Major changes coming to potash tax sharing

June 12, 2023, 8:11 am
Kevin Weedmark

Some municipalities will gain hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and others will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars a year when operational mine changes come into effect in 2026.

Potash tax is shared with municipalities within a certain distance of an operational potash mine.

The Nutrien Scissors Creek site has been used as a site to measure proximity, but because the site is not used to bring potash ore to the surface, starting in 2026 the site will no longer be used in the calculations.
As well, Mosaic K1 and K2 mines ceased production in 2021, and will not be used as sites to measure distance from, but their assessment will be included with K3.

Potash tax assessment changes every year, but applying 2023 data to the new rules coming into effect in 2026 gives an indication of the impact of the changes.

Using the 2026 rules with the 2023 data, the RM of Spy Hill would see the largest net gain, increasing $579,034 in potash tax sharing, taking it to $1,935,407.

The RM of Rocanville would see the second highest gain, and would remain the largest beneficiary of potash tax sharing in the region. Rocanville stands to gain $447,660 a year, increasing the annual potash tax sharing to $1,982,956.
The town of Rocanville would gain $184,585, going from $159,566 to $344,152.
The RM of Moosomin would gain $102,834 in potash tax sharing, going from $195,864 a year to $109,012.

Most of the losses in potash tax sharing are in the northern part of the region.

The RM of Langenburg will lose $322,073 in potash tax sharing, the RM of Churchbridge will lose $203,966 a year, the RM of Saltcoats will lose $158,373 a year, the RM of Fertile Belt will lose $103,249 a year, the town of Esterhazy will receive $99,894 less per year, and the RM of Martin will receive $76,956 less per year.

Melissa Ruhland is the reeve of the RM of Rocanville. She said the boost in funding will make a difference.

“We’ll be able to invest in more infrastructure with more of that revenue,” she says. “As an RM, we like to contribute to our community as well. We put $300,000 toward the pool. That potash tax money enables us to do those things for our community as well.

“It makes things easier for us as an RM. It makes it easier to make decisions when you have options available. It gives us options that wouldn’t be available if we didn’t have that revenue.”

She said the additional funds starting in 2026 will have a big impact.

“That will definitely affect road construction. We should be able to build more roads with that, and we’ve been working on our bridges.”

“Being as it’s not til 2026 there are no plans for how we’re going to use it yet,” said RM of Moosomin Reeve David Moffatt.

“It’s a fairly substantial help. You know it’s there, you know it’s available to use, that makes things easier for us. And knowing this is coming is good, but we won’t be putting it toward anything until that money is actually coming.”

Grant Forster is the mayor of Esterhazy. He said the reduction in funding of about $100,000 is significant for the town.

“Those are numbers I haven’t been privy to. Any loss is significant, but when you know it’s coming, you can manage it by looking for efficiencies. It’s good to know it’s coming, rather than having it dropped on us all of a sudden. We’ve got three years and we know it will be going down by $100,000 so we can look at our options and start to plan for it, do we want to put a tax increase on, do we want to increase the base tax, do we want to look for efficiencies in spending.

“$100,000 for us would be about a mill, so that’s substantial, but over three years if we have a chance to plan we can come up with a plan, or phase in any change.

“$100,000 is substantial enough that without it, it would be a loss of services or adding a mill to the taxes.”

Overall, he said potash tax sharing is important for the region.

“It’s huge. The $300,000 we get is enough to replace the loader or go toward the street sweeper we need to replace. It’s vital for us.”