$500 tax credit cheques coming for Sask. residents this fall

The Government of Saskatchewan will be sending $500 tax credit cheques to Saskatchewan residents 18 years and older this fall.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe announced the affordability tax credit initiative in a video posted to social media late Monday afternoon.

“You own the resources, and you should benefit when those resource prices are high,” he said in the video.

Moe said resource revenues created by higher prices on the global market have given the province a surplus from the first quarter of the fiscal year.

“This has greatly improved our budget position from a deficit to a surplus and that’s good news but it also means the cost of almost everything that you buy has gone up,” he said.

In a statement from the NDP, Trent Wotherspoon said families in the province have been struggling for a long time but the government sat on the windfall profits and increased taxes.

• Download the CTV News app to get local alerts sent to your device

“They should have offered this relief months ago as we’ve been calling for, in addition to scrapping their new taxes, utility increases and fee hikes,” the statement read.

He said the government should not have waited until right before their by-election call.

“This money belongs to the people of Saskatchewan, not the Sask. Party.”

Finance Minister Donna Harpauer will be providing more detail on Tuesday when she presents the complete financial picture for the first quarter of 2022.