CONTENTS
Standing Committee on The Economy
Bill No. 17 — The Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive (Patent Box) Amendment Act, 2025
Bill No. 20 — The Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Investment Tax Credit Act
THIRTIETH
LEGISLATURE
of
the
Legislative Assembly of
Saskatchewan
STANDING
COMMITTEE ON
Hansard
Verbatim Report
No.
7 — Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to the Standing Committee on the Economy. I’m James Thorsteinson. I am
the Chair. With us this evening we have Kevin Weedmark, Darlene Rowden, Hon.
Minister Jenson, Tajinder Grewal. Sitting in for Kim Breckner we have Nathaniel
Teed, and sitting in for Sally Housser we have Trent Wotherspoon.
Bill No. 17 — The
Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive (Patent Box) Amendment Act, 2025
Clause 1
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Today the committee will be
considering two bills. We’ll first consider Bill No. 17, The
Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive (Patent Box) Amendment Act, 2025
beginning with clause 1, short title.
Minister Kaeding is here with
his officials from the ministry. I would ask that officials please state their
names before speaking, and please don’t touch the microphones. The Hansard
operator will turn your microphone on when you’re speaking to the committee.
Minister, please introduce
your officials and make your opening remarks.
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
Well good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Members of the committee, I am
pleased to join the committee today to discuss The Saskatchewan Commercial
Innovation Incentive (Patent Box) Amendment Act, 2025.
Joining me today is Deputy
Minister Jodi Banks; our assistant deputy minister of economic development,
Tyler Lynch; and executive director of strategic policy and competitiveness,
Kareen Holtby.
Mr. Chair, this unique
incentive is often referred to as the patent box program or SCII [Saskatchewan
commercial innovation incentive]. The program is intended to incentivize
businesses to commercialize new products at scale right here in Saskatchewan. For
a successful applicant, the program will reduce the provincial corporate income
tax rate to 6 per cent for income generated in Saskatchewan for commercialized
intellectual property.
This
tax incentive is open to any company operating in any sector from anywhere in
the world. This is regardless of where or when the research and development for
the qualifying intellectual property occurred.
This incentive continues to
be one of the first of its kind in North America. This patent box-style
incentive applies to a wide variety of intellectual property types, including
patents, plant breeders’ rights, trade secrets, and copyrights, including computer
programs and algorithms. Applicants may directly own the intellectual property
or hold a recognized licence for the intellectual property and/or the related
goods, services, or processes.
The legislative change being
brought forward is to extend the SCII incentive by two years until June 30th of
2027. This change creates no incremental cost to the government, as the program
is refunding taxes that the Government of Saskatchewan otherwise would not have
received. Last year the program was extended to allow for an external review
with stakeholders aimed at improving the program’s eligibility requirements and
simplifying the application process. With the review now complete, the SCII is
being extended for an additional two years.
It will also be expanding
access to the program by eliminating the economic eligibility criteria. This
means more businesses have an opportunity to benefit from the incentive. Mr.
Chair, these adjustments will make it easier for businesses to qualify, helping
drive even more innovation and investment to Saskatchewan. And this aligns with
the Government of Saskatchewan’s growth plan goal to grow private capital
investment in Saskatchewan to $16 billion annually, and it reinforces the
province’s commitment to fostering a competitive business environment, a strong
suite of incentives, and personalized support that makes doing business easy.
The new and improved SCII
continues to make Saskatchewan one of the best jurisdictions to commercialize
intellectual property. The SCII is a key part of Securing the Next Decade of
Growth: Saskatchewan’s Investment Attraction Strategy. It’s programs like
this that make Saskatchewan one of the most attractive places in Canada to
invest, start, and grow a business.
Mr. Chair, in this year’s
budget our government committed to delivering for the citizens and businesses
of this province, and the SCII does exactly that. I’d like to take any
questions now.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Okay. Thank you, Minister.
I’ll now open the floor to questions. MLA [Member of the Legislative Assembly] Wotherspoon.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Minister. Thanks, officials. Certainly
securing private sector investment and creating the conditions for intellectual
property to be commercialized, for innovation to be commercialized is very
important to this province.
