Sask. Party Finance Minister spent $8,000 on private plane days after hiking taxes

REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck responded to Sask. Party Finance Minister Donna Harpauer’s decision to spend nearly $8,000 on a private plane to attend a chamber of commerce lunch days after she tabled a provincial budget containing 32 new taxes and fees.

“This flight could have very easily been a drive,” said Beck. “People are making changes to their summer plans because they can't afford gas all while the minister is introducing new taxes and burning more money to get to a lunch than some people earn in months.”

On March 25, Harpauer chartered a plane with Good Spirit Air Service to travel 400 kilometres from Regina to North Battleford at a cost of $7,872.60 to the taxpayer. Two days earlier, she announced the expansion of a six per cent provincial sales tax to industries hard-hit by the pandemic, such as entertainment, gyms, concerts, museums and sporting events like rider games.

On January 10, Premier Scott Moe, Education Minister Dustin Duncan and Rural Health Minister Everett Hindley also charted a private flight to the province's north at a cost of $16,000 to the taxpayer.

“If Scott Moe’s Sask. Party can jet set on the taxpayer dime, they can certainly do the right thing and scrap the PST increase, stop the utility rate hikes and provide affordability relief to Saskatchewan families today,” said Beck. “Maybe all this lavish spending and fiscal mismanagement is why Scott Moe and his finance minister have never balanced a budget.”

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