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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Poor working conditions, favouritism, $300K travel nurse pay at issue
REGINA - Today, the Official Opposition released a letter signed by 49 emergency room nurses in Saskatoon. The letter slams the Sask. Party government for failing to support Saskatchewan nurses and curb the province’s reliance on expensive out-of-province travel nurses.
REGINA - Today, Official Opposition Critic for First Nations and Métis Relations Betty Nippi-Albright hosted a Day of Action with Indigenous leaders from Nekaneet First Nation, Yellow Quill First Nation, Waterhen Lake First Nation, Onion Lake Cree Nation, Carry The Kettle First Nation, Key First Nation and the residential school support team from Yorkton Tribal Council. Together, they continue to draw attention to the Sask. Party government’s disregard for the Duty to Consult process.
MOOSE JAW - Today, the Official Opposition stood with Taylor Enns, president of the Moose Jaw Firefighters Association, and Brayden Dutchak, the son of a cancer survivor. Together, they called on the Sask. Party government to reopen Saskatchewan’s only hyperbaric chamber.
Records show former Sask. Party Finance Minister lobbied for Calgary surgery scheme on behalf of a major Sask. Party donor
REGINA - Today, the Official Opposition grilled the Premier and his Minister of Health after the Minister misled the public, claiming that he had not been lobbied by a former Sask. Party MLA when Saskatchewan's official lobbyist logs show the exact opposite.