A Budget
Overview
Changes to the Saskatchewan provincial sales
tax are greeted with mixed feelings from the
construction industry
By Craig Slater, Martin Charlton Communications
Tax hikes, revenue short-falls
and cuts to popular pro-grams:
all were outlined in the
Saskatchewan Party’s 2017-18 budget.
Several sectors greeted the budget with
open wallets rather than open arms.
Al Barilla, the board chairman with
the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction
Association, shared a common senti-ment
with several industry leaders –
more money was needed to help maintain
Saskatchewan’s growth.
There was fair warning, however, from
Premier Brad Wall that difficult decisions
were to be made as his government navi-gated
through a $1.2-billion deficit.
This year’s budget earmarked $860.8 mil-lion
for transportation infrastructure, a
dollar figure approximately $15 million shy
from the previous year’s total. Nonetheless,
it was the second highest amount set aside
for this sector and, given the circumstanc-es,
Barilla says he couldn’t complain.
“We are happy that we’re getting what
we’re getting,” said Barilla. “We could have
been worse off. Even though our budget is
down – and everyone knew their budgets
would be down – we’re still happy because
it could have been worse.”
Indeed, it could have. But the sun still
shines in Saskatchewan following the un-popular
budget unveil. Barilla says that the
government remains committed to road
and highway infrastructure. The Sask Party
plans to invest $2.7 billion over four years in
the provincial highway system, in addition
to completing the Regina Bypass.
With this work comes an added wrinkle,
though, one that was announced in part
with the budget. The provincial sales tax
took a slight uptick from five per cent to six
per cent and will now be imposed like nev-er
before.
Using an example of construction ser-vices,
under the tax treatment previous to
the 2017-18 budget, PST did not apply to
the contract price charged to the custom-er.
However, the contractor was required to
pay PST on materials. The contractor em-bedded
that PST into the contract price as
part of the cost.
As of April 1, the PST is now applica-ble
to the total contract price. But to
soften the blow, materials used by con-tractors
like gravel, cement and lumber
are tax-exempt.
The government expects to raise $345
million in revenue as a result, making it one
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