Marilyn Jahnke of the Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association remembers hearing one of Saskatchewan’s political parties say it would reform the province’s property tax formula.
The Saskatchewan Party has pledged to cut the education tax on property by 15 percent, but that’s not what she recalls.
The NDP says it will “rebalance” the education tax formula, but doesn’t provide specific numbers. That wasn’t it either.
“Somebody sort of mentioned it in passing,” she said.
“One of our long-term issues is the education tax on property. That’s the one thing that we’d really like to see addressed,” Jahnke said.
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The stock growers might be pleased to hear that a Saskatchewan Liberal government would “reform” the tax structure.
According to the Liberal party platform, local and agricultural taxpayers cover 60 percent of Kindergarten to Grade 12 funding costs while the government contributes the balance.
The Liberal party would, after 10 years, change this and come to shoulder 70 percent of operating costs, leaving local taxpayers with a burden only half the size of the one they pay now.
This proposal comforts Terry Hildebrandt of the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan.
APAS counts the education tax on property as one of the biggest issues facing property owners as well.
He wants action, not more studies.
However, he may not trust the Liberal party to fulfil its pledge if the party approaches the property tax the same way it is approaching Ottawa’s agricultural policy framework agreement.
As Hildebrandt understands the Liberal party position, the party would sign the province on to the APF, and work for changes – such as removing assistance for disasters like BSE from the APF risk management pillar.
“You learn very quickly you don’t sign something and then get changes; you get changes and you get satisfaction of the people the signature’s going to represent, then you sign it,” he said.
“You don’t have any leverage after you sign it.
As for the rest of the Liberal party agricultural platform, Hildebrandt said it’s like the agriculture platforms of the other parties: scarce on details and slightly confusing.
He does mention some initiatives that sound good.
Hildebrandt likes the Liberal plan of opening rail line access to other railways, as well promoting value-added enterprises in the province by attracting investment into rural Saskatchewan through its industry cluster strategy.
“We think there’s room for expansion in value-added, and we think primary producers should have as much ownership up that chain as they can,” he said.
“If they’re aiming in that direction, then there are some common things there that could work.”
But Hildebrandt added he’s not sure what the Liberal party means when it refers to its “cluster strategy.”
Stewart Wells of the National Far-mers Union also likes the Liberal party plan to increase Saskatchewan’s share of supply-managed industries, but he, too, said the Liberal platform is sketchy.
On pulse crops, for instance, the Liberals have proposed a “pulse institute” to promote the growth of lentils, peas and beans on the Prairies. Wells wonders why just pulse crops.
“I’m not exactly sure why they would be targeting the pulse industry as opposed to others. I’m not quite sure what the relative significance of that might be in the long run,” he said.
