We are a pretty honest lot, here in Saskatchewan.
It is called the underground economy. This is where people engage in productive, for-pay work but do not report it as income for tax purposes. Sometimes we call it the Black Market.
A new report on the prevalence of this activity shows Saskatchewan has a relatively small underground economy – under 2.5-percent of the province’s overall economic activity. That ranks us third-best or third lowest in the nation.
StatsCan says on the personal or individual side, unreported tips are probably the biggest segment of this piece of the economy. It accounts for almost half of the total $32 billion Black Market but it has been in decline for several years. The remainder is attributed to businesses.
And on that front, residential construction is responsible for the lion’s share of this unreported revenue but things such as skimming in retail are a factor as well.
Not surprisingly, the biggest economies generate the largest share of the underground economy and are responsible for the greatest loss of government revenue such as GST.
