Province Législature Session Type de discours Date du discours Locuteur Fonction du locuteur Parti politique Saskatchewan 25e 3e Discours sur le budget 22 mars 2007 Andrew Thompson Ministre des Finances Saskatchewan New Democratic Party Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It is indeed my pleasure to rise today in the Assembly to present a fiscal plan that is going to make life better for Saskatchewan families. In the past year alone, since I stood in the Assembly to present the 2006-2007 budget, something very significant has changed in this province. Today, in part because of the measures undertaken by our NDP government, the measures we’ve introduced in the past year, there is a growing sense of confidence and pride about our province. Our economy is stronger and is in a period of sustained growth. Our families are enjoying the benefit of living in a have province that continues to provide the lowest cost utilities because of our Crown corporations. Our communities remain strong, and our infrastructure continues to support the growth of new industries and new jobs throughout this province. A record number of people have jobs and are working in Saskatchewan today. And our province is increasingly recognized as the best place in Canada to live, to work, and to raise a family. Mr. Speaker, this is a great time to live in this great province of Saskatchewan. The plan I present today is a plan that will make life even better for Saskatchewan families. It’s built upon the confidence we’re seeing in our communities today. It’s built upon the values of Saskatchewan people. And it will build upon the strength of a growing economy. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to table our 14th consecutive balanced budget. Mr. Speaker . . . Mr. Speaker, today’s budget is our largest ever at $8.3 billion and commits about 7.8 billion to the programs that support Saskatchewan families. This is about a 9 per cent increase over last year’s budget, a 1.4 per cent increase over last year’s forecasted expenditures. This budget includes a $75 million surplus in the GRF [general revenue fund]. This budget saves Saskatchewan people half a billion dollars in taxes through the first full-year reduction of the PST [provincial sales tax]. This is the second year that we’ve been able to reduce business taxes. We’ve got included in this budget the indexation of the income tax benefits and continued property tax relief. And this budget funds our largest ever-capital program of $535 million. A program that supports our improvement to roads and highways, schools, and other infrastructure. This budget makes significant investments in new tax cuts for middle-income families to protect their buying power. It’ll make significant new investments in our communities, our shared infrastructure, and it will lay a foundation for this province to grow. By making these investments, we’ll help maintain the quality of life that Saskatchewan families value. This budget will also make significant new investments in our medicare program to help ensure that health care not only remains accessible but affordable. It makes significant new investments in the young people of this country who seek a bright future right here in Saskatchewan. This budget is going to do this in a way that’s affordable and sustainable. And it’s worth noting, Mr. Speaker, it is worth noting that today Saskatchewan has the third lowest debt-to-GDP [gross domestic product] ratio in this country at 16.1 per cent. The estimates that I have tabled today, Mr. Speaker, show that we project our debt-to-GDP ratio to drop again to 15.6 per cent. This is the lowest that it has been in decades, and it is a result of making the right investments to stimulate growth while at the same time paying down the debt built up by previous administrations. It is worth noting, Mr. Speaker, it is worth noting that in the past four years we have paid off $820 million worth of debt. We have seen our interest costs drop from 14 cents on the dollar to 7. We’ve seen our credit ratings increase and in the past year we have added three additional credit rating upgrades — our 14th, 15th, and 16th consecutive upgrades under this NDP administration. As a result, Mr. Speaker, today we have a credit worthiness equal to that of Ontario. We have worked hard also to increase the transparency of our finances through measures like The Fuel Tax Accountability Act, the creation of the Saskatchewan infrastructure fund, and the cash funding of the Fiscal Stabilization Fund. As I indicated at mid-year, we expect this year to draw down the Stabilization Fund to protect our social programs from the variation in tax revenue resulting from the unprecedented and sweeping tax cuts we made last year. Even so, Mr. Speaker, this budget will maintain over $370 million in cash reserves to guard against revenue fluctuations that are dependent upon commodity prices. It should be no secret to anyone in this Assembly, let alone in the province, that the strength of Saskatchewan’s commodities today are really the secret to our continued wealth. Saskatchewan, like the rest of Western Canada, continues to experience strong economic growth as a result of increased demand for our non-renewable natural resources. Market analysts are telling us they expect to see positive trends for Saskatchewan’s oil, gas, uranium, potash, precious metals, and agricultural sectors both in terms of production and price in the coming year. This provides a degree of confidence that our economic growth will continue. In fact we are predicting that GDP will grow by 2.9 per cent this year. This is a full half point higher than the national average. This growth and prosperity is going to mean that Saskatchewan