Andrew Thomson (Canadian politician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrew Thomson | |
MLA for Regina South
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In office 1995 – November 20, 2007 |
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Succeeded by | Bill Hutchinson |
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Political party | New Democrat |
Andrew Thomson is the Minister of Finance of Saskatchewan. He is also the Minister Responsible for Information Technology and the Minister Responsible for SaskEnergy. He is a member of the NDP caucus and member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.
Andrew was born and raised in rural Saskatchewan. He has a Bachelor's degree in Political Studies from the University of Saskatchewan. He lives in and represents the riding of Regina South. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan in 1995, and was re-elected in 1999 and 2003.
Andrew was formerly Minister of Energy and Mines in 2001, Minister of Corrections and Public Safety in 2002, and Minister of Learning in 2003. As Minister of Learning he introduced changes to reduce the number of elected school boards and create new parent councils. As Minister of Information Technology he oversaw the introduction of the CommunityNet program that provides access to high-speed internet broadband to rural and urban communities and introduced free wi-fi [1] to select urban areas. As a result of the program 86% of the population has access to broadband.
As Minister of Finance during a period of rising resource revenues, he introduced the largest tax cuts in the province's history by lowering sales taxes, capital taxes, and corporate income taxes in 2006.
On May 11, 2007, Thomson announced he would not seek re-election.[2] Premier Lorne Calvert shuffled his cabinet on May 31, 2007, replacing Thomson as finance minister with Pat Atkinson.[3]