2009 ended with some great population news for our province. Just before Christmas, Statistics Canada released population numbers which showed there were 1,034,974 people living in Saskatchewan, a new all-time high. That number surpasses the old record of 1,032,799 set in 1987. Over the past year Saskatchewan’s population has grown by more than 16,000 people, many of them from outside of Canada. A growing population means a growing economy. A growing economy means Saskatchewan will continue to move forward.
As people across Saskatchewan toasted the New Year, we had more than just the turning of the calendar to celebrate. Major economic forecasters are predicting our province will once again lead the country in economic growth. That means more job creation, more construction, more new housing starts and more businesses investing in the province. While Saskatchewan was not immune to the economic downturn in 2009, we are poised to come out of the recession in better shape than most other provinces.
2010 will also see Saskatchewan taxpayers continuing to keep more of their hard-earned money. Our government is, once again, fully indexing personal income tax brackets and credits to the national inflation rate. Indexing protects Saskatchewan taxpayers from “bracket creep,” which is what happens when people are pushed into higher tax brackets due to inflationary increases in income. This move builds on the $300 million income tax reduction that our government introduced in 2008, which was the largest-ever single-year income tax cut for Saskatchewan people. These tax cuts are saving families and individuals thousands of dollars.
