Saskatchewan NDP promises rental protections ahead of looming fall election

REGINA — Saskatchewan’s NDP is promising help with high rents and other affordability measures as it gears up for an October election.

NDP Leader Carla Beck said Tuesday if her party forms government, it would introduce policies to help those grappling with the cost of housing, including rules on how much landlords can increase rents per year.

She’s also pledged giving landlords some protection against late or missed rental payments from social services clients, along with making available public housing units that have sat vacant.

“We’re seeing some rent increases higher than (people’s) monthly earnings, and some are now being forced to take second and third jobs to make ends meet,” Beck told reporters.

“It’s time for a government that finally starts to address the housing problems we see in our communities. Simply put, it’s time for change.”

The housing announcement is the latest of several promises Beck and the Opposition NDP have made in recent weeks.

She has promised a suspension of the 15-cent-per-litre gas tax for six months starting on her first day as premier, no tax increases and an extra $2 billion to reduce class sizes.

Premier Scott Moe’s governing Saskatchewan Party has dismissed the promises as a deflection designed to distance the NDP from the record of its predecessor government, which was defeated in 2007.

Moe has said the old NDP administration closed schools and health centres while increasing taxes.

“They say they want to grow the economy, but they drove thousands of people, jobs and opportunities out of Saskatchewan when they were in government,” Patrick Bundrock, the Saskatchewan Party’s executive director, said in an email.

“Voters aren’t going to just forget the NDP record of decline, loss and closures.”

The New Democrats came into power in 1991 and made cuts after a Progressive Conservative government took on massive debt and nearly forced the province into bankruptcy. Some former PC legislature members and staff were later convicted of fraud.

Beck said Moe is hiding from his record of hiking spending by 42 per cent over the past six years while delivering declining quality in education and health care.

“We’re interested in building these solutions with communities and stakeholders,” Beck said.

In a reference to the provincial legislature, she added, “We are not interested in making decisions in small rooms in the marble palace across the creek.”

Moe has said his government’s decision to stop paying the carbon levy to Ottawa on home heating addresses cost-of-living pressures.

Beck has supported that move, and she recently wrote to federal leaders in Ottawa urging it be scrapped.

However, Moe has criticized some NDP candidates for previously expressing support for carbon pricing.

“This team understands the impacts of the carbon tax on the economy here. But unlike the premier, this is a team that also understands we need to reduce (greenhouse gas) emissions,” Beck said.

Daniel Westlake, a political studies professor at the University of Saskatchewan, said voters may tire of the Saskatchewan Party bringing up the NDP’s record of almost two decades ago.

“Recent events matter more to vote choice,” he said.

He also said it’s not surprising the NDP has been focusing on economic and affordability issues.

“(The NDP) want to get out ahead of any challenges that the Saskatchewan Party might throw at them, specifically on fiscal issues,” Westlake said.

“We’re also seeing this across Canada, where every party is trying to speak to affordability questions one way or another.”

The pre-campaign advertising blitz has already begun.

Beck recently appeared in a TV ad hitting baseballs in a batting cage, saying Moe has lost his edge.

She said baseball is way of life for her family, which was inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019.

“It was an opportunity to blister up my thumbs, swinging the bat again,” she said.

“When (governments) are delivering terrible results for the people they’re supposed to represent, it’s time for them to step away from the plate.”

Saskatchewan’s election is set to be held on or before Oct. 28.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press