saskatchewan Party government spent much of 2009 stunned by a $1.8-billion decline in potash revenues from its March budget prediction. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post