You talked about a review that was
conducted of the program. Can you speak about how you’ve assessed its success?
What measures have you utilized? And maybe speak about the jobs that have been
created through this, the economic impacts, the number of patents and whatnot.
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
Okay, I’ll maybe go high level and then we’ll certainly get Kareen to speak
more to it. But you know, certainly we are supporting the innovation I think
that this province has. And I think we’re all very aware of the opportunities
that we’ve got within the province to support some of the great and novel
ideas.
However we didn’t have a lot
of uptake on the program. We had a number of applications that went through the
process but in the end didn’t have any that completed the complete application
process. So when you don’t have that level of uptake, you need to review it and
see what can we do more that’s going to perhaps engage more people. And
actually I think we had some pretty significant engagement with stakeholders
and with industry and professionals involved in the space. And I’ll maybe let
Kareen speak to what some of that engagement was.
Kareen Holtby:
— Hello. Kareen Holtby. Yeah, so we conducted a program review. We used
Deloitte to provide an accounting perspective of the program and Derek Murray
Consulting associations to conduct industry consultations.
So findings from the review
confirmed that there is opportunity for commercialization of innovation in
Saskatchewan, but industry consistently noted that it was difficult to
participate in the program as designed. The economic eligibility criteria,
especially when combined with the requirement to establish a stand-alone
corporation where the only source of revenue is related to the
commercialization of that eligible intellectual property, were barriers to
uptake.
Deloitte’s review found that
the removal of the sole corporation requirement would increase the complexity
of actually delivering the program. Businesses confirm that simplifying the
application process and eligibility requirements would increase the usability
of the program. SCII could be used by firms to access other forms of financing
as it improves their return on investment through the reduced provincial
corporate income tax rate.
SCII also frees up capital to
support reinvestment and growth. And the program review revealed that much of
the existing commercialization of innovation in Saskatchewan involves trade
secrets funded through reinvestment. So the scope of SCII in terms of allowing
different types of intellectual property was a good thing.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Thanks so much. So there was no uptake in the program that was in place. Is
that what I heard?
Jodi Banks:
— Jodi Banks, deputy minister, Ministry of Trade and Export Development. So we
have had engagement with firms that were interested in utilizing the program.
And so over the last number of years we have had 12 firms that have applied for
the SCII program. Through that time we’ve worked closely with those firms, like
anybody trying to commercialize new research and development. Some of those
firms, you know, ended up maybe selling to another company or doing other
things, but we continue to work with them.
And so we have had five firms
that have been conditionally approved through that first step of the
application process, so that’s basically making sure that they have the
scientific eligibility. Three of those applicants have since withdrawn, three
were denied, and one is pending. But no conditionally approved applicants
submitted an economic eligibility application, and so that was . . .
When we looked at the review, that seemed to be a barrier as well to companies.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
And that’s through the whole history of this program? Never someone that’s
utilized it in the end? Okay. It’s important to review these things because I
know there’s been a lot of pointing at it in the public discourse by government
as a program of success sometimes. But if it hasn’t been utilized
. . . I mean, reviews are important. And you have to figure out, you
know, what are the barriers. And you’ve identified what you feel some of those
are here today.
Jodi Banks:
— So basically, you know, there was these three controls. One is the scientific
eligibility. Is it valid IP [intellectual property]? And we work with the
National Research Council IRAP [industrial research assistance program] on
that, plus we have a third party who can help verify that. The economic
eligibility was really meant to help determine if the company was able to, you
know, sort of create economic benefits to the province, and so it included some
of these economic benchmarks.
And then, as we mentioned,
the requirement to have a sole corporation was really meant to ensure that the
tax benefit was only on the portion of the revenue being generated by the
intellectual property. And so if it was a company that was only that, you know,
it would be on the whole revenue. But if it was a big company that brought in a
piece of IP, they would have to spin that out into the sole corporation so that
we were able to track what that . . . so that they weren’t getting a
tax rate on the entire company.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Right, and that’s maintained at this point?
