The Saskatchewan government wants to achieve greater tax collection autonomy from the federal government and introduced new legislation to begin the process.. Oil Workers .The Saskatchewan Revenue Agency (SRA) Act establishes a new provincial tax agency..Saskatchewan Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Donna Harpauer said the SRA is protecting the economy, industries, and jobs for Saskatchewanians from the federal government’s overreach..“This Act is among the steps our government is taking to protect and defend Saskatchewan’s economic autonomy, industries, and jobs from federal intrusion and constitutional overreach,” said Harpauer..The SRA is a new Treasury Board Crown corporation, which would be responsible for “administering taxes and related programs in Saskatchewan, including taking control of the provincial portion of the corporate income tax system from the federal government.”.“The legislation introduced today just establishes a framework in order to establish a corporation that can collect taxes as a province,” said Harpauer..“We will now have the framework in order to establish the agency and then to work further towards collecting and administering our own corporate income tax.”.Harpauer said the SRA would work similarly to how Alberta collects its corporate taxes.."In Alberta, they collect their corporate income tax and they have agencies that can do that,” said Harpauer..Creating the SRA is a multi-year project, which establishes a structure for a new provincial corporate income tax system..Strategies will be developed to maximize the value to taxpayers and continue to address Saskatchewan’s needs..The SRA Act is a basic design, and it includes the “standard provisions required to establish a new government agency, including its purpose, powers, overarching governance structure, accountabilities, and regulation-making authority.”.Harpauer said the SRA Act is the beginning of a much larger strategy to transform Saskatchewan’s corporate income tax system.. Trent Wotherspoon .“The Saskatchewan Revenue Agency Act is the first step in a larger undertaking related to transforming the province’s corporate income tax system," she said.."This transition demonstrates that our government will take the necessary action to stand up for Saskatchewan.".In the throne speech, the government said it wanted to explore keeping the corporate income tax in Saskatchewan and not outsourcing it to the Canadian government..“We had mentioned that we were going to explore this in our throne speech, and there is merit to looking at the corporate income tax and what advantages that can be to the province,” said Harpauer..Saskatchewan NDP finance critic Trent Wotherspoon does not understand how this is a priority for the provincial government when there are other pressing issues, such as healthcare, which could use extra funding..“It really defies common sense as to why a government would be making this a priority to hire 100 or 150 tax collectors and tax experts at a cost of $15 or $25 million a year annually,” said Wotherspoon..“Instead of investing some of those dollars into the actual needs that we have in the province and our healthcare system.”
