Affordable housing has been part of the Saskatchewan advantage for years.  Owning your own home was something that many young families and young people just starting out could dream about and achieve, but over the last couple years that appears to be changing.

With the boom has come an unprecedented surge in housing prices, which is good news for those who already own their homes but has created real challenges for those just starting out.  The Saskatchewan dream of getting a good job, saving for a couple years and then getting the house you want simply isn’t the reality being faced by most young people today.

Information released by the Association of Regina Realtor’s shows that on a year to date basis the average price of a home in Regina was $227,820, up 47% over last year’s $154,909. According to the Saskatoon Regional Association of Realtors, the average selling price for a residential property in Saskatoon for June 2008 was $310,386, up 23 per cent from $252,433 in June 2007 and up 93 per cent from $160,547 in June 2006. Housing prices are increasing dramatically right across the province. 

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation the average rent for a two bedroom unit has gone from $601 in 2006 to $718 in 2008- that’s a 19 per cent increase over a two year period. 

The NDP has been calling on the government to do something about housing affordability but the government seems either ill-equipped to act or indifferent.  Their budget included virtually no new money for affordable housing beyond the status quo and their only promise was to set up a two person task force to study the issue. 

The task force reported in June with a number of recommendations and as of today the government has only managed to fulfill one of those recommendations by boosting shelter allowances for those on assistance.  They have no plan to create more affordable housing stock and no plan to make housing more affordable for average Saskatchewan families.

The NDP will continue to hold the Sask Party to account for affordable housing.  We will continue to put pressure on them to come up with a plan.  With Saskatchewan’s resources paying big dividends to the government of Saskatchewan, its time for the Sask Party to give some of it back to Saskatchewan people.

The Wall government is spending $49,000 a month for a former Republican Ambassador's advice on how to talk to the Obama White House.

"By the end of the year there will likely be two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the province, which means Saskatchewan will be in a recession."

- Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer

Sask. Party's stupid mistakes are both political and operational...
May 6, 2010
But if such politically and operationally dumbass decisions costs, say Bill Hutchinson or Laura Ross (both Regina-area Sask. Party MLAs first elected in 2007) their political careers, the Sask. Party brain trust doesn't give a flying lip lock. ...Like the Bourbon kings of post-Napoleonic France, Brad Wall's government, built from Devine's wreckage, has seen all and leaned nothing, at least politically. -The Prairie Dog