Legislative Report
(16 March 2011)

Reducing Education Property Taxes
on Farmland

Our government is keeping another key campaign promise that will put more money back into the pockets of farm families. We are moving forward with further reductions to education property taxes on farmland. This will amount to a total reduction of 80 per cent by further reducing the agricultural mill rate from 7.08 to 3.91.

This is in addition to record cuts in 2008 to both education property taxes and income tax. By raising the personal exemption on income, 92,000 people no longer have to pay provincial income tax. Compare that to when Dwain Lingenfelter was in government. On his watch, the NDP raised taxes 17 times – the PST three times, income taxes twice, business taxes four times, fuel taxes twice, tobacco taxes five times and alcohol taxes.

NDP Inconsistencies Apparent in Spring Session

With the the spring session of the Saskatchewan legislature underway, the NDP continue to show they have nothing positive to offer.

Dwain Lingenfelter continues to call for a job-killing resource tax that would eliminate thousands of jobs and billions of dollars spent in Saskatchewan. Now, the MLA who Lingenfelter has already announced as his first Resources Minister seems to be clueless on the potash file. In a rambling ten minute speech, Prince Albert Northcote MLA Darcy Furber said, “potash is not used in our agriculture sector in any way, shape or form.” That is dead wrong. Saskatchewan producers used 64,000 tonnes of potash last year alone.

Lingenfelter is also flip-flopping on hiking uranium royalties. In an interview with a reporter in northern Saskatchewan, where uranium plays a major role in the economy, the NDP leader said he didn’t know if an increase was needed. That contradicts what he said in his OWN television commercial. In the ad, Lingenfelter promises to increase both postash AND uranium royalties. We already know Lingenfelter and the NDP did not consult with important resource industry stakeholders such as the uranium mining company Areva. We now know he is also willing to change his story to suit his audience.

Once again, the NDP leader is saying one thing, then doing another. He cannot be trusted. Lingenfelter is determined to drag Saskatchewan back to a time of record population loss and a shrinking economy. Our government will continue to take action that moves our province forward.

Past Legislative Reports