Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

REGINA — Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck held her first post-election caucus meeting Friday, saying she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting.

Beck’s team has 27 members, nearly double what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She told reporters her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues, including pressing Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and ready-to-eat grocery items.

“Anyone who seeks to be government in this province should be focused on addressing the issues that Saskatchewan people need addressed,” Beck said.

“(We’re) focused on not only showing where the problems are in health care, in cost-of-living, crime and education, but actually putting forward solutions.”

Beck was asked about Moe changing course on a promise to make his first order of business banning “biological boys” from using school changing rooms with “biological girls.”

Moe told reporters this week he misspoke on the campaign trail when he said the change room directive would be his first job if re-elected. He said it’s no longer a top priority, and that he will consult with school boards about the issue before making any changes.

Back said people are tired of politicians who don’t keep their promises.

“I’ll let the premier speak to his change of heart, but this is obviously someone who says one thing during an election and changes his mind and says something afterwards. I think that’s telling,” Beck said.

“It’s about accountability, it’s about integrity and I think that should be expected of all politicians.”

Moe made the change room pledge after he said he’d learned of a complaint about two biological boys using a girls locker room at a school in the southeastern part of the province.

During the campaign, Beck had said such a policy would make vulnerable children more vulnerable and that voters have more pressing issues on their minds, including smaller classrooms.

She told reporters Thursday classrooms have experienced a decade of underfunding.

“We have kids right now whose parents are being called before lunch to come and get them because there aren’t supports available for them in those schools,” Beck said.

“There are huge issues across the province, even just in education. That’s what any government should be focused on.”

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press