[16:15]
Jodi Banks:
— That is maintained.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
You know, and of course I want good
competitive tax rates for our successful businesses in the province, but you
need to have controls or at least understand fiscal impacts of your programs as
well. So if an established company goes through the process of registering
their intellectual property and they go through this program, it would only
apply to the revenue generated off of this intellectual property? It wouldn’t
be across all the corporate revenues? Okay. And how do you do the accounting on
that?
Jodi
Banks: —
So it’s really up to the business to maintain that accounting. But you know, we
would require reporting and all this. And in fact our Ministry of Finance would
then issue that tax credit after they’ve gone through the process and ensured
that they have done their due diligence.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Sure. And the Ministry of Finance . . . I mean obviously the
businesses are going to follow the rules and do this in a good way. But once
you participate in a program like this, the Ministry of Finance would have
access as well to make sure they have all the supporting information from that
company and the transparency needed to make sure that the program’s operating
in a sound way with integrity, correct?
Jodi
Banks: —
Yes, that’s correct because the actual tax credit is issued as a company would
go through their normal tax process with the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry
of Finance would actually issue this tax credit certificate, I believe it’s
called.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
And you talked about eliminating the economic criteria because it was a
barrier. That being said, the whole goal of this is to create economic
activity, create jobs, new investment in the province. So you don’t have a
criteria on this front. Those were the goals of it. Can you speak to the goals
on this front and how you’re going to measure success of this program over the
next two years?
Jodi Banks:
— Yeah, I think the whole, entire goal is to get investment in the province and
to take advantage of, you know, the world-class research and development work
that’s being done in the province and have it ensure that, when those
opportunities are there to spin them off into businesses, that it’s happening
here in the province.
And so we did have, you know,
this eligibility where they had to meet two of five economic benchmarks
including $3 million in R & D [research and development]
expenditures in Saskatchewan, 10 net new full-time employees, $10 million
in net new capital expenditures, 3.5 million in new provincial CIT
[corporate income tax] taxes paid, or some economic benefit benchmark that was
pre-approved by the Ministry of Trade and Export Development. So previously
they had to meet at least two of those.
I think what we found was
that every company is different. You know, you might have an IT [information
technology] company. They’re not going to have 10 full-time employees
necessarily. You might have a manufacturing company that, you know, isn’t going
to necessarily have those R & D expenditures in the province.
And so what we wanted to do
was ensure that any company, whether it’s trade secret or this registered
patent, had the ability to come in. Again we will still work with them. They
will have to be a valid company in order to . . . The other piece too
is that in order to get a tax benefit, they have to be a taxpaying company. And
so they have to be established enough. They have to have a business licence,
all of those things. So in order for them to actually take advantage of the
benefit, they will have had to have demonstrated that they are a valid business
in the province.
And so we believed that the
process they would have to go through to actually acquire the tax benefit
through the Ministry of Finance and their due diligence would demonstrate that
— that they are a valid Saskatchewan company. Now as we see companies go through,
we’ll definitely be, through reporting functions, keeping track of things like
investment in the province, jobs being created, those sorts of things. And so
you know, as we start to see successful companies go through the process, we
will be tracking those benchmarks.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Okay, you know, and obviously you’re going to be measuring the program. How are
you going to measure success?
Jodi Banks:
— You know, I think to measure success, we really want to see businesses that
are able to get through that process. We are going to be able to see businesses
that are created from the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that exists in
the province, whether it’s through our world-class universities or Sask
Polytech or sometimes just the sheer innovation of . . . You know,
you think about the history of our province where we’ve created a potash
industry, agricultural manufacturing industry that have been done in people’s
machine shops. You know, we want to ensure that we’ve got the ability to make
sure the research and development that’s happening here can be commercialized
here.
And so you know, I think
success will be that we see that happen and that we can help those companies
get through and get that tax break and make that investment here in the
province.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Obviously the goals are important. And we look forward to continuing to track
the success and the progress and look forward to, you know, exchanges year to
year through the committee processes, and would urge as well the minister to do
some reporting on sort of uptake and what some of the results are. With that
being said, I don’t have any further questions on this bill.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — All right, thank you. Are
there any more questions or comments from any committee members? All right,
seeing none, we’ll proceed to vote on the clauses. Clause 1, short title, is
that agreed?
