Spring session shows Sask. Party government is out of touch with Saskatchewan people
REGINA - On the last day of the spring session, Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck remained focused on the issues keeping Saskatchewan people up at night, grilling Premier Scott Moe on his failures to fix the health system, create good jobs and provide relief to families struggling to pay the bills.
“Saskatchewan has all the ingredients to boom, but Moe’s out-of-touch Sask. Party is holding us back,” said Beck. “Hospitals are on bypass. Wait times are through the roof. Two hundred thousand Saskatchewan people don’t have a family doctor. Hardworking families are having to choose between heating and eating. And instead of fixing these issues, the Sask. Party is focused on things that nobody asked for, like an expensive new tax agency that will make people file twice. Moe’s priorities are completely out of whack at a time when we need balanced and serious leadership.”
Beck and the Official Opposition questioned the provincial government almost every day on the cost-of-living crisis and Saskatchewan’s nation-leading rates of financial insecurity. Yet instead of acknowledging the financial hardships Saskatchewan families disproportionately face, the Sask. Party kept on making life more expensive with higher power bills, pension clawbacks and taxes on basic groceries like salads, granola bars and rotisserie chickens.
Scott Moe’s Sask. Party also failed to deliver on healthcare, despite sitting on a billion-dollar surplus. Beck and her Opposition MLAs pressed the government for ambulance reform, a public display of ER and hospital closures, transparency around the healthcare hush-memos, no-cost contraceptives, team-based care and, successfully, for an alternative fee model for family doctors.
In and outside of the chamber, Beck and her team stood up for good, mortgage-paying jobs. Beck was ejectedfor calling out Moe’s Trade Minister for playing politics with the livelihoods of steelworkers. Her motion opposing any federal move cutting jobs at the RCMP Depot received unanimous support. And the Sask. NDP team fought against job-killing cuts at Saskatchewan colleges and universities that will worsen Moe’s last-in-Canada jobs record.
The Sask. Party government continued to ignore and downplay the concerns of Saskatchewan people. They refused to listen to nurses and establish a nursing task force. They barred Indigenous leaders from testifying in the Saskatchewan First Act committee. And while Beck and her team rallied with teachers, families and students in the largest demonstration in recent Saskatchewan history, Moe’s Education Minister tried to minimize and caricature the event.
“When politicians start spending more time playing political games than doing the work they're paid to do, that’s when it’s time for a change. People don’t feel like they're getting ahead and are rightfully frustrated by the Sask. Party’s tone-deaf slogans saying everything is A-okay,” said Beck. “I truly believe Saskatchewan’s best days are ahead of us, but it'll take a balanced government that actually listens and isn’t afraid of rolling up its sleeves.”
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I want to wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a happy new year from everyone here at the Saskatchewan NDP Caucus.
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