The recommendation was to raise the mill rates for agricultural and railway properties, and on residential properties, and to lower the commercial mill rate. The result will be, for a commercial property with an assessment of $300,000, a decrease of $13.70, and for a residential property with an assessment of $300,000, there will be an increase of about 97 cents. Coun. Jeff Richards said he would vote in favour of this move as 2020 was a very difficult year for the business community, and 2021 might be even harder. “A $13.70 decrease isn’t going to make much difference, and it might not, but what’s important is it’s not an increase. The message to the business community is, ‘don’t worry about your taxes going up this year, we’re going to hold fast on that’,” said Coun. Richards, adding the message to the province’s business community is that Weyburn is open for business, and in spite of tough times, they are lowering taxes for businesses.