REGINA - It was a hectic start to the provincial election campaign in Saskatchewan this week, as we look back on the week that was on the 2024 campaign trail.
Scott Moe officially announced Monday evening on social media that the next day he would be calling an election for Oct. 28. No sooner did the writ drop than the promises started to fly, especially from the Saskatchewan Party.
Moe launched his campaign at an event in Saskatoon by promising big reductions in personal income taxes. Moe said in a campaign release on that first day:
“I commit to the people of this great province that a re-elected Saskatchewan Party government will make life more affordable by delivering the largest income tax reduction seen since 2008. We will do this by increasing the personal exemption, increasing the disposal exemption, increasing the child exemption and increasing the senior supplement by $500 each year for the next four years.”
The plan got a thumbs up this week from Canadian Taxpayers Federation. “Saskatchewanians need tax relief and this income tax cut will make a real difference for family budgets,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie director, in a statement.
“Tax cuts like this grow the economy, and more importantly, leave more money in taxpayers’ pockets makes it easier to stretch a paycheque to the end of the month.”
Moe wasn’t done. On Wednesday in Saskatoon, he announced expansion of the Graduate Retention Program benefit from $20,000 up to $24,000.
The next day in Prince Albert, Moe pledged his party would double the Active Families Benefit from $150 to $300 per year per child.
On Friday, Moe capped a week of affordability pledges in Regina by promising to bring in a permanent Saskatchewan Home Renovation Tax Credit and an increase to the Saskatchewan First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit. He also promised an increase to the Personal Care Home Benefit from $2,500 to $3,500 a month, and an increase in benefits to Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability clients under age 65 who live in a personal care home.
The flurry of Sask Party affordability promises seemed to catch the NDP off guard, and they immediately voiced skepticism. At the NDP campaign launch at Tommy Douglas House in Regina Tuesday, Carla Beck said the Sask Party should have delivered the relief much sooner.
“I would say this, I don't think the Premier has understood just how much Saskatchewan people have been struggling, that they've been struggling for years,” said Beck. “And this is a Premier who has not only not offered relief to Saskatchewan people, has actually made life more expensive. We have a plan to focus on the things that people tell us are most troubling to them, groceries, the children's clothing, gas, trying to put gas in their vehicle to get where they need to go.”
“We've got a plan to deliver it right away. But I would also say Saskatchewan people need a government that will work for all people in this province, and will work right across their mandate, right throughout their mandate. Not just come in on the eve of an election and offer what they should have delivered two years ago, while people were struggling.”
At a news conference at NDP campaign offices in Regina Wednesday, Trent Wotherspoon made it known he didn’t think the Sask Party would even follow through with their campaign promises, pointing to reversals in the past.
“As Scott Moe enters an election, again it’s all about his own political self interest,” said Wotherspoon, running in Regina Mount Royal. “He’s hoping that Saskatchewan people forget his record and believe his baseless promises to cut taxes again this time. I’ve been around long enough seeing this movie before, as have Saskatchewan people."
As the week unfolded, concerns about strains in the health care system became a hot campaign issue. In Saskatoon, the NDP’s Vicki Mowat raised new concerns about Royal University Hospital being overcapacity by 350 per cent.
The issue was at the forefront at the Legislature in Regina on Thursday, when Saskatchewan Union of Nurses held a rally on the front steps. At that rally NDP leader Beck voiced concern about nurses’ unsafe working conditions.
“I heard from a lot of angry and frustrated nurses who are working in conditions that are not only unsafe for nurses, they’re making for unsafe conditions of care for patients in this province,” said Beck.
SUN President Tracy Zambory lambasted Scott Moe and Everett Hindley for not showing up to hear the nurses’ concerns.
“How can nurses in this province feel anything but disrespected, when you haven’t even got the courtesy actually to give a phone call to say something's come up. We wouldn’t have been happy about it, but we can at least accept not being completely disrespected and ignored. But that’s the pattern we’re in these days.”
CUPE 5430 also were at the Legislature this past week, where healthcare workers delivered 1800 postcards to the provincial government on issues union members were currently facing.
For the NDP, the week ended with the announcement by Beck of the full costing of their platform. That was countered by Sask Party claims that the NDP was promising $4 billion in new spending, and accusations from them that the NDP was fiscally irresponsible.
Other parties were also quick to launch their campaigns this week. The Saskatchewan Green Party confirmed that they would be running a full slate in all 61 of Saskatchewan's electoral districts, as will the Sask Party and NDP.
In Regina, the Saskatchewan United Party and their leader Jon Hromek released their platform called Blueprint for Change, including pledges to eliminate the gas tax completely and cut the PST in half to three per cent.
Perhaps the biggest news to emerge from that announcement was Sask United's proposing a full royalty framework review on potash.
“Our resources need to follow the same royalty framework as our neighbours in Alberta, and give the people of Saskatchewan the benefits they rightfully deserve,” Hromek told reporters at the Hotel Saskatchewan on Wednesday.
The Buffalo Party also made a campaign announcement this week. Outside the legislature on Wednesday, party leader Phillip Zajac pledged that the Buffalo Party would form a new government ministry called the Ministry of Seniors and Veterans Affairs, and also called for the restoration of Saskatchewan Transportation Company.
With files from Jon Perez, Martin Oldhues and Andrew Dawson.
