Town council is hold back on its own budget until the province releases its budget March 20. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Provincial Budget

La Ronge council awaiting provincial budget details

Mar 14, 2019 | 5:01 PM

With Saskatchewan’s 2019-2020 budget set to be released March 20, La Ronge council members are waiting to find out if there will be any surprises for municipalities.

That’s according to Mayor Ron Woytowich, who stated council has yet to approve a 2019 operating budget for the town in order to take advantage of what, if anything, new will be announced. By waiting to see what the provincial budget holds, he said council can put an emphasis on certain projects to save money in the long-term.

“Quite frankly, the only discussion we had is we don’t really know what the government has in terms of new stuff,” Woytowich said. “Are they going to spring something on communities that we don’t know about? We’re kind of holding back on the [town’s] budget.”

For instance, if the province were to eliminate PST on construction contracts, Woytowich noted local taxpayers would save a considerable amount of money on a new $2.3 million public works shop to be built in La Ronge this spring. Those kind of savings would have a considerable impact on the municipality’s budget, Woytowich said, so council is holding back to see what happens. At the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association’s annual convention last month, Premier Scott Moe announced the 2019-2020 budget would be balanced.

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At a regular town council meeting Wednesday, a letter was received from Cumberland NDP MLA Doyle Vermette asking if there were any local issues he should bring forward in the coming session of the Legislature. Woytowich stated council is going to invite Vermette to speak with them, but didn’t know when the meeting would occur.

“What we decided is his offer is not such a bad thing and, quite frankly, there are a lot of issues that may or may not be things the provincial government can do,” he said. “If individual members of council do manage to put something together or have some concerns that they would like him to go to bat on, we are willing to do that.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno