Provincial Budget Woes

27. March 2010 by Kari Calder.

There are many changes to the Saskatchewan provincial budget and some of them are good, some are bad. That is generally the way things work in politics and not everyone will agree. Some people in Saskatchewan are very vocal and angry but that won’t do anything but create frustration in their own lives. It is sad to see the negativity and how many people are calling our province “broke”. If we are so “broke” I am scared to see what you would call a province like Ontario! And if it is that bad, why have we reached an all time high in 2010 with an increase of 15760 people from 2009?

I, for one, am all for the changes to increasing the prices of cigarettes and alcohol. Do we need either? No. Do many people ‘enjoy’ both in excess. Yes. Are either good for our health? No. Are both good for the economy. Double edged sword on that one. While the sale of cigarettes and alcohol and the taxes from these are beneficial to the goverment, the gain is greatly offset by the health care fees that need to be paid out for cancer caused by first hand smoke, second hand smoke, alcoholism, liver failure, the list goes on…and on…and on. These are being called ’sin taxes’ and I am all for those increases. There has also been some lashing back regarding First Nations in Saskatchewan in that they are only allowed one carton (yes CARTON) of cigarettes tax free per week as opposed to the previous three. Yes, three a week! So now if they want to keep smoking 3 cartons of cigarettes a week they have to pay tax on the other two. I think that makes good enough sense!

Eliminating chiropractic services is the one that bothers me. Prior to becoming a real estate agent in Saskatoon with Century 21 in Saskatoon I was a massage therapist for 10 years off and on. Not only did I see many people get OFF of painkillers and stop seeing their doctors on a regular basis for anti-inflammatories etc, I also saw many people’s quality of life improve. This means less visits to the doctor, less drugs, less drain on the health care system. Many of these clients had massage and chiro treatments to alleviate the pain. Count on it, there will be an increase to people seeing specialists, getting surgery, using the emergency room for pain management, increasing drug use, etc. And why? Because those are still pretty much ‘free’ here. As a real estate agent in Saskatoon I do use the chiropractor when needed. With the amount of time realtors in Saskatoon spend in their cars the necks/backs can get a bit kinked. I would prefer to go see my chiro than go see the doctor or take drugs to ease the pains.

There are 125,000 chiropractic patients in this province who will likely have a very strong influence in the next vote.

Last year the government was overly optimistic about revenues from Potash and that has bitten them in the behinds….and all of our behinds. We will be back to a surplus in the next few years and changes needed to be made and there are always some good and some bad.

Kari Calder
Century 21 Conexus Realty Ltd.
Saskatoon, Sk
653-8222

Posted in Saskatchewan News, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon News, Saskatoon, Saskatoon Real Estate | No Comments »