Prince Albert Mayor Bill Powalinsky. (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Revenue boost

Mayor welcomes additional provincial money in revenue sharing increase

Mar 12, 2025 | 5:22 PM

A recent announcement by the province that revenues shared with municipalities will increase was welcomed by Prince Albert Mayor Bill Powalinsky.

While the final dollar amount is not significant at $160,000 when compared to the city’s overall budget of $88 million, it adds up.

“The reaction is certainly one of gratitude for the 6.3 per cent increase over last year,” said Powalinsky. “It’s not really going to affect the city’s revenue but the positive is that it’ll add about $160,000 into our operating budget.”

Prince Albert adopted its budget over a month ago and Powalinsky did not have an immediate answer where the extra money would be allocated to.

Overall, the province is putting a lot of other money into local projects, such as a major expansion to the Victoria Hospital valued at almost $1 billion and a new francophone school.

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While it may seem somewhat small when broken down by municipality, the total increase ends up at $21 million for the province, which brings the total program to $361 million this year.

“Our government continues to deliver reliable, predictable municipal revenue sharing to our communities and is the envy of other municipal governments throughout Canada,” Government Relations Minister Eric Schmalz said. “More than $4.6 billion in MRS funding has been delivered through this program since 2007-08, based on the strength and growth of Saskatchewan’s economy.”

The province will announce its budget on Wednesday, March 19 just after 2 p.m. as the Legislature resumes sitting.

At the same time, the province said it will reduce the education mill rates levied on property owners.

The rate for residential properties will drop from 4.54 to 4.27 and for commercial properties it will go down from 6.86 to 6.37. Agriculture properties will pay 1.07 mil instead of the 1.42 they paid last year and those levied on resource properties will go from 9.88 to 7.49 mils.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

On BlueSky: @susanmcneil.bsky.social