Announcement still means less dollars to Yorkton in 2022

YORKTON -  Premier Scott Moe has announced more than $262 million of provincial funding will be invested for the overall Municipal Revenue Sharing (MRS) Program in 2022-23 to benefit Saskatchewan municipalities and support their priorities. 

"This annual and predictable provincial revenue allows local decision makers the flexibility to address the needs that matter most to their municipalities," Moe said in a government release. "This unconditional provincial funding helps lay the foundation for stronger communities and a stronger Saskatchewan." 

Total funding for 2022-23 for MRS represents a more than 106 per cent increase from the 2007-08 provincial fiscal year. The average annual overall provincial funding for this municipal program for the previous five years from 2017-18 to 2021-22 is more than $260 million. 

However, it also means generally less dollars for 2022-23 from the previous year points out Yorkton’s City Manager Lonnie Kaal. 

“This is the same formula and there is no more money,” she told Yorkton This Week. “In fact with the PST revenue being lower - in previous years as per the calculation.” 

The annual provincial funding is based on three quarters of one point of the provincial sales tax revenue collected from two years prior.  

As a result of the lower PST numbers “the City of Yorkton will actually be receiving $131,000 less in 2022 than in 2021,” said Kaal.

As in previous years, the Targeted Sector Support Initiative will receive a $1.5 million investment from the total MRS Program. Co-managed by the provincial government and municipal partners, the initiative invests in municipal projects advancing priority areas, such as good governance, regional planning, and inter-community collaboration, detailed the provincial release.

Following this announcement, more than $3.7 billion in provincial funding will have been allocated to support municipalities across Saskatchewan through the MRS program from 2007-08 to 2022-23.  When the provincial budget is released, more details will be available.