Some
Hon. Members: — Agreed.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Carried.
[Clause 1 agreed to.]
[Clauses 2 to 13 inclusive
agreed to.]
Chair
Thorsteinson: — His Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, enacts as
follows: The Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation Incentive (Patent Box)
Amendment Act, 2025.
I would ask a member to move
that we report Bill No. 17, The Saskatchewan Commercial Innovation
Incentive (Patent Box) Amendment Act, 2025 without amendment. MLA Weedmark.
Is that agreed?
Some
Hon. Members: — Agreed.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Carried. Minister, do you
have any closing comments?
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
No, I think we’re good on that. Thanks, committee, for the rapid response on
this.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Mr. Wotherspoon, any closing
comments?
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Not with respect to this bill. Thanks so much, and I think we have one more
bill to deal with.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Okay. All right, Minister,
do you have to change out officials or are we good with what we’ve got?
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
No.
Bill No. 20 — The
Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Investment Tax Credit Act
Clause
1
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Okay, then we can roll right
into consideration of Bill 20, the
small and medium enterprise investment tax credit Act,
beginning with consideration of clause 1, short title. Once again Minister
Kaeding is here with his officials. I’m not going to have to remind you to do
everything. Minister, go ahead and make your opening remarks.
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
Good. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and certainly the same people with me today, but my
apologies for omitting Krystal Medwid, our executive director of corporate
services, and Drew Lumbard, our chief of staff, are with us here today as well.
Mr. Chair, this pilot project
will function similar to that of the province’s very successful Saskatchewan
technology start-up incentive, or the STSI. But where STSI focuses on
technology start-ups, the new SME tax credit will focus on small- to medium-size
manufacturers in our province. And under this pilot “small and medium” is
defined as a Saskatchewan-based business with between 5 and 49 employees, with
a minimum of 50 per cent of those employees residing in Saskatchewan.
In addition to the food and
beverage manufacturers in our province, the tax credit will also be aimed at
businesses in the machinery and transportation equipment sectors, businesses
like 9 Mile Legacy Brewing. I know Shawn Moen, president and CEO [chief executive
officer] of the company is particularly excited about the opportunities that
this new incentive presents, and had this to say:
Saskatchewan
is the right place to build a business like ours. I’m very encouraged by the
upcoming SME investment tax credit. It has the potential to seriously advance
the ecosystem and change the narrative around what it means to be a
Saskatchewan-made product.
Mr. Chair, our government is
committed to creating jobs and opportunities for its residents. We are also
dedicated to working with countries all around the world to attract investment.
And this work allows us to be strong and steady during uncertain times,
reinforcing the strength of our vibrant communities and a standard of living
that truly is unmatched.
We are committed to creating
and maintaining a business environment where ideas can become reality and where
entrepreneurs can thrive. The SME tax credit will help us do just that. It will
help businesses attract investment so they can scale up. Mike Tate, president
of the Regina & District Chamber of Commerce, also sees the potential that
this incentive offers, and I quote:
The
introduction of the SME tax credit will have a positive effect on the business
communities. The new SME will reduce the financial burden on businesses and
allow for reinvestment in innovation, expansion, and job creation. This will
enable local businesses to thrive while attracting new investments to
Saskatchewan.
This pilot project will
include a 45 per cent non-refundable tax credit for individuals or corporations
who invest in the equity of an eligible Saskatchewan business. The tax credit
will also have an annual cap of $7 million on the total non-refundable tax
credits awarded, processed on a first-come, first-served basis.
With the creation of this new
incentive we are fulfilling one of our key campaign promises from last year’s
provincial election. Since 2014 the number of small businesses in our province
has risen by 4.9 per cent, and it’s incentives like the SME tax credit that are
going to help us maintain this growth. It aligns us with the government’s
growth plan goal to increase private capital investment in Saskatchewan to
$16 billion annually by 2030, a goal which we are well on our way of
achieving.
