YORKTON - The Saskatchewan Party is no longer what it once was, and now after 17 years in power in Saskatchewan a change is needed.
Those were core messages from Sask United Party leader Jon Hromek who made a speech at the local campaign headquarters of candidate Doug Forster.
“The Saskatchewan Party has decided to go a different way,” said Hromek, adding it is simply time for a change. “ . . . No party can hold the key of power forever.”
And when it comes to change, Hromek said the recent opposition is not the answer.
“Frankly the NDP has not been a very good opposition,” he said.
Hromek suggested the Sask Party and NDP have lost their way in terms of fiscal management, adding simply throwing money at everything to solve problems is not the answer.
The mismanagement of funds is such with the Saskatchewan Party said Hromek, “if they were in the private sector they would have been fired a long time ago.”
Ultimately this election is about the government record, said Hromek.
“It’s 100 per cent about the Saskatchewan Party and their record,” he said.
It is a record that has left families “struggling to make ends meet,” continued Hromek.
Better management is needed and so is new leadership, said Hromek, suggesting the SUP was the right option to change things.
Hromek said it will be an SUP priority to lessen the burden on people, starting with reducing the provincial sales tax to three per cent, cutting the gas tax (15 cents per litre) and give seniors (65-plus) a 65 per cent property tax discount on their primary residence.
Hromek said the health care system needs changes too to better serve people. As it is the system only provides immediate access in emergency situations, and that is not good enough. He suggested the change needed was a move to an “integrated health care system” one which would allow a level of private health care to be provided in the province, while still ensuring “universal access for all.”
The health care platform of the SUP also calls for creating more training seats in the province, and to fund medical education in exchange for graduates spending time practising in Saskatchewan.
So how would the SUP fund the proposed changes?
To start Hromek suggested, “we need less government and more efficiency.”
That efficiency means a need to cut red tape.
Hromek said the SUP will also institute a review of potash royalties with an eye to get a better deal which will add to provincial revenue.”
“This is a very valuable resource. . . Potash producers don’t own the potash. We do,” he said.
