The City of North Battleford hasn鈥檛 received the answer it wanted on whether they can get a break on provincial sales tax for their sanitary sewer trunk main project.
The city is facing a $750,000 bill for PST on the project, helping drive the project鈥檚 overall estimated cost past $15.1 million.
The province only started collecting PST on construction in 2017, which was after the city鈥檚 funding application for the trunk main project had been sent in. The thinking from the city was that they might qualify for a break on that PST given the timing of their application.
Unfortunately, Mayor David Gillan confirmed to Planning Committee on Monday the response from the province is a 鈥渘o.鈥�
He said the city had gotten a response from the minister of finance, and they were turned down. It was explained the city didn鈥檛 have a contract in place as of April 1, 2017, when the change to imposing PST on construction projects came in.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 an unfortunate situation but those were the transition rules,鈥� said Gillan.
