REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon blasted the Sask. Party government for failing to step up and provide cost-of-living relief during a time of revenue strength.
“The Sask. Party’s failure to deliver cost-of-living relief to cash-strapped families and instead hike costs and taxes is inexcusable,” said Wotherspoon. “Saskatchewan people have been taking the rising costs of gas, groceries, additional PST, and power bills square on the chin for months while government coffers were being filled with windfall revenues and higher PST.”
The first quarter report shows that the province is on track to collect $150 million more in PST revenue than projected in the budget, and that a surplus of nearly half a billion dollars is expected this year despite softening natural resource revenues.
“The Sask. Party has done worse than nothing: while sitting on record revenues, they’ve hiked taxes and fees and increased power bills three times in just eight months,” said Wotherspoon. “This hurts families, job creation, and our economy, and we can see that through the 5,200 jobs lost since the start of this year and worst-in-the-nation economic performance since the premier came into office.”
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