will continue to be a have province for years to come. Mr. Speaker, we welcome what that prosperity means for Saskatchewan people although we do remain disappointed that Ottawa will continue to claw back the resource wealth that belongs to the people of this province. Mr. Speaker, during the last federal election Prime Minister Harper promised to allow Saskatchewan to retain the full benefit of the non-renewable resource wealth to encourage growth and diversification of our economy. On Monday he broke that promise. As a result, Saskatchewan people will be denied the full benefit of its natural resource wealth. However we have been advised that we will receive a one-year, one-time payment of approximately 226 million through the equalization program this year. That money will be reduced to zero next year. These monies are contingent upon the federal budget passing. I want to say this, Mr. Speaker, although Stephen Harper and the Conservative MPs [Member of Parliament] broke their promise to Saskatchewan people, we will keep ours and we will commit 30 per cent of the one-time equalization money to reducing property taxes. Mr. Speaker, this will allow us to extend the 8 per cent property tax cut to cover the next two years. Furthermore, we will deepen the tax cut from 8 per cent to 10 per cent on the assumption the federal budget passes. We have also decided the remaining 70 per cent of the money will go directly to debt reduction. This will mean, Mr. Speaker . . . This will mean that, since this NDP government was re-elected in the year 2003, that we have paid down nearly $1 billion in debt on behalf of Saskatchewan people. We believe fiscal prudence is an important value of Saskatchewan people. And although the broken promise by the Prime Minister will take away our ability to reduce taxes or increase services, we believe that the one-time money should be used to better Saskatchewan’s balance sheet. Our balance sheet is indeed strong, Mr. Speaker — and strong in part because of the growing economy our fiscal and economic policies have supported. Since this Premier took office, we’ve undertaken a series of changes to strengthen our economy and to encourage the creation of jobs and growth throughout our province. We started with the personal income tax reform. With the election of the new Premier in 2001, we undertook oil and gas royalty reform to encourage production. We restructured the potash royalties, we worked with the uranium companies to restructure their royalties, and we worked together to look for ways to increase jobs and attract new investment and build on our production in our key sectors. These changes that were undertaken by this administration have helped create an economy that today allows us to be a have province. Last year, Mr. Speaker, we built on these changes by making sweeping cuts to the business taxes of the province to encourage investment, job growth, and economic growth. These changes included eliminating the general corporate capital tax, reducing the general corporate income tax rate, reducing small business taxes, and improving tax incentives for manufacturing and processing. In October we went further and we cut the provincial sales tax from 7 per cent to 5 per cent, achieving the lowest rate in a generation. In the past year alone we’ve cut capital taxes, corporate taxes, small business taxes, property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes. I don’t think there’s a tax that we missed. Since the current Premier took office, our NDP government has cut over $650 million in taxes to help create jobs and opportunities and to share the benefits of a growing economy with Saskatchewan people. Our tax cuts have been sustainable, affordable, and have helped make life better for Saskatchewan families. Today taxes for an average family are $1,200 a year lower than when this Premier took office. In this budget we are going to act to protect these Saskatchewan families. Today I am pleased to announce that we will legislate the indexation of income tax benefits to protect these benefits from being eroded by inflation. Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce today that, starting this year, we will permit income splitting for seniors to assist them in dealing with the financial situations that they are facing and to provide a fairer tax system for them. These two measures combined will provide nearly $40 million in annual tax cuts for Saskatchewan families in addition to the $350 million we’ve undertaken since mid-year alone. As promised, we continue to work towards reducing education property taxes for Saskatchewan residents through meaningful tax relief. This budget commits more than $107 million in education property tax relief through the continuation of the 8 per cent credit and the deepening of it to 10 per cent for the next two years. We have also continued the 38 per cent credit for agricultural land owners. Additionally, this budget provides over $100 million in support for crop insurance and an additional $118 million to fully fund CAIS [Canadian agricultural income stabilization]. Mr. Speaker, this budget recognizes the importance of the rural economy as an engine of growth in our province as a whole. We know it’s important to make sure we’ve got a modern infrastructure and transportation network that’s available to move goods to market and allow people to access services in larger communities. We know our highways and transportation need to be upgraded and improved. As such, this budget provides record support for highways and other infrastructure because we recognize the need for a strong transportation network to support the continued growth of the province as a whole. This past fall, I introduced The