REGINA - It was a study in contrasts on the provincial campaign trail Tuesday.
While the NDP held multiple media events in various locations to rail against the so-called “cuts” proposed by the Saskatchewan Party platform, Scott Moe was instead using social media to get his message out.
Moe’s message in a post sent out on the X platform on Tuesday morning was that the Saskatchewan Party would extend the carbon tax exemption on natural gas to the end of 2025.
In doing so, Moe took aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. And again, he tried to tie the Saskatchewan NDP to Trudeau and to the federal carbon tax.
“Last fall, the Trudeau government announced a carbon tax exemption on home heating oil. This was primarily for people in Atlantic Canada. We asked them to extend that exemption to natural gas, which is what most people here in Saskatchewan use to heat our homes,” Moe said.
"They refused. In fact, one Trudeau minister said that if we wanted a carbon tax exemption, that we should have elected more Liberals. This is no way to run a country.
"The Saskatchewan Party took swift and immediate action to ensure that Saskatchewan people are treated fairly by removing the carbon tax on natural gas and electricity that we use to heat our homes. That exemption was just for the current year, 2024. So today, I'm announcing that a re-elected Saskatchewan party government will extend that exemption until the end of 2025.
“This exemption saved the average household about $400 in 2024, and it will save that same household $480 in the coming year. What we really need is a change of government in Ottawa, and a new government that axes the carbon tax completely. Let's not forget that the Trudeau carbon tax has the full support of the NDP, both in Ottawa as well as here in Saskatchewan, where many NDP MLAs and candidates have said that they support Trudeau and his carbon tax.
“Of course, the real solution is for the federal government to get rid of the carbon tax altogether. But that's not going to happen until voters get rid of the Trudeau NDP government. Until then, the Saskatchewan Party will continue to ensure tax fairness for Saskatchewan families by keeping the carbon tax off of your home heating bill.”
At a media event in Regina, NDP leader Carla Beck was asked about Moe’s latest video and its latest insinuations that the provincial NDP was in support of the federal carbon tax. Beck reiterated that she and the provincial NDP were against the carbon tax.
“I ran for the leadership, saying just that. I have never backed away from that position. Mr. Moe will have to say why he continues to lie. I would expect it because of his own political self-interest.”
She characterized Moe and the Sask Party as “increasingly a government that lies, misrepresents what people have said, looks to divide and distract, because you know, frankly, his record isn’t one I want to be running on either. Mr. Moe says he wants to run on his record, but I see him running away from his record. I see him resorting to desperate lies. Verifiable lies. These are things that I've not just said recently, I've not just said one or two times. I'm on the record, many times in the legislature, putting our position forward that we do not support the carbon tax. I guess Mr. Moe should answer on why he continues to lie about that."
NDP continues to blast Sask Party for “cuts”
Meanwhile, Beck and the NDP spent their day in multiple parts of the province trying to make the case that the Saskatchewan Party platform meant cuts to health care and education. Beck met the media at the home of Kayla Deics, a woman who was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.
“She was given a horrible choice,” said Beck. “She could either wait until February of 2025 to be able to get the test that she needed here in Saskatchewan to confirm her diagnosis, or the choice to travel to Alberta to get results faster and to begin her treatment. Let's be clear, no one should have to make that choice. What Kayla and Logan have been through is heartbreaking, and unfortunately it's something that we hear all too often in this province.”
Beck added that “Scott Moe said that he was going to focus on what's working in healthcare. The problem is that almost nothing is working in our healthcare system right now.”
“Over the weekend, he released a platform that doesn't invest a single new dollar into our hospitals or clinics. When you factor in inflation and population growth, what that means is cuts to our healthcare system.”
A similar message was repeated in Moose Jaw, where the NDP’s Nicole Sarauer and area candidates Melissa Patterson of Moose Jaw Wakamow and Cheantelle Fisher of Moose Jaw North, stood outside Wigmore Hospital to criticize the situation at hospitals. They pointed out that at Wigmore there has been disruptions for over 300 days.
While there, Sarauer pledged an NDP government would reduce health care turnover in Saskatchewan by half.
“And we will hire 800 new frontline doctors, nurses, and other professionals to new health care positions where there is the greatest need.”
She added it was a “far cry from Scott Moe's so-called record. That record saw 4,300 professionals leave the health care workforce in Saskatchewan last year alone, more than any other province in the country.”
Patterson, meanwhile, trashed the Moose Jaw North Sask Party candidate -- the sitting incumbent cabinet minister Tim McLeod -- for his record on the rural and remote health file.
“Despite having the Minister of Rural and Remote Health supposedly representing Moose Jaw in Scott Moe's government, all we've got was silence and a failure to act,” Patterson said. “People are being sent down the highway to find emergency services across Saskatchewan because the Sask Party has failed to address rural health disruption.”
In Saskatoon, Vicki Mowat was busy trashing Everett Hindley, the Sask Party’s candidate in Swift Current, for comments he made as health minister back in August in response to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s plan to sell off public hospitals to private third-party operators.
“Everett Hindley answered, quote, ‘It's important for us as a government to make sure that we're open to any and all possibilities when it comes to innovative ways to deliver health care,’ said Mowat.
“For the record, there is nothing innovative about this. Driving public health care into the ground so you can stand up private health care is not the answer. This move will harm the quality of patient care and access to it for those unable to pay out of pocket. It must be stopped.”
The Battlefords was the location of another NDP media event featuring Erika Ritchie running in Saskatoon Nutana, as well as their Battlefords candidate Tom Kroczynski.
They stood outside North Battleford Comprehensive High School where they again denounced the Sask Party for cuts. This time the focus was on education, and they took aim at the Sask Party incumbent in The Battlefords, Jeremy Cockrill.
“This guy fought with teachers, defended the cuts to education, and even called the cops on teachers and community members who were only asking for just a little more help,” said Kroczynski. He was referring to a sit-in incident at Cockrill’s constituency office in which the RCMP had been called in.
“He has failed our kids, and now he has the audacity to run again with a new platform to cut even more. The people here in the Battlefords deserve better. Our children deserve better. This election, you have a choice. You can vote for more of the same, more cuts from the Sask Party and guys like Cockrill, or you can vote for change.”
When asked for a response about the claims from the NDP that the Sask Party platform would mean cuts, the Sask Party once more sent a statement pointing to the record increases to health and education in the 2024-25 budget - 10 per cent in health and eight per cent in education — as well as new commitments like expanded glucose monitoring and self screening for HPV/cervical cancer. They again reiterated their platform costing was based on the four-year forecast from Finance which includes funding increases every year to all areas of government, including health and education.
With files from Jon Perez, Jason Antonio and Angela Brown.
