Standing vote comes after Beck, Sask. NDP call for gas tax relief every day of spring session
REGINA - Today, Scott Moe’s Sask. Party voted against temporarily suspending the provincial fuel tax, despite the high cost of fuel making life harder for Saskatchewan people.
“Saskatchewan people are breaking the bank just to fill the tank, in part because of the provincial gas tax,” said Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck. “I think this no-vote shows just how out of touch the Premier and his MLAs have become with the challenges facing working families.”
Every legislative sitting, the provincial Opposition is allowed one priority motion that can trigger a standing vote on an important issue. After hearing from working families in all corners of the province concerned about the rising cost of living, the Opposition forced a vote on the following:
That the Assembly calls upon the government to suspend the collection of the provincial fuel tax from gasoline and diesel for a period of six months in order to help families struggling with the high cost of living.
Provincial governments in Manitoba, Alberta, Ontario, and Newfoundland and Labrador have already delivered gas tax relief. That makes Scott Moe the only Prairie premier not to deliver gas tax relief, despite Saskatchewan people overwhelmingly relying on cars and trucks to get to where they need to go.
“It’s just wrong to deny relief to hardworking families at a time like this, especially after this tired and out-of-touch government made the cost of living worse with power bill hikes and more taxes,” said Affordability Critic Trent Wotherspoon.
According to Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan was one of only three provinces to see median market income fall since 2018. When Scott Moe took office that year, families made on average $67,500. Today the figure is $65,900, a 2.37% decrease despite inflation in Saskatchewan increasing by 16% over the same timeframe.
Beck and her team have called on the Moe government to suspend their provincial gas tax every single day of this session.
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