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M.L. mayor curious about revenue sharing, taxes ahead of provincial budget

Apr 6, 2018 | 12:00 PM

There are a few things the mayor and council of the City of Meadow Lake will be keeping their eyes and ears on when the provincial budget comes out next Tuesday, April 10.

In an interview with meadowlakeNOW, Mayor Gary Vidal said he’ll be paying attention to the whole budget, but especially information on municipal revenue sharing, the expanded provincial sales tax base (PST), grants-in-lieu from the Crown corporations, tax changes, and infrastructure spending.

“One thing we’re watching for next week is that there’s no surprises for us,” Vidal said. “We’ve already approved our budget. It’s very important that we approve it before the end of the year before we start spending taxpayers’ money, and so we don’t want any surprises that would cause us to have to reconsider anything.”

He said when it comes to the PST, he hopes the municipalities continue to get their one per cent slice of the pie, which equates to about $1 million for Meadow Lake. He added last year’s shift in grants-in-lieu came a bit of a shock to most municipalities, but said he feels the government took positive steps to communicate and collaborate since then. He said Premier Scott Moe had some positive things to say February’s Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention.  

“In his first speech as premier, he talked about the about the April 10 budget containing some details about grants-in-lieu,” Vidal said. “Municipal governments across the province are waiting with bated breath to see how that turns out. That was very significant for some of our other municipal colleagues…it wasn’t a huge factor for us but it still affected us and is still a number we have to manage.”

Amid other hopes and concerns, Vidal said he’s interested to hear what the province will have to say when it comes to investment in infrastructure.

“There isn’t a municipality in the province including Meadow Lake, that doesn’t have some infrastructure challenges,” Vidal said. “We’re probably watching for any kind of details on what that commitment to infrastructure spending might look like and how it ties into the federal commitments and partnerships that have been in place over the years.”

 

kathy.gallant@jpbg.ca

On Twitter @ReporterKath