STOP the Saskatchewan Government’s Tax on Arts & Culture
Call to Action: Petition
The Saskatchewan Arts Alliance (SAA) has created this petition to allow the arts and cultural community, as well as the general public, audience members and patrons to voice concern about the recent addition of PST to admissions, entertainment and recreation effective October 1, 2022.
The timing of the introduction of this additional tax could not be worse. The continuing disruption of COVID-19 to the arts sector has been life-altering. Facing a continued loss of sponsorship dollars, the reluctance of audience members to return to live events and the pressure of accumulated deficits, the arts sector is struggling. The increased cost for the public to participate in the arts due to the addition of PST on expenses such as concert tickets, theatrical performances and art gallery attendance severely impacts the prospects of the arts, culture, tourism and hospitality sectors’ “building back” capacity and recovering from the devastating impact of the pandemic. Restaurants and bars feed off of arts, culture and sport and taxing the hardest-hit industries as they begin to rebuild is bad for the economy and bad for Saskatchewan.
