Author: Michael Holden
As a think tank dedicated to improving the long-term prosperity of western Canada, the Canada West Foundation is paying close attention to the signals being sent by the region’s provincial governments and the federal government in their 2013/14 budgets.
On March 18, the Foundation laid out four areas we hoped to see in the Saskatchewan budget in our budget preview.
The 2013/14 Budget Analysis assesses the degree to which progress is being made in these areas and presents six key findings:
- has a moderate emphasis on supporting long-term growth and prosperity;
- takes important steps to attract, develop and retain a skilled workforce;
- misses the opportunity to begin weaning the province off of volatile non-renewable resources revenues;
- prioritizes export development, albeit with few significant initiatives;
- maintains the status quo on corporate income taxes (although the government remains committed to its three-year reduction plan once they are on more solid fiscal ground); and
- makes a bold move toward greater innovation in infrastructure financing through the creation of a new Crown corporation called SaskBuilds.