Big spending and promise of $15-an-hour minimum wage in Saskatchewan NDP platform

Saskatchewan’s NDP released its full platform at an event in Saskatoon’s River Landing area, just before the Thanksgiving weekend.

Claiming the Saskatchewan Party is “stuck in neutral, acting like nothing’s changed,” NDP Leader Ryan Meili says Scott Moe has squandered the province’s boom.

Meili says over the last 13 years, the Sask. Party has “tripled the debt, shovelled billions of dollars of our money to out-of-province political donors and left (our) public services stretched to the breaking point,” and now it’s promising austerity.

However, even with a larger debt, Meili is not promising austerity but rather an increase in spending nearly across the board.

According to the NDP’s projections, the operating deficit in 2020-21 will be around $2.3 billion and over the next four years will be reduced to about $562 million by 2025.

That projected deficit is in stark contrast to the Sask. Party’s promise to balance the budget in five years.

But the Sask. Party says the NDP plan is simply not good enough.

The NDP’s suggestion to “work with an expert panel to plan the path back to balanced budgets” is not acceptable, adding that the NDP’s “reckless spending would lead to increased deficits and higher taxes down the road.”

One of the biggest promises Meili made was to introduce a $15-an-hour minimum wage that will be introduced in phases if he’s elected premier in his first term.

There are a total of 30 new measures the NDP hopes to introduce. The following are some of the highlights:

• Ending short-staffing in primary, long-term and acute care by hiring 100 doctors, 150 nurses, 300 licensed practical nurses and 500 continuing care assistants;
• Opening mental-health emergency rooms in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw;
• Eliminating interest on student loans;
• Bringing in $25-a-day child care;
• Free tuition for kids leaving foster care;
• Enacting pay equity legislation;
• Instituting a job creators’ plan for local businesses as they adapt to the $15-an-hour minimum wage;
• Reducing the craft beer levy;
• Lowering crop insurance rates for new farmers;
• Lowering SGI rates by about $85 per vehicle, while drivers get a $100 rebate immediately;
• Moving to 50 per cent renewable and non-emitting electricity by 2030; and,
• $2 million for drug treatment strategies.

When questioned about the economic uncertainty the province is facing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Meili told reporters he’s quite certain the investments his party would make would contribute to economic growth and allow for a balanced budget during a second term.

“We think that the approach of the Sask. Party of going down that road of austerity, of cuts, of privatization, that’s actually going to slow down our economy and make it harder to reach balance in time,” Meili said.

“We need to make those investments now so we can get to balances as quickly as possible.”

As for the nearly $700 million in spending in each of the four years, or about $2.7 billion in total, he added: “This is exactly the time to invest in people … It will put people to work, it will grow our economy, and it will make sure we will come out of this well.”