In March our province had the
highest job creation in the country. We created 19,800 jobs, a growth rate of
3.4 per cent compared to March of 2024. We also had the lowest unemployment
rate of 4.9 per cent, well below the national average of 6.7 per cent.
Mr. Chair, when it comes to
investment, we are also leading. Saskatchewan ranked first among the provinces
for private capital investment in ’24 with an increase of nearly 17.3 per cent.
And we’re expected to increase by 10.1 per cent in 2025. Saskatchewan’s real
GDP [gross domestic product] reached an all-time high of 77.9 billion in
2023, increasing by 2.3 per cent. And this ties Saskatchewan for second in the
nation for real GDP growth and above the national average of 1.6 per cent. It
shows that Saskatchewan can bring certainty into what today is a very uncertain
environment. And it’s a reflection of the confidence that entrepreneurs,
manufacturers, and investors have in our province.
With this new incentive, more
small- and medium-size businesses will be able to build equity. It’s going to
allow them to grow and in turn offer more jobs and high-quality services and
products for their customers. This is just one of the many ways that this
government is delivering to the people of the province.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’d
certainly entertain any questions.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Thank you, Minister. Any
questions? MLA Wotherspoon.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Thank you. Certainly securing capital is something very important to SMEs.
We’ve heard this across the province including from the individuals that you
identified there, the entrepreneurs such as Shawn Moen and as well leaders
through the chambers of commerce across the province.
[16:30]
This is a first-come,
first-served program. It’s just been announced in this budget. Seven million is
the cap. 500,000 is the max on an individual investment. Can you give us an
update of where the uptake has been since this fiscal year has started?
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
Great question. And as you have the Act before you today, we need to get
approval of the Act, build the regulations into it. And so we expect that that
will be coming out probably Q3 [third quarter], Q4, and retroactive back to
July 1st of 2025.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
And the total fiscal impact of the program, can you speak to the annual fiscal
impact in the current budget?
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
So we have allocated $7 million per
year for the next three years is what the implication will be there.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Thank you. And how are you going to measure success?
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
So we’ve modelled this after the STSI program which was highly successful, in
fact involved putting a cap on because of the success and ultimately turning
away applicants because of that. So you know, again introduction of this, next
three years, certainly be measuring the metrics all the way through this.
But ultimately as these
businesses are developing, applying for programming, they’re raising capital.
They’re going to be building their base and developing over time. So it’ll be a
great way for us to measure, you know, the impact of how this is going to be
affecting, you know, the province or the economy, is by measuring the impact
that it’s having on these companies as they scale up over time.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
And this pertains to food and beverage and then also machinery, so all of our
agricultural manufacturers would be captured here, would be that whole space
and then transportation. Is that correct?
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
Okay, we’ll give you an example of kind of ultimately what our vision is of who
would qualify. So if we get on the food-and-beverage side, we’re looking at
grain and oilseed milling, confectionery products, fruit and vegetable
preserving, specialty foods, meat products, snack foods, breweries,
distilleries.
And then if we look at the
machinery transportation side . . . So that will include ag,
construction, mining, oil and gas field machinery, industrial machinery, motor
vehicles, and trailers, but again fitting in the parameters of small business
and ultimately, you know, the fiscal parameters that we’ve established before.
So fully expecting we’ll
probably have significant uptake by the food-and-beverage operation. Certainly
offering it to the machinery and transportation side, but they do go about
generally raising capital in a different way.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
And this would apply to meat processing or small abattoirs?
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
Yes, it would. And that’s one of the key areas that we see and have a good
vision as to who’s going to be utilizing this program.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
It’s a really important opportunity for the province — good value for
producers, good economic opportunity for communities and for rural communities.
I continue to hear from so many of these businesses in this space that we
really have to work to address some of the anticompetitive behaviours of the
out-of-province multinational meat packers that really act in anticompetitive
ways in this industry.
Is that an area and something
that you would be leaning into as minister as well?
Hon. Warren Kaeding: — Well it’s certainly
recognizing that small business is kind of the core of the economy in
Saskatchewan. So I think programs like this, and others that we’ve got in our
stable or portfolio of tax credits, is certainly supporting small business and
giving them the opportunities to certainly get to that scale that they feel
that they are certainly being able to compete against larger players or
national or international players.
