By Derek Cornet

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SUMA delegates reject La Ronge Council’s five per cent liquor tax

Feb 5, 2019 | 5:00 PM

The mayor of La Ronge believes up to 90 per cent of the delegates at the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association’s annual convention voted against the town’s resolution.

“I don’t think there was more than 50 to 100 who voted in favour of it,” Ron Woytowich said out of crowd of nearly 1,000 people. “It was just massive hands against it.”

La Ronge council’s resolution called for a five per cent tax on liquor sales to be returned to communities and be invested into initiatives to increase community safety and wellbeing. Woytowich stated he always thought it was unlikely the resolution would be passed by SUMA delegates and it failed to do so Monday. He noted the resolution did have merit, but it ultimately was too flawed for the majority to vote in favour of it.

One of the reasons Woytowich thinks it failed to pass is because the majority of people believe they have to pay too many taxes already. He said any idea of raising money by implementing taxes is seen with negative connotations to begin with. Another flaw with the resolution, Woytowich added, was all the money generated through such a tax would be given to the community where the liquor stores are located.

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“You can’t get buy in from all the other communities when [you] don’t share and it’s their people who are doing the paying,” he said.

That was the main reason Air Ronge Mayor Gordon Stomp voted against the resolution, noting it didn’t make a lot of sense for him to support it. If the resolution would have suggested the tax dollars would go back on a per capita basis to all the communities who have purchased in that area, he believes it would have been approved right away.

“I think that was the main reason it was defeated because it was identified as revenue going back to where the liquor establishments were and not to the communities that would buy there,” Stomp said.

Members of Air Ronge council and administrator Charmayne Szatkowski at SUMA. (Facebook/Northern Village of Air Ronge)

Air Ronge Deputy-Mayor Julie Baschuk, however, voted in favour of the resolution but stated it still needs work.

“I supported the town’s resolution, but do strongly feel more work is needed, and that more clarity for municipalities with liquor board’s is necessary regarding how money from the tax would flow into them as we also feel the ripple effects of alcohol,” she said.

The Town of La Ronge has been pursuing a five per cent tax on alcohol as part of the Community Alcohol Management Plan. As a main component, Woytowich said it’s unknown what will be done next to find support in favour of it.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno