Legislative Report (7 January 2009)

Largest-Ever Single Year Tax Cut Gets Even Better

Our government is giving Saskatchewan people a further $22 million in provincial tax savings in 2009 by indexing the personal income tax brackets and personal tax credits to the national rate of inflation. This will ensure any tax returns generated by our historic tax cuts aren’t “clawed back” because of inflation. This further increases the basic and spousal tax exemption to $13,269 and the child tax credit to $4,915. All of this means a working family with two children can now earn up to $42,220 without paying any Saskatchewan income tax. In these financially challenging times, we are committing to providing Saskatchewan families with the support they need.

STRONG GROWTH BRINGS MORE PEOPLE

New numbers show our government’s efforts to make Saskatchewan the best place to live in Canada continue to pay off. With thousands of people choosing in 2008 to make Saskatchewan their new home, there were record numbers of vehicles being registered and thousands of new hook-ups for power and natural gas throughout the province. The number of vehicles registered increased by 52,000 last year, which was the biggest one-year increase in recent history. SaskEnergy added more than 5,000 new residential and business customers to bring its customer base to its highest level ever at 341,000.

4 MILLION VISITS TO SASKJOBS.CA

Premier Brad Wall's attendance at Canada’s biggest job fair continues to pay dividends for the province and people of Saskatchewan. Since the Premier attended the National Job Fair in Toronto several months ago, Saskjobs.ca has received 1.2 million visits, pushing the total for 2008 to four million. That translates into 13,300 visits a day, an increase of 25 per cent. It is worth noting a huge percentage of those visits come from Ontario. Average daily visits originating in Canada’s biggest province increased a 285 per cent. Those impressive numbers are benefitting Saskatchewan employers. Over a ten week period, 40 skilled workers from Ontario moved to Saskatchewan. Counting their families, that’s more than a 100 new Saskatchewanians.

HELPING PEOPLE LEAVE SOCIAL ASSISTANCE

Our government’s initiatives to strengthen the Saskatchewan economy continue to produce results. That strength is creating more and more opportunities for Saskatchewan families and individuals, including current and former social assistance recipients. The number of Saskatchewan households receiving the Transitional Employment Allowance (TEA) is down nearly 29 per cent. Last month, 2,266 households received assistance from TEA, down 917 from the 3,183 households that received the allowance in November 2007. TEA is a program which provides assistance for those most ready to work. designed for those most ready to work.

During our first year in office, your Saskatchewan Party government announced several measures to assist low income families and individuals, including increases to:

• the Saskatchewan Employment Supplement;
• the Saskatchewan Rental Housing Supplement;
• the Discounted Bus Pass Program;
• the Saskatchewan Child Care Subsidy; and
• income thresholds for social housing.

Vulnerable families and individuals will also benefit from recent changes to the provincial tax system. The higher basic and spousal personal exemptions mean 80,000 low-income people will no longer pay any income tax at all. A new low-income tax credit will assist those without an income, such as seniors and students. In this time of global economic uncertainty, our government is taking steps to ensure a safe and secure future for all Saskatchewan people.

INVESTING IN RURAL SASKATCHEWAN

Our government is spending $4 million to upgrademore than one hundred kilometres of roads in several rural municipalities. Nineteen rural municipalities have just been approved for capital construction funding to upgrade 112.1 kilometres of roads through the provincially-funded Primary Weight Corridors (PWC) program for the 2009-2010 construction season. A further $6 million will be used for ongoing maintenance. Our government doubled the budget for the PWC program from $5 million to $10 million to ensure rural Saskatchewan is ready for growth. For 16 years under the NDP the needs and concerns of rural Saskatchewan were largely ignored. Our government will continue to take steps to address those needs and concerns.

Past Legislative Reports