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A move at the federal level is drawing reaction from the Saskatchewan political landscape.
On Tuesday, the federal Liberals and NDP announced an agreement that will see the NDP support the Liberals until the next election in 2025. In exchange, the Liberals will prop up some NDP campaign promises, such as universal pharmacare and dental coverage.
But Premier Scott Moe called it a takeover of the federal NDP by the Liberals.
“What Justin Trudeau has done has given the NDP what Canadians never have: Some say in the power of how this country is governed,” Moe said. “What I would say what Jagmeet Singh and the NDP have done is given Justin Trudeau specifically what Canadians did not provide him with in the last election and that’s a majority government.
“This is an affront to democracy. It is a takeover of one party by another.”
Moe said this changes things when it comes to discussions around health-care funding between the federal government and provinces, saying this is one-off funding into areas of provincial jurisdiction.
“If (the New Democrats) are going to support the premiers’ ask to increase the Canada Health Transfer so that provinces can address the challenges that we have in provincially delivered health care, then I would give credit where credit is due,” Moe said.
“I didn’t see in the takeover agreement any allusions to the Canada Health Transfer or any health transfers outside of the ones that are going to be very prescriptive from a federal government that is blatantly intruding on provincial jurisdiction.”
He said the money from the feds should go through the Canada Health Transfer so that provinces can cost-share and deliver provincial health-care programs.
Moe also claimed the provincial NDP and federal parties are one and the same.
“The Saskatchewan NDP is a subsidiary of the federal NDP who is now a subsidiary of the federal Liberals,” Moe said.
Moe also put out a tweet earlier in the day in that same vein.
I see @Sask_NDP has its new leader…
Justin Trudeauhttps://t.co/qJ4F2WmBPr
— Scott Moe (@PremierScottMoe) March 22, 2022
That claim is something current NDP Leader Ryan Meili disagrees with.
“Saskatchewan is Saskatchewan. The Saskatchewan New Democrats work hard on behalf of Saskatchewan people. At times, that means we agree with the federal NDP, at times that means we don’t,” Meili said.
“If you look at Saskatchewan politics these days, there’s only one party that takes their marching orders fully from Ottawa and that’s the Saskatchewan Party, whether it’s (former Conservative leaders) Stephen Harper or Andrew Scheer or Skippy (Conservative leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre). If they say jump, Scott Moe says how high.
“There’s a level of immaturity (with Moe) that is remarkable. It makes me think back to elementary school where there’s the one kid in class and people say, ‘Oh, you touched so-and-so and now you have cooties.’ ”
Meili said Moe is ready to work with the federal government when it comes to COVID money or childcare funds, or hand over management of the connections between the Evraz owners and the connection to Russian oligarchs.
“Then it’s fine for the federal government (parties) to work together but if he can possibly drive a wedge and play games, he is keen to do that. It makes the man look small and damages our reputation as a province,” Meili said.
Meili said there are a lot of things on which he disagrees with the federal NDP.
“I will say I firmly believe in pharmacare,” he noted. “This idea that this would be negative to Saskatchewan health that the premier is floating is garbage.
“We would save billions of dollars nationally not just in the cost of drugs, but also the impact in terms of keeping people healthy because they have access to medications early instead of showing up in our hospitals too late and too soon.”