Finance Minister Jim Reiter touted the Saskatchewan Party’s commitment to keeping taxes low and funding education before taking part in a question and answer session during a roughly 36 minute remote talk on Friday.
Reiter was scheduled to appear at the Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce luncheon series on Friday, but couldn’t make it due to poor road conditions. Instead, Reiter addressed attendees at the Days Inn by live video.
Premier Scott Moe was unable to attend after leaving on trade missions to Germany and the United Kingdom.
“I fully intended on being there (in Prince Albert),” said Reiter, who was stuck on the highway for roughly an hour Thursday evening before turning around and heading home. “It would be much better being in person. I appreciate you accommodating us with the virtual (address).”
Reiter spoke for roughly 11 minutes about the recent provincial budget before a roughly 25 minute question and answer session. The finance minister told attendees the province made healthcare and education priorities, while also seeking to address cost of living issues.
The province has tagged $8.1 billion for healthcare and $3.5 billion for education. Organizations like the Saskatchewan Teachers said the province’s education spending was “a positive step,” but the number of professional supports is still down. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) called the budget “a step in the right direction” but said they would work with the government on “greater investment” to address student needs.
The recent budget included an 8.4 per cent increase in operating funding for school divisions. On the capital projects side, Prince Albert is scheduled to receive a new Francophone School, and St. John Community School continues to receive funding for renovations.
“We heard loud and clear (that) people wanted to make sure that the education sector was resourced properly,” Reiter told luncheon attendees. “It’s an 8.4 per cent increase in education funding that flows to the school division. That’s where the actual frontline is.”
Reiter also touted municipal bylaw court pilot projects designed to ease congestion in the court system. He said removing these cases from the court system will allow judges to deal with serious offences in a much quicker manner.
He also said the province is committed to easing cost-of-living issues caused by inflation. On Thursday, the Saskatchewan government paused the industrial carbon tax rate. Reiter said this and other policies, like doubling the Active Families Benefit from $150 to $300 last October, are key to keeping costs down.
He also said he was particularly proud of the government’s income tax reduction, something the Saskatchewan Party campaigned on during the last election.
“I think there is nothing better than keeping government out of the pockets and wallets of citizens as much as possible,” Reiter said. “I don’t think anything speaks to affordability better than your hard-earned money, (and) letting you keep more of it. That’s the goal with this. It’s substantial, and I would say that’s probably, on the affordability side, the most significant part of the budget that I’m most proud of. Anywhere we can look to keep taxes lower (or) reduce taxes, this government is certainly going to do that. That’s going to be a priority.”
Reiter described the provincial budget as balanced with a “razor-thin” $12 million surplus. The province has been criticized by organizations like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business for not including new tariff responses in their budget. The Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation also criticized the province for not doing more to address the province’s debt.
On Friday, Reiter told attendees that Ministry of Finance officials had evaluated the effect of tariffs and determined the province would go into a deficit if the tariff wars continued for an extended period of time.
“We’re hopeful that cooler heads will prevail and we’ll work our way through this thing, but if it doesn’t, we felt like the best possible way to deal with that—to be able to weather that tariff storm—is to be in a strong fiscal position to start with, and that’s where we’re at with the balanced budget,” Reiter said.
Reiter said the government is seeing more revenue from PST because residents are purchasing more goods than before. Corporate income tax is also higher than anticipated, he told attendees, and the province expects to see strong demand for natural resources like uranium.
The current fiscal year ends on Monday.
No new updates on OSB Plant
Reiter took part in a nearly 25 minute question and answer session following his speech.
The list of questions included one about the new OSB Plant, which is supposed to start construction in 2025 after being formally announced in September 2024.
As the province’s former Energy and Resources Minister, Reiter was in Prince Albert for the announcement last year. On Friday, Reiter said he didn’t have a recent update, but One Sky Forest Products was continuing to do their due diligence on the issue.
