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- Aug 22, 2008
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- 428
In his mid-term mini-budget yesterday, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall unleashed the deepest single personal income tax cut in the prairie province`s history, the biggest infrastructure spend, and its largest debt paydown since the province discovered red ink.
Saskatchewan`s unbudgeted surplus is projected at a record-shattering $3-billion. "It`s a great day to be Premier," Wall enthused -- a statement many provincial leaders would not likely share about now. With the tax-free portion of income tax boosted to $40,000 for families, more than 80,000 Saskatchewanians immediately, and retroactive to January of this year, can forget paying a dime in provincial income tax, while households earning a just slightly higher $50,000 saw their provincial tax bill cut nearly 60%.
A 50% boost in infrastructure spending, to $1.5B, will send a "clear signal to industry," a government backgrounder trumpeted, "that Saskatchewan is Ready for Growth." While other provinces are getting ready for groans, Saskatchewan is selling itself as a beacon of hope to worried Canadians looking for an economic haven, and maybe a job.
Dalton McGuinty, Premier of the country`s largest province all but admitted yesterday that running a deficit might be the best of Ontario`s several bad options. A report this month from the Canada West Foundation projects a "rough road ahead for British Columbia," while a TD Economics report on Thursday suggested that even fast-cooling Alberta would join Eastern provinces in "the infamous club of feeble growth" over the next several quarters.
Saskatchewan, by contrast, is projected by the same study to be "the sole province whose economic growth rate in 2008 will exceed that of last year," expected to beat everyone for top GDP gains through 2009. Even with commodity prices looking as rickety these days as an abandoned Wheat Pool elevator, TD`s senior economist Derek Burleton figures Saskatchewan has sufficiently diverse resources -- from oil and gas to potash and uranium -- that it will weather the slumpage better than its more narrowly focused Western neighbours.
Its most pressing concern, of all things, may be tens of thousands of vacant jobs, just waiting to be filled by a wave of economic refugees from Canada`s increasingly depressed regions. "I`m certainly upbeat on the province," Burleton says. "I think these tax cuts will help to buoy the economy in the short run."
Saskatchewan`s unbudgeted surplus is projected at a record-shattering $3-billion. "It`s a great day to be Premier," Wall enthused -- a statement many provincial leaders would not likely share about now. With the tax-free portion of income tax boosted to $40,000 for families, more than 80,000 Saskatchewanians immediately, and retroactive to January of this year, can forget paying a dime in provincial income tax, while households earning a just slightly higher $50,000 saw their provincial tax bill cut nearly 60%.
A 50% boost in infrastructure spending, to $1.5B, will send a "clear signal to industry," a government backgrounder trumpeted, "that Saskatchewan is Ready for Growth." While other provinces are getting ready for groans, Saskatchewan is selling itself as a beacon of hope to worried Canadians looking for an economic haven, and maybe a job.
Dalton McGuinty, Premier of the country`s largest province all but admitted yesterday that running a deficit might be the best of Ontario`s several bad options. A report this month from the Canada West Foundation projects a "rough road ahead for British Columbia," while a TD Economics report on Thursday suggested that even fast-cooling Alberta would join Eastern provinces in "the infamous club of feeble growth" over the next several quarters.
Saskatchewan, by contrast, is projected by the same study to be "the sole province whose economic growth rate in 2008 will exceed that of last year," expected to beat everyone for top GDP gains through 2009. Even with commodity prices looking as rickety these days as an abandoned Wheat Pool elevator, TD`s senior economist Derek Burleton figures Saskatchewan has sufficiently diverse resources -- from oil and gas to potash and uranium -- that it will weather the slumpage better than its more narrowly focused Western neighbours.
Its most pressing concern, of all things, may be tens of thousands of vacant jobs, just waiting to be filled by a wave of economic refugees from Canada`s increasingly depressed regions. "I`m certainly upbeat on the province," Burleton says. "I think these tax cuts will help to buoy the economy in the short run."