Sask. premier reinstates PST exemption on agriculture, life and health insurance

Premier Scott Moe announced he will reinstate the Provincial Sales Tax (PST) exemption for agriculture, life and health insurance premiums effective Monday.

Moe said the change will help families and small businesses save money and invest.

"This was a commitment that was made throughout the leadership campaign and something that we heard throughout that campaign,"Moe told reporters at a news conference Monday morning.

The exemption covers crop, livestock and hail insurance premiums and individual and group life and health insurance premiums including disability, accident and sickness insurance.

The exemption will be retroactive to Aug. 1, 2017the date PST was applied to insurance. It was one of a number of PST-related changesintheprovincial budget released March, 2017under the leadership of former premier Brad Wall.

Finance minister Donna Harpauer told reporters that the change including somereimbursements on payments made since Aug. 1will reducerevenues for the current 2017-18budget by $65 million.The government expects to see abigger impactin the next budget.

"In the budget that we're building for our next budget, the amount that we will no longer have is $120 million," she said.

"We know we need to find an additional $120 million moving forward to address the reinstatement of PST."

NDP responds

NDPinterim leader Nicole Sarauer said this is just the latest in a series of walkbacks on last year's budget for the province.

"I can't even keep track anymore of how many rollbacks and changed plans we've seen since this last budget," she said.

Sarauersaid that if the Saskatchewan Party would've listened to Saskatchewan people before putting forward the last budget, it wouldn't have to reinstate the PST exemption.

"If they were actually listening to Saskatchewan people and businesses, we would've also seen the walk back for house and car insurance, for restaurants, for construction both of which are taking a huge hit and actually experiencing a slow down as a result of the PST," said Sarauer.

Balancing the budget

Moe saidthe province's fiscal plan to balance the budget within three years remains on track, even with this reinstatement of the PST exemption.

The province plans to release a third quarter report on Friday to demonstrate how it plans to manage this decrease in revenue.

The province says more information about how the refunds will be administered will be available by April 10.