With the Sask. Party government recommitting yesterday not to face the electorate until the fall of 2020, Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili is calling on two Sask. Party MLAs who are running for the Federal Conservatives in the next federal election to step down from their public roles in provincial politics.
"We have a situation where two Sask. Party MLAs are drawing salaries from the provincial purse while campaigning for a different party at a different level of government,” said Meili.
According to advocates who came to the Legislature today seeking government action, far too many people in the province who are looking for help with their addictions cannot get it because services are lacking and the wait times for treatment are long.
“We need more than just lip service from the Sask. Party when it comes to providing people the supports they need. We need concrete actions,” said NDP Mental Health and Addictions Critic Danielle Chartier. “Addictions can devastate families, but it’s even worse when those who suffer from them can’t get access to the supports that will help them beat their disease.”
The Sask. Party has sunk millions of taxpayers’ dollars into the West Regina Bypass to meet projections that over 6,400 trucks would be passing through the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) daily. However, due to the Sask. Party’s mismanagement of the inland port, truck traffic has reached barely 10 per cent of that projection, government documents show.
“We all know about the Sask. Party’s land scandals at the GTH, and here’s yet another example of how badly they have miscalculated, costing Saskatchewan taxpayers millions in the process,” said NDP GTH Critic Cathy Sproule. “The GTH is a money pit and the West Regina Bypass is making that hole bigger.”
NDP Leader Ryan Meili met today with out-of-work tradespeople and joined them in calling on the provincial government to introduce a community benefits agreement that would ensure work for Saskatchewan tradespeople on Saskatchewan infrastructure projects.
“The government’s failed procurement model is holding Saskatchewan and its workers back,” said NDP Leader Ryan Meili. “When it comes to infrastructure projects, we need an approach that keeps Saskatchewan workers on the jobsite, not the SaskJobs website.”
The impacts of the Sask. Party’s recent budgets are still hurting families throughout the province in many ways. For instance, many are now struggling with the consequences of the Sask. Party cut to the Hearing Aid Plan – a service that provided audiological evaluation, hearing aids and fittings, counselling and education.
“After years of blowing through record revenues, the Sask. Party panicked when the money ran out and started cutting in areas that would hurt the most vulnerable,” said NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat. “For over 40 years, this was a program that helped so many people and families throughout the province. It hasn’t taken long to see the damage that cutting it has done.”
NDP Leader Ryan Meili called today for a reversal of one of the several unpopular decisions in their 2017 budget that has not yet been reversed: the Sask. Party’s expansion of PST to construction labour.
“This is a government that saw the economy slowing down and they slammed on the brakes,” said Meili. “Adding PST to construction labour at such a time has hurt the industry and further weakened the broader economy. We’ve heard loud and clear from industry stakeholders how this decision would hurt them, and the numbers we see now are bearing that up.”