Anti-poverty advocates pan Sask. budget's affordability measures

The Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry says the 2025-26 Saskatchewan budget doesn't do enough to protect those most vulnerable in a turbulent economy threatened by looming tariffs.

"Obviously this is going to have an impact on everybody, but our experience working in the low-income sector is that the people that are always hurt the most by these types of changes are the people who have the least," said Peter Gilmer with the anti-poverty ministry, who spoke to CBC at the Legislature after the budget release Wednesday.

"When we're going into a budget where folks are only getting into an additional two per cent at the lowest end of the spectrum … that's disturbing for us."

The Saskatchewan Party government made affordability a large plank of its 2024 election campaign. Many of the promises made are in the budget: raising income tax exemptions, increasing low-income supports and boosting the Active Families Benefit.

The budget includes a two per cent increase to the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) and the Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability benefits. That works out to monthly increases of around $20 and $24 respectively, Gilmer said.

"Given the cost of living crisis that we've been dealing with and the fact that these rates have been far too low for far too long, that's nowhere near enough," Gilmer said.

The Low-Income Tax Credit is increasing by five per cent annually for four years, benefiting more than 300,000 people and families, according to the province. An increase to the Personal Care Home Benefit for low-income seniors in licensed personal care homes will help about 2,000 people, the province said.

The government's affordability measures will please some people, but still fall short, said Simon Enoch, senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

"I'm sure people in the middle class will welcome the tax cuts," Enoch said. "I think the low-income people are the people here that may be sacrificed."

Enoch was surprised the budget didn't include a contingency fund to help people potentially affected by U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods and fallout from an extended trade war.

"I had really hoped that the government would've swung for the fences here, because we are in an extremely precarious economic and financial situation, potentially," he said. "This was an opportunity to really rise to the occasion. And I just don't see anything here that shows the urgency of this situation we're in."

Enoch wanted the budget to include supports like job re-training funds for laid-off workers or price-gouging protection for consumers, and more local procurement programs like the province just established for steel.

Active families bump welcomed

Sask Sport, the non-profit advocating for amateur sports, welcomed increases to the Active Families Benefit, which reimburses parents for costs involved with sports, arts and cultural activities. The province doubled the benefit to $300 and doubled its income threshold to $120,000.

The change will make community sports more accessible for some families, said Rob Kennedy, sports division manager at Sask Sport.

"It's an opportunity for more kids to get involved with sport and recreation activities," Kennedy said. "The new amount, it's substantial. The threshold was quite low in the past and now it's going to be a significant number of families that could access this."

The budget also keeps the small business tax rate at one per cent and reduces education property tax mill rates across all property classes. For families, the dependent child exemption increases to $7,704 this year from $7,015 and the budget forecasts it will hit $9,706 by 2028.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) expressed dismay that the budget adds $2.4 billion to the provincial debt. The province already spends about $1 billion annually — about $705 per person — to service debt, said Gage Haubrich, CTF's Prairie director.

"The government is continuing just to spend and put that onto the backs of taxpayers," Haubrich said.

"A more responsible budget would have seen the government get the debt to start going down, not adding billions of dollars to it, with potential for billions of more to be added if this tariff situation gets worse."