SASKATOON — Doug Barr believes Saskatchewan is rich in resources that the government could take advantage to generate additional revenue, which would then fund the services they provide to the public.
That’s why Barr, who is running for the leadership post of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan, is also seeing the need to waive the six per cent provincial sales tax to ease the burden on consumers especially, with the current situation in Eastern Europe following Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.
Barr first made the call to waive the PST when he announced his bid for the Tories’ leadership last year in the city of Warman.
“I want to lower taxes. Make sure future generations can prosper and enjoy the quality of life we have enjoyed. I want to make Saskatchewan a great place for all of us. Some of the proposed policies I have are waiving the [provincial sales tax] on goods/services bought from a Saskatchewan-owned and controlled business.”
“Saskatchewan is a resource-rich province and with commodity prices increasing significantly, we should focus on our provincial government’s revenue on that rather than taxation on our people,” Barr told SASKTODAY.ca.
He reiterated that his proposal of waiving the PST on goods and services from Saskatchewan-owned businesses and companies would encourage people to support local businesses.
“I also believe my previously proposed policy to waive PST on goods and services bought from a Saskatchewan-owned company would greatly benefit the people of Saskatchewan, especially in times like these. I think we need to eliminate it if you buy local,” said Barr.
“So if you buy from say Amazon, you would still be charged PST but if you buy from a local store owned by a Saskatchewan family, you would not be charged.”
The current PST being charged on goods and services in business establishments in the province is 15 per cent of the government’s total revenue.
“By encouraging people to support local businesses, we keep wealth in the province, we lower the cost for consumers. We would also be able to collect more corporate income tax as people would buy more from Saskatchewan businesses. This would stimulate our economy and create more jobs here,” said Barr, who added that waiving the PST would keep the local economy going.
The provincial government is estimating $2.14 billion in revenues will be collected from the PST for the 2021/2022 year.
He said that Crown corporations of the province have also been profitable and he would reverse the rate hikes they implemented.
“I am committed to making life more affordable in Saskatchewan. I would also reverse the crown corporations’ rate hikes. We cannot afford to increase our utility costs on top of everything else. The crown corporations are profitable and with the increased price of oil, the provincial government will profit as well. Let’s use this as an opportunity to lower the tax cost on the people,” said Barr.
Crown corporations earned net earnings of $585.4 million for 2020-2021 where $150 million was provided to the provincial government’s general revenue fund. Saskatchewan’s Crown corporations also invested $1.2 billion in utility systems and upgrading infrastructure.