So
you know, we’ve got this. We’ve got SLIM [Saskatchewan lean improvements in
manufacturing]. We’ve got SVAI [Saskatchewan value-added agriculture incentive]
which I know as companies are going to be scaling up more, they’re able to take
advantage of.
So
I think we’re giving them lots of opportunities to scale up along the way to
get to that critical mass that they’re certainly going to be able to compete
nationally and perhaps internationally.
Trent Wotherspoon: — Again the goals are very
important here and you need good programs to support it.
Just
specifically to the meat processing opportunity in the province — because it’s
a real one and it’s one that we should really be capturing in this province;
good value for producers, for consumers, and economically — you know, I would
suggest that we’ve done a lot of work with the stock growers and with the meat
industry and the retailers on this front, that there really does need to be a
heavier focus.
And
I know you have to work with the feds on this to address some of the
competition concerns. But kind of the story you hear from enterprise after
enterprise on this front is that if you don’t deal with that anticompetitive
out-of-province duopoly, then the control they have . . . You end up
setting Saskatchewan ventures up for not the competitive environment they
deserve, and actually for significant challenges or failures as we’ve seen over
the years. So I would urge attention on that file and to work with the
competition bureau.
And
I think Saskatchewan is well positioned. And it’s sort of a win-win if we get
some of this stuff right. It’s about jobs in this province, about investment.
It’s about better value for livestock producers. And it’s about, you know,
value and opportunity for consumers as well.
I
guess the one question I’d have is you . . . One of the elements of
this program is that if a business gets their shares back within a three-year
period, they would have to pay back the Ministry of Finance. That makes sense
to have a control on these fronts so you’re not able to benefit from the tax
credit and then you’d simply acquire those shares back. I guess to the
minister, just out of interest: is three years the right number? How did you go
about assessing and building out that control?
Hon. Warren Kaeding: — Okay, so again as we had
indicated before, this program is modelled certainly after the STSI, and that’s
the window that we’ve seen there. This is a pilot. So certainly, you know,
going to have a good feel as to is three years an adequate enough time. But I
think three years is certainly a great opportunity to measure, you know, the
potential success or the success of a business as they’re scaling up through
this time.
And
so again it’s something that we’ll always be, you know, revisiting, but I think
right now the success we’ve had, STSI, certainly we expect the same thing to
happen with this program as well.
Trent Wotherspoon: — Thanks. We have a really
impressive brewing and distilling industry across the province — something that
this tax credit would relate to, you know — incredible local businesses, points
of pride for communities, and putting Saskatchewan products to work. I could
name a whole bunch of them across the province. You identified 9 Mile, a
wonderful brewery in Saskatoon. We’ve got great breweries right across the
province, as well as distillers.
On
the distilling side we hear serious concerns from distillers around a
regressive and punitive production levy or a tax, a very steep escalator that
quickly, as I understand it and some of the reports that we’ve seen, puts them
into a position of being basically into a negative net income as they become
more productive. This is an opportunity, you know, for us to be building out
this industry in this province.
And I guess my question to
you as minister: are you active on these files as well in working to advocate
and address the regressive and punitive tax and levy that’s applied to
distillers in the province?
Hon. Warren Kaeding: — So certainly recognize the
value of the brewers and distillers industry in Saskatchewan. You’re right —
second to none, gold medal winners, you know, international recognition. And I
think by including them in the program here, certainly recognizes the value and
the opportunity that we think that they’re going to be able to take advantage
of to grow and escalate their business and certainly scale it up.
And
as they are scaling up, I think those are the conversations that we all have
with SLGA [Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority] to ensure that they’re in
a very competitive position to be able to expand their business
interprovincially.
Trent Wotherspoon: — Thanks. I really would urge
attention. And we’ve spoken to this in the past year and urged your
government’s attention on it; the distillers have as well. Because we do have
an opportunity to grow distilling and the jobs and the investment in the province,
but not if your policy is too punitive as an escalator that tilts production
into negative net income territory.