Fuel Tax Accountability Act to ensure that money that was raised from the on-road gas tax was spent on transportation and highways. That Act, the first of its kind in Saskatchewan, ensures that over $300 million will be allocated to highways infrastructure this year. We believe the legislation will provide an important foundation for establishing a long-term plan for upgrading our highways and transportation networks but we also know that these plans need money to succeed. That is why we have committed to investing $5 billion over the next decade to support an innovative new highways and transportation strategy. This budget includes a record $433 million to help realign and rebuild our highways and transportation network. This funding is going to help us complete the twinning of Highway No. 1, the Trans-Canada Highway; to help complete the twinning of No. 16 West, the Yellowhead. And it’s going to continue work on twinning No. 11 North, the Louis Riel Trail. It’s also going to support further work on allowing greater access for our northern communities through our northern infrastructure program. It’s going to continue the work on the irst Nations road access that is helping erase the boundary between on-reserve and off-reserve funding, and it is going to continue to commit money to the Prairie Grain Roads Program. As well, Mr. Speaker, we’ve committed an additional $10 million this year to help RMs [rural municipality] improve roads under their authority. This includes $5 million to help move forward the very innovative program that SARM has called Clearing the Path. We have also committed $5 million to help select RMs deal with the heavy oil road maintenance that they are feeling up in the northwest corner of the province. This money, this $10 million, will double to $20 million next year. We also recognize that our urban, rural, and northern municipalities have an important role to play in fostering a strong and safe set of communities that are welcoming to our families and encouraging for small business growth. That’s why I’m pleased to announce today that we will provide a record $30 million increase in ongoing, unconditional revenue sharing for our municipalities. Mr. Speaker, this brings our revenue-sharing commitment on an annual basis now to a record $127 million. This $30 million is the largest single increase in the history of the revenue-sharing program and far exceeds our election commitment to provide 85 million in revenue sharing. I’m also very pleased to announce today, Mr. Speaker, that municipalities will receive $58 million this year for specific infrastructure support. In addition to the traditional support for municipalities, we also recognize that sport, culture, and recreation play an important role in Saskatchewan when it comes to the quality of life for Saskatchewan families. That’s why we established the building communities fund. We want to assist communities in undertaking new construction and upgrading of facilities that provide benefits to the larger regions they serve and indeed the province as a whole. In the past year we’ve provided grants to Swift Current for the Centennial Civic Centre, the Common Wealth Centre in Lloydminster, the Gallagher Centre in Yorkton, and to communities in the North. This year we are providing $40 million in support through the building communities program to support anticipated projects like the expansion of IPSCO Place here in Regina, that’s home to the important provincial attractions and trade programs like the Royal Red and the Western Canada Agribition and the Farm Progress Show. We expect other communities . . . Mr. Speaker, we expect other communities like those in Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert to provide additional submissions for projects in their regions for the coming year. Supporting communities in this province is an important part of our plan to make life better for Saskatchewan people. We believe that the best way to make sure that we have strong communities really is to start by investing in young people. Our commitment starts with accessible, affordable, good-quality child care which is a priority of our government. It helps families participate more fully in the labour market and it allows, I believe, for a much more fulsome role for children in terms of establishing early learning and development. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to announce today that we will create 500 new licensed child care spaces this year. This brings our total number of spaces, Mr. Speaker, to 9,300 which is almost one space for every four children under the age of four in this province. And I’m very pleased that we have been able to commit that. I am also pleased to announce that for the first time we’ll provide funding for ongoing capital construction for new spaces and renovation costs for existing child care facilities. Mr. Speaker, as children grow and gain new skills, we have an important opportunity to invest in their futures and to make sure that they can get the most of the education system that our schools will provide. Research shows that early intervention programs such as pre-kindergarten and our innovative KidsFirst initiative help children succeed in school and in life. That’s why I’m very pleased today to announce that we will fund 15 new pre-kindergarten programs in our community schools. This brings our total number of programs — pre-kindergarten programs — to 134 throughout this province and increases the number of pre-kindergarten spaces to over 2,000 in our urban, rural, and northern communities. This budget also deepens our commitment to help assist in the building of literacy skills so that all people in this province are able to take full advantage