(File photo/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

Economic Factors

Melfort Chamber of Commerce reacts to 2023/24 provincial budget

Mar 22, 2023 | 5:15 PM

The Government of Saskatchewan has now officially released its provincial budget for the 2023-24 year.

Included in this is a projected $1 billion surplus, as well as no tax increases or no new taxes.

Saskatchewan’s economy is also expected to lead all provinces in growth in 2022, with momentum forecasted to continue in 2023, with the province achieving the second-highest growth, according to private sector forecasts.

The Melfort Trade Alliance Chamber of Commerce (MTACC) reacted to this provincial budget, as they told northeastNOW about the economic benefits the area has seen of late.

“If you drive through the city of Melfort, you notice a lot of businesses are starting to pop up in and around the city,” explained MTACC executive director, Cal Gratton. “A lot of ag-related businesses are popping up, a lot of restaurants are coming into town, this seems to be a hub of activity for the Northeast, and a real central location to just set up a business.”

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The budget includes the highest level ever of Municipal Revenue Sharing ($297.9 million), an increase of $35.3 million or 13.4 per cent, from last year’s budget.

It also includes $503 million of direct provincial support to municipalities, an increase of $54.5 million or 12.2 per cent over last year’s budget, primarily due to higher revenue sharing, the provincial portion of infrastructure funding and a number of grants and initiatives from across the government.

While the MTACC doesn’t exactly know where all of this funding will go, they are excited to find out how businesses in the area, in all areas, will be affected.

“Once all the dust settles about where all this money is going to go… health care with all the full-time and part-time employees, money for education and health care facilities, immigration and career training. We got a really kind of a broad strokes sort of message from the province in this budget, and it’d be nice to see where this money does land and when it does land.”

For now, they will just have to “keep their ears to the ground”, as they wait and see how happy businesses in the community are about the budget.

Other stats included Saskatchewan’s biggest population jump in 108 years, as the province’s population grew by almost 30,000.

This could have been a large factor in job growth, as more than 20,000 full-time jobs were created in 2022.

Gratton added he hopes these numbers continue to trend upwards, especially in the northeast.

“This is a great area to set up businesses, to set up shop in Melfort and area and we just want everybody to stay here. We don’t want people to leave the province of Saskatchewan, and it looks like the population is up as well, so that was good news to hear.”

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