And
you know, we have examples of, you know, incredible distillers right across the
province that have been impacted this way. I think of, you know, out of Wakaw,
Saskatchewan, I think it’s Backroads — they produce Alibi Vodka — as an
example. Award-winning, but they actually had to shut down production last year
because of their own success. They have built a good product; the demand is
there. But because of the negative net income that was created out of this
regressive tax of your government, they had to then cease operation instead of
continuing to produce and keep people employed.
And
so if we really want to scale up, we need to make sure those conditions are
there just the same as anyone who’s going to be wanting to place an investment,
right. So we’re talking about the investment here. We need to make sure that
the opportunity to scale up is there because you’re unlikely to place
investment if you look at a tax treatment that if you find success with that
business, will then tip it into negative income territory.
So
I know this may not be, you know, the full . . . committee for this.
But ultimately if this is a consideration about growing this important industry
in this province, we really do have to address this punitive and regressive
policy. And there’s good solutions and conversation and ideas throughout the
distilling community. So I would leave that there and urge the minister’s
attention and his government’s attention on fixing that.
I guess my final question.
You mentioned one of the brewers in the province, 9 Mile. Great story there.
Saskatchewan entrepreneur. They have one beer that . . . I know
you’re a hockey guy, Mr. Minister. Do you know the two small towns that are featured
on that beer? It’s a good beer.
[16:45]
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
No. No, I don’t. You’re going to have to help me out here.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Yeah, it’s a good beer too. You know, and all the beers across the province,
every brewer’s making good beer.
You’re a hockey guy. It’s got
the Abbey Eagles versus the Cabri Bulldogs featured on that. This is directly
where the entrepreneur, Mr. Moen, his home territory. And you know, great story
of those communities. And I share that because that’s again an example of these
local businesses that are making investment, creating jobs, and telling stories
with real point of pride as well. I can only imagine if there was a
Terriers-Millionaires beer, Mr. Minister.
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
I’m thinking of the Churchbridge Imperials and the Langenburg Warriors.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
There we go.
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
That’s what I’m thinking. Yeah.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Good. Okay, I have no further questions at this time.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — All right. Thank you. Is
there any other questions, comments from the committee? All right, hearing
none, we will move on to proceed to vote on the clauses. Clause 1, short title,
is that agreed?
Some
Hon. Members: — Agreed.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Carried.
[Clause 1 agreed to.]
[Clauses 2 to 51 inclusive
agreed to.]
Chair
Thorsteinson: — His Majesty, by and with the
advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, enacts as
follows: the
small and medium enterprise investment tax credit Act.
I would ask a member to move
that we report Bill No. 20, The
Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Investment Tax Credit Act
without amendment.
Darlene
Rowden: —
I so move.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — MLA Rowden. Is that agreed?
Some
Hon. Members: — Agreed.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Carried. Minister, do you
have any closing comments?
Hon.
Warren Kaeding: —
Certainly. I’d like to thank officials. Fifty-one points onto a bill; I think
it’s important that they have put a lot of effort. We recognize the effort that
has gone into writing a new piece of legislation here, so certainly like to
thank our officials for the efforts that they put into this. Certainly like to
thank the committee for allowing us to discuss it and have a very, very
worthwhile discussion around it. And certainly like to thank Hansard and
committee and everyone involved for today.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Thank you. MLA Wotherspoon.
Trent
Wotherspoon: —
Well thank you. I first want to commend the Chair for being so reasonable and
strong and effective in the chair, Mr. Chair. And then I want to thank
committee members, and of course to the minister and officials that have joined
us here tonight, and all those that are involved in this work. We look forward
to tracking progress and success and outcomes with respect to the bills that
we’ve considered here tonight, but I just simply want to say thank you to all
those involved in the work.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — All right. Thank you,
Minister Kaeding, and everybody for joining him here tonight. That concludes
our business for the day. I’d ask a member to move a motion of adjournment.
Minister Jenson has moved. All agreed?
Some
Hon. Members: — Agreed.
Chair
Thorsteinson: — Carried. This committee
stands adjourned to the call of the Chair.
[The committee adjourned at
16:52.]
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