If you thought 2016 wasn’t exactly the best year for rural Saskatchewan, hold on to your hats, folks. It’s quite possible 2017 could be worse.
The thought crosses one’s mind not only because the start of the year is prime time to delve into such matters, but also because we are already seeing signs that the austerity measures will hit rural Saskatchewan hard.
Premier Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party government made a decision in November to suspend the Community Rink Affordability Grant — the $2,500 grants for the operations and improvement of hockey and curling rinks.
To be clear, this wasn’t a subsidy just for rural residents. City curling and hockey rinks were eligible for it as well. But it surely can be argued that a larger base of hockey players and curlers in cities would mean a greater ability to offset the loss of grant money.
For that reason, the program was identified as being aimed at benefiting rural curling and hockey rinks that are the heartbeat of rural communities.
The numbers suggest this is clearly the case.
Last year alone, the grant was doled out to 633 ice surfaces in 373 communities, meaning that it cost taxpayers nearly $1.6 million.
Let that sink in for a moment.
The very notion there are still 373 Saskatchewan communities viable enough to support a curling and/or hockey rink may come as a surprise to some.
But it speaks to the heart of a province that has produced some of the best curlers in the world, (notwithstanding the fact that a Saskatchewan rink has not won the men’s Briar since Rick Folk and his rink did it in 1980), and has produced more NHL players per capita than any place on the planet.
It is for that reason Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Ken Cheveldayoff and his 29 rural colleagues in the Sask. Party caucus would not have taken this particular austerity measure lightly.
“Any kind of money we can get from elsewhere is very advantageous to operating recreational facilities in small towns,” Kinistino Mayor Leonard Margolis recently told CBC Radio. “We’ll have to increase our levies we charge various groups to use the facility, increase our rents and fundraise more.”
Given that the Sask. Party, as recently as last September, served notice that the Community Rink Affordability Grant was being renewed for a fifth year, meant going back on its word was going to be that much tougher.
But while this was a tough one for Cheveldayoff and the rural MLAs in particular, it was very much the right decision.
Sadly, it might be the first of many tough decisions that will hit rural Saskatchewan in the coming year. Consider Provincial Auditor Judy Ferguson’s recommendation in the first volume of her 2016 report, released last June.
In this report, Ferguson questioned why we continue to provide ever larger farming operations the same Farm Fuel Tax rebate that was introduced in 1987.
“It has not specifically been determined what the fuel exemption program is designed to achieve (other than reduce taxes for eligible individuals or corporations),” Ferguson said in her report, referring to the $120.1 million farm fuel subsidy in the 2016-17 budget.
A province now facing a billion dollar budget deficit will shell out approximately $3.9 billion in tax exemptions.
On that list are provincial sales tax exemptions that include $83.8 million for farm machinery and repair parts and $163.4 million for fertilizer, pesticides and seed.
This is not to say that others in the province aren’t getting their share of tax breaks.
After all, we all enjoy tax exemptions on our electrical and heating bills, food and children’s clothing and prescription drugs.
Maybe some of these exemptions still make sense.
But the tough reality for all of us is government can no longer afford to be quite as generous as it once was.
