• SIGN OUR PETITION: Build a Saskatchewan Heritage Fund

REGINA, SK: Saskatchewan needs a heritage fund to capture the next boom and soften the next bust and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is today releasing a report with detailed recommendations to make that savings plan a reality.

“It’s common sense to save during good times in preparation for tough times,” said Todd MacKay, Prairie Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Other places such as Norway and Alaska have built successful heritage funds – it’s time for Saskatchewan to create it’s own heritage fund.”

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is recommending the creation of a Saskatchewan heritage fund based on three principles:

• A referendum should be held to endorse the creation of a heritage fund and, once created, a referendum must be required to alter the fund in the future;
• All non-renewable resource revenues in excess of $1.5 billion each year should be used to pay down debt, and, when the debt is paid, the payments should go into a heritage fund (if non-renewable resource revenues are below $1.5 billion, there would be no requirement for debt repayment or heritage fund deposits); and,
• The principal in the heritage fund must be protected and only the returns on those investments should be spent.

If Saskatchewan had deposited all non-renewable resource revenues above the $1.5-billion cap from 2005 to 2015, the report estimates there could be $13 billion in a Saskatchewan heritage fund generating investment income of $652 million annually.

“It may seem strange to recommend a savings plan when the province is struggling with a deficit, but we need to develop a plan now so that we’re ready if the situation improves,” said MacKay. “If Saskatchewan can’t live without non-renewable resource revenues today, how will our children and grandchildren live without those revenues in the future?

We need a heritage fund to better manage the non-renewable resource revenues.”

The full report is available here: http://www.taxpayer.com/media/9999-Report-SK-Heritage.pdf

• SIGN OUR PETITION: Build a Saskatchewan Heritage Fund

For more information, please contact:

Todd MacKay – CTF Prairie Director – 306-582-7717 – [email protected]