Here are some of the ways the Saskatchewan budget, released Tuesday, could affect people in the province.
Money goes out …
The government is changing Education Property Tax mill rates for the first time since 2017, a move that’s expected to generate $12 million in revenue.
In 2021, the mill rates for the various property classes will be 1.36 per cent for agricultural, 4.46 per cent for residential, 6.75 per cent for commercial/industrial, and 9.79 per cent for resource. Those numbers previously were 1.43 per cent for agricultural, 4.12 for residential, 6.27 for commercial/industrial and 9.68 for resource.
The change will cost residential homeowners on average $18 more a year.
And that, she told reporters, is “pretty frustrating.” “We need to be there Saskatchewan. We need to also plan for growth and for the days where we will again be leading the nation in growth that we did in the past. And I think we have the right budget to do that. “But we are borrowing.” That wasn’t the initial plan, before the pandemic hit. Harpauer said, “In my pre-COVID budget that never happened, I was actually paying down debt.” The reason for deficit is simple: the pandemic. Harpauer said, “It is difficult to overstate the impact of the pandemic. It was not only a worldwide health crisis, the COVID 19 pandemic is also the largest shot to the Saskatchewan, Canadian and world economy of any event since the Second World War.