of the opportunities that a strong economy is providing. Today’s budget includes more than $3 million for adult and family literacy programs. These funds will assist the newly established Literacy Commission and a network of provincial training institutions and community-based organizations to undertake literacy programs. Literacy, numeracy, and a strong sense of citizenship, Mr. Speaker, begin with ensuring that young people have access to the highest quality education possible. This budget is making Saskatchewan an even better place for young people, starting with our provincial K to 12 [kindergarten to grade 12] system. In 2007-2008 we are providing over $600 million in operating and capital funding to our schools and pre-kindergarten system in our 28 school divisions. This funding provides a $646 increase to the basic per pupil rate which represents an 11 per cent increase over last year. This significant investment of funds in education for our over 163,000 school-aged children in more than our 750 schools throughout the province is a strong support and shows the support of this NDP government that has increased education funding by more than 50 per cent in the past decade. Education is an important investment we make not only in young people but can make in ourselves and in the future of Saskatchewan. We want to help young people start their careers here in Saskatchewan and to ensure we’re in a position to meet the needs of a growing workforce that can fill the jobs of a growing economy. We’re committed to making it easier for young people to remain in Saskatchewan and study for their careers. That’s why this budget includes nearly $200 million for the training sector. This investment includes nearly $24 million to create over 2,100 new training opportunities. This includes opportunities targeted to fields like health care and the skilled trades. I am very pleased to say, Mr. Speaker, that this increase will bring us to a total of over 31,000 seats which is a 24 per cent increase since this NDP government was re-elected. Mr. Speaker, post-secondary education and training are vital parts of building a successful future. And we believe education must not only be accessible, but affordable. That’s why, in addition to the more than $110 million that we’re providing to student support in the forms of scholarships, bursaries, and loans for 14,000 students, this budget also includes $41 million in income support for 2,800 very low-income students to access the basic skills training and employment programs. This budget also provides $21.6 million in new money to keep undergraduate tuition rates frozen at 2004 levels. This is the third year in a row now, Mr. Speaker, that we’ve been able to freeze tuition. And tuition will stay frozen at 2004 levels until 2008. Students are saving $1,500 this year because of our tuition freeze. And since we implemented this fully funded freeze, we’ve committed about $92 million to help keep education both accessible and affordable. Mr. Speaker, education is an important part of what we can do to help build the skills it takes to participate fully in community life and to start a career. For young people, the opportunity of choosing a career is an exciting one. For those of us who live in and love this province, we know the benefits of building our future here at home. We want to help make Saskatchewan even more attractive place for young people to build their careers and start their families. Mr. Speaker, that’s why I am particularly pleased today to announce that this year recent graduates will not pay provincial income tax on the first 20,000 of the income they earn in each of the five years following graduation. This is going to be accomplished by establishing a special $10,000 graduate tax exemption and by permitting the unused portion to be carried forward for up to five years. This gives a 10-year window of opportunity for recent graduates to take advantage of this program. This exemption applies to graduates in our universities, our technical schools, our trade schools, and other qualifying programs not just here in Saskatchewan but all across this country. Mr. Speaker, this exemption gives young people one more reason to build their future right here at home in Saskatchewan, and it gives businesses a valuable tool to help attract more employees from across Canada. You know, for those of us who grew up here and those of us who have chosen to move here, we know that Saskatchewan really is the best place in Canada to live, to work, and to raise a family. And it is so because we believe in working together, in sharing in the opportunities our province provides, and in making sure we put people first. This has long been a value shared between the New Democratic Party and Saskatchewan people. It’s in part why Saskatchewan was able to pioneer medicare and why we made medicare a priority long before there was a federal support for the program. This budget provides a number of measures to increase access to medicare for Saskatchewan families. This year we are going to provide a record $3.45 billion to deliver health care services to Saskatchewan people. This funding will provide comprehensive, universal, publicly accessible, publicly funded access to more than 5.6 million visits to doctors and specialists, nearly 73,000 surgeries, and almost 140,000 advanced diagnostic procedures. Furthermore it’s going to allow us to employ the services of some 37,000 doctors, specialists, nurses, and health care professionals, and support workers. Mr. Speaker, the regional health authorities this year will receive $90 million more to enhance wages and benefits for unionized health care workers and over $22 million more for physicians and other