Credit Where Credit Is Due

Though Premier Wall's floating a trial balloon (and we'll have to wait for the next provincial budget to see if his thoughts become government policy), his idea of sharing one-fifth of the PST with municipalities makes a lot of sense. And dollars.

First of all, Saskatchewan's municipalities have not only been chronically underfunded (especially since the Romanow-era cutbacks, in response to the debt left behind by the Devine Comedy of Errors) and are facing big problems resulting from a crumbling infrastructure and (in the case of Weyburn, Estevan, Swift Current, Regina and Saskatoon) increased economic and population growth. While Lorne Calvert's government provided a few more shekels to municipalities, it all appeared done on a catch-as-catch-can basis: municipalities couldn't bet a guarantee from the province that there would be as much money coming their way in the next fiscal year. And why was that? Did the NDP believe that the province would suddenly fall into recession? Or did the NDP believe that they the better arbiters of what municipal governments should be doing with their money? A bit of column A, a bit of column B.

Wall says that the provincial government should be able to provide the equivalent of one point of the PST to municipalities. This would mean, says Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco, that the municipal revenue pool would increase by $40 million, and that municipalities would have a steadier flow of cash from the provincial government.

So, from here, Brad Wall appears to be doing the right thing. Before there's a killing frost in Hell, however, let's see the details.