Saskatchewan parties to focus on affordability as legislature resumes

REGINA — Saskatchewan’s legislature is set to resume Monday for a short two-week sitting, with Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party planning to get to work on addressing affordability issues after a challenging election campaign.

Proceedings are to begin with the election of a new Speaker and the throne speech, which will lay out the government’s priorities.

Government house leader Tim McLeod told reporters last week the province plans to introduce legislation that would follow through on campaign promises, including personal tax relief to save a family of four more than $3,400 over four years.

He said the government also intends to deal with problems in education, health care and community safety.

“We’ll be introducing … the priority legislation, particularly on affordability,” McLeod said.

“We’re anxious to start going to work for the people of Saskatchewan.”

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 constituencies in the Oct. 28 election, enough to form a fifth consecutive majority in the 61-seat legislature but fewer than the 42 seats it had before.

Carla Beck’s NDP is to form the Official Opposition with 27 seats after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

Beck said her party’s first order of business is to push the government to pause the 15-cent-a-litre gasoline tax.

She said the NDP is to introduce an emergency motion Tuesday that would call for a suspension of the gas tax by Wednesday.

“We’ve got to lower costs for people and we’ve got to lower them now,” Beck said in a statement.

“Families can’t wait until tax season next year. People voted for action and we aren’t going to waste a second.”

Manitoba has suspended its provincial gas tax until the end of this year. Newfoundland and Labrador and Ontario have reduced their gas taxes until 2024. Alberta had a fuel tax suspension in 2023 but rates returned this year.

During the campaign, Moe said he was opposed to pausing the tax as the revenues help pay for highway repairs. He has said his government’s plan to not charge the federal carbon levy on home heating helps people save money.

Moe has also said he understands many voted for change and that his government is prepared to deliver it.

At the swearing in of his new cabinet earlier this month, he told reporters a policy that would ban “biological boys” from using school changing rooms with “biological girls” is no longer his first order of business.

Moe had proposed the measure on the campaign trail and it wasn’t part of his platform document.

He said he misspoke when proposing the plan, and that the province is to consult with school boards to come up with a policy that would support all students.

Beck has said the ban would make vulnerable kids more vulnerable.

Her party has also opposed a Saskatchewan Party law that requires parental consent if children under 16 want to change their names or pronouns at school. Moe used the Charter’s notwithstanding clause in the legislation to secure it from legal challenge.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2024.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press