SK DOCTORS OF OPTOMETRY
Occupational Vision Care Program
LET US PROTECT YOUR SIGHT
Each year the Saskatchewan
Workers’ Compensation Board
receives more than 3,500 reports
of eye injuries. The Saskatchewan
Association of Optometrists’
Occupational Vision Care program
goal is to eliminate these injuries.
The Occupational Vision Care
program ensures:
• quality safety eyewear for
every employee
• Industry Safety Standard
approved products
• cost effectiveness for
companies and employees
• experienced eye health
professionals
• ease of administration
ovc@saosk.ca
saoovc@optometrists.sk.ca
www.optometrists.sk.ca
of the largest contributors to government
revenue in the budget.
Will the change affect business? That de-pends
who you ask.
“I’m optimistic when it comes to this,” said
Barilla. “I don’t think having that extra per-centage
point added is going to stop some-body
from fixing a road or fixing a highway
or building a new structure. I don’t think
people are all of a sudden going to pull the
pin on a project and not go through with it.”
Instead, Barilla predicts that fewer things
will be repaired.
“I think this first year will be the initial
shock value for everyone,” he said. “And af-ter
that it will just become the norm. It’s the
same with going to a restaurant for a meal.
Are you going to stop doing that because
of an extra per cent added to your meal? It
might deter people at the beginning until it
settles in.”
Other industries expressed frustration
with the changes and applications of the tax.
The Saskatchewan Construction
Association (SCA) said the change to add
PST to construction labour will “put the
province at a disadvantage” and “raises new
barriers to investment” and perhaps em-bolden
an “underground” economy.
“The addition of the PST onto con-struction
labour is a tax on growth,” said
SCA president and CEO, Mark Cooper,
in a prepared statement. “We are disap-pointed
with the timing of the decision,
especially during a period of softened con-sumer
and investor confidence. It makes
Saskatchewan less competitive, and less at-tractive
for investors.”
Christiane Guerette is the CEO of the
Saskatoon and Region Home Builders’
Association and she feels the application
of the PST to new home prices will fur-ther
add to an already present affordabil-ity
problem.
The average price of a new home in
Saskatoon is roughly $450,000. Factor in
the PST to that price and you’re looking at a
new sticker price of about $479,000.
“We’re hugely disappointed,” Guerette
told Global News, adding that an impo-sition
of PST on renovation contracts
could lead to more builders taking on
cash-only jobs.
By comparison, Alberta and B.C. do not
charge provincial sales tax on construction
jobs.
“Do I think it might curtail some peo-ple
ordering a renovation on their home,
or building a new home for the time be-ing?
I acknowledge that’s a possibility,” said
Saskatchewan’s Finance Minister, Kevin
Doherty. “But if we’re going to move to a
32 Think BIG | Quarter 2 2017 | saskheavy.ca
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