health care professionals. This budget provides $78.5 million for our cancer agency and a 17 per cent increase for cancer drugs and medical supplies. This budget also does more to support children’s health, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to announce today that we are targeting a dental sealant program for children in grades 1 and 7 in our community schools. We’re doing this because we believe dental sealant provides effective protection against tooth decay, and that in turn helps provide better overall dental health and physical health of children as they grow older. This program is going to help ensure that children that might not typically have access to dental care, that they can get the benefit of this preventive measure. This budget also provides 2.25 million in new funding for access to children’s mental health services. We’re implementing coverage in this budget for insulin pumps for children under the age of 18 who require this item to regulate insulin levels. And for the first time we are going to implement respite benefits for parents of children with complex medical needs. Mr. Speaker, I’m very pleased also to announce today that we will provide $3 million in this budget to develop an intensive autism treatment program for children moderately to severely affected by autism. This package of funding is going to help improve access to services and significantly reduce wait-lists and wait times for people in Saskatchewan. Access for many of us begins with a simple visit to the doctor’s office, and sometimes it progresses to the need for access to specialized diagnostic imaging to detect specific conditions. This year we expect to fund about 117,000 CT [computerized tomography] scans and 24,000 MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] scans. This budget provides funding to extend the shifts and hours of operation to help reduce wait times for these procedures. Our $3.45 billion commitment to medicare this year will also provide for an additional 3,100 MRI scans. This, by the way, has more than doubled the capacity of MRI scans since our election in 2003. And we will provide an additional 5,400 bone mineral density tests. We’re also going to provide $3 million in this budget, Mr. Speaker, to allow doctors in local communities to get greater access to the testing results that these scans . . . by improving their access to electronic health records. This will help patients, particularly those in rural Saskatchewan, get better quality and more convenient access to test results. This health care budget also includes funding for up to 2,000 more surgeries, 160 more hip and knee surgeries, for a total of 3,275 procedures there. We’re going to increase our renal dialysis capacity to accommodate 20 per cent more patients, and we expect to establish our eighth satellite unit for renal dialysis in Estevan this year. Supplementary eye care and enhanced drug coverage for over 30,000 low-income workers will be enhanced. There will be 12 per cent increase in the base budget for the drug plan. And there’ll be planning in this budget for the children’s hospital in Saskatoon. Mr. Speaker . . . Mr. Speaker, health care is important to all of us, but probably no more so than to those of us as we grow older. Life expectancies are growing in this province, and the health of our older citizens is improving. It’s improving in part because of the role of pharmaceuticals and drug therapies are playing in managing chronic conditions. While these therapies can extend our life expectancy, they are also growing in cost and often put real pressures on Saskatchewan seniors. That’s why I’m very pleased to announce today that we are introducing an enhanced seniors’ drug plan. Mr. Speaker, this plan will mean that no senior over the age of 65 will pay more than $15 in prescription drug costs for drugs covered in the formulary plan effective July 1 of this year. And that will provide an average annual saving of $400 to the 115,000 seniors we expect to access this program. Mr. Speaker, in 2003 Saskatchewan people elected our NDP government to help insure Saskatchewan would remain the best place in Canada to live, to work, and to raise a family. Today Saskatchewan families are paying on average $1,200 less in taxes than they were when this Premier took office. Today there are record number of people working — people who have jobs as a result of the changes we’ve made to encourage a stronger economy. Today young people are saving about $1,500 a year because of the NDP tuition freeze program. Today businesses are able to grow and expand because of the tax reforms we’ve begun. Today because of this budget, seniors are going to save on average $400 a year in prescription drug costs. Young people graduating from across Canada will be able to earn up to $20,000 tax-free in each of the next five years after graduation just for starting their careers and their families here at home. Families are going to get better access to health care because of incentives and increases in support for surgeries, diagnostics, and therapies. Children are going to have increased access to quality child care so their parents can participate in the growing economy. And parents throughout the province are going to be able to know that specialized health care services for their children can be provided right here at home. This budget continues to build a better future for young people, for seniors, and for families. This budget, Mr. Speaker, makes life better for Saskatchewan families, and it deserves the support of Saskatchewan people. As such, I am pleased today to move, seconded by the member for Saskatoon Nutana : That this Assembly support in general the budgetary policy of the government.