Today, Saskatchewan Finance Minister, Jim Reiter, delivered his first Budget – and the first budget of the newly re-elected SaskParty government – and did so in the midst of extremely uncertain geo-political and economic times in North America and elsewhere. US President Donald Trump’s repeated threats followed by the actual imposition of tariffs on March 3rd – followed by back-tracking – along with Chinese tariffs on Canola have contributed to an arena of uncertainty that makes it next to impossible for any government to confidently predict economic growth, currency exchange rates, unemployment rates – and, as a result – government revenues. However, in the midst of this, Minister Reiter predicted a narrow surplus of $12.1 million dollars in the upcoming 2025-2026 fiscal year.
Addressing Affordability
One of the key items outlined in the December, 2024 Throne Speech (which followed last October’s election) was a commitment to making life more affordable for Saskatchewan residents. Shortly after the Throne Speech, the government introduced the Saskatchewan Affordability Act which included 13 commitments aimed at addressing affordability, and in today’s budget those commitments were funded.
“We will deliver the largest personal income tax reduction in the province since 2008 by raising the basic personal exemption, spousal and equivalent-to-spouse exemption, dependent child exemption and the seniors supplement by $500 a year, for the next four years”, said Minister Reiter.
In addition to these changes that will reduce personal income taxes on Saskatchewan residents, Minister Reiter also added a commitment to permanently maintain the Small Business Tax Rate at one percent. This will benefit more than 35,000 small businesses in Saskatchewan and save them over $50 million in corporate income taxes annually. As well, the province carried through on an announcement at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention last week, that will see reductions to the education property tax mill rate.
Altogether, this should result in lower income taxes and property taxes for individuals and businesses that equates to “more than $250 Million in tax savings this year”.
Saskatchewan is also creating a new Saskatchewan young entrepreneur bursary. The bursary will include an annual grant of $285,000 for a maximum of 57 bursaries to support youth entrepreneurship. In addition, they are creating a new small and medium Enterprise Investment tax credit. This is a 45% non-refundable tax credit for individuals or corporations that invest in the equity of an eligible Saskatchewan small and medium enterprise.
The province also continues to see growth in its flagship program, the municipal revenue sharing program which increased to $362,000,000 – a record high and an increase of 6.3% over last year.
Revenue
Even with these tax reduction/affordability measures, total revenues for 2025-2026 are projected to increase to $21.1 Billion – up 6% from the 2024-2025 fiscal year. This is a substantial projected increase – again in very uncertain times – and is likely where the budget is most at risk depending on what happens with the unpredictable US/Chinese tariffs that some say could impact Saskatchewan government revenues by over $1 Billion dollars this year.
Expenditures
Total spending is set to increase by 4.5% over last year’s budget to $21.04 M. This includes spending increases on the five largest areas of spending in the Sask budget – Health, Education, Social Services, Agriculture and Protection of Persons and Property. These increases are on top of other spending increases that were included in the 2024-2025 budget introduced last spring. In addition to spending increases in these five areas that range from a high of 8.9% for Protection of Persons and Property to a low of .03% for Education, this year’s budget will also see a 20.1% increase in spending on Environment and Natural Resources and a 16.1% increase in finance charges. The latter will result in Saskatchewan paying over $1 Billion in interest to service the provincial debt in 2025-2026.
The spending increases for health, education and social services, make good on commitments made in last falls’ throne speech following the election where Premier Scott Moe made it clear he had heard from Saskatchewanians in the October election that program delivery in these important areas across the board. Highlights of the health care spending efforts to reduce surgical wait times by performing 450,000 procedures over the next four years, accommodating higher volumes of specialized medical imaging services, completing and staffing a new Breast Health Centre in Regina and accelerating the hiring and growth of health care professionals.
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