Saskatchewan NDP releases entire platform addressing health, schools, economy

SASKATOON, Sask. — Saskatchewan New Democratic Leader Carla Beck has put her entire platform to voters before the Oct. 28 election.

Beck says her plan offers change that is needed to help Saskatchewan hospitals, schools and families.

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It contains pre-announced commitments, including suspending the gas tax for six months and removing the provincial sales tax from children’s clothing and some grocery items.

“We know that people need relief right away, not at some point in the future,” Beck said.

It also promises $1 billion over four years to fix health care and $2 billion to build more schools and reduce class sizes.

“It is not alarmist to say that this is a system that’s on its knees, we hear it from those on the front line,” the NDP leader said.

“We hear it from patients who know it when they are waiting in pain.”

NDP Leader Carla Beck says reducing the cost of living and improving health care are some of the top priorities in her platform this election. (Mia Holowaychuk/650 CKOM)

Beck’s platform includes plans to boost the province’s economy, including a provincial sales tax rebate for retrofits to downtown businesses.

She also says she would aim to hire Saskatchewan companies over those outside the province for public infrastructure projects.

“In Saskatchewan, we take care of each other, and we aren’t afraid to do the hard work to get big things done,” Beck said in a statement Friday.

“After all, we are the province that brought public health care to the rest of Canada.

“It’s time to get Saskatchewan out of last place. This election, we can do that. We can change the government.”

Beck’s platform has commitments for rural communities and the environment.

She said she would expand rural cellphone and broadband internet services, create a grant program for rinks and halls and “crack down” on illegal foreign farmland ownership.

There’s also a plan to develop a wetlands conservation policy and a wildfire strategy.

She would look to expand green energy projects and offer a retrofit program for people to install energy-efficient lights and appliances.

“Carla Beck and the Saskatchewan NDP know that taking action on climate change is a job creator. We must do more to reduce our emissions, protect our environment, and diversify the economy,” her platform sates.

She has also pledged to create an “accountability commission” to investigate what she calls government waste and corruption under the Saskatchewan Party.

The commission would investigate cost overruns for projects initiated and completed by the old Saskatchewan Party government, including a faulty payment system for health-care workers, hotel spending for social services clients and shady dealings involving a Regina highway project.

Her platform costing shows an NDP government would run small deficits during the first three years and then have a small surplus at the end of its term.

The Saskatchewan Party’s Scott Moe has criticized the NDP for not being forthright, saying not all of Beck’s promises are being accounted for.

Beck has said her government would pay for the plans by growing the economy and cutting what she calls Saskatchewan Party waste.

Moe has not provided costing of his platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2024.

–with files from 650 CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk