Saskatchewan’s NDP say the new provincial budget ignores key challenges and leaves people behind.
NDP finance critic Trent Wotherspoon said the budget fails to focus on the future. He criticized the government for offering no plan to deal with U.S. and Chinese tariffs.
“This budget denies the realities we face and ignores the times we’re living in,” said Wotherspoon in the legislature. “There are no plans for tariffs in this budget, no contingency, no impacts of the tariffs booked.”
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Wotherspoon said Saskatchewan citizens face threats to jobs and industries.
“Our province and country face incredible challenges with unprecedented threats … this is far bigger than any of us. Just look at the collapsing price of canola as tariffs are threatened and imposed by the U.S. and China,” said Wotherspoon, noting producers already feel the hit.
“The canola producers have already taken more than two dollars a bushel hit.”
However, according to Tradeeconomics.com, the price of a bushel of canola on Jan. 20 was $13.90 Canadian, at it’s lowest point. On March 14, it dropped to it’s lowest point of approx. $12.54/bushell. A difference of only $1.36.
Wotherspoon accuses the government of not paying attention to steel workers north of Regina. He says they face the prospect of job loss and are bracing for the impact of tariffs.
Although Evraz appears not to have laid off any workers yet this year, they have made public statements about the effect tariffs could have.
Wotherspoon claims the government is “asleep at the wheel.”
“This budget has no plan for our economy,” he said. “It only offers up cuts for health and education.”
He called the budget a “charade.”
“It’s an exercise in political spin,” said Wotherspoon. “It fails to provide the accountability or fiscal foundation that people in this province deserve.”
He also criticized cuts to health care.
“On page 27 of this budget, this government is cutting health care funding,” he said. “It’s less than the actual of last year … Saskatchewan used to be a national leader in health care. Now we’re dead last.”
Furthermore, accusations of underfunding education were levied by Wotherspoon.
“The Sask. Party government has driven per-student funding to last place in Canada,” he said. “(Students) are being shorted of the education they need and deserve.”
Additionally, he stated Saskatchewan residents face a once-in-a-generation cost-of-living challenge.
“This government has hiked costs and taxes, including the biggest tax hike in Saskatchewan’s history,” he said, adding Saskatchewan’s debt is out of control.
“With this budget, the Sask. Party has officially quadrupled our province’s debt to more than $38 billion and counting,” he said. “That’s a billion dollars a year just to service that debt.”
Meanwhile, the cost continues to grow by more than $100 million a year, according to the NDP. They chalk it up to years of mismanagement, scandals and waste.
The opinion of the NDP is the budget isn’t worth the paper it is written on.
“It takes us backwards,” he said. “It fails to address the cost of living or the mental health and addictions crisis.”
Wotherspoon believes residents of Saskatchewan are working harder and harder and falling further behind.
“Our greatest resource is our people,” he said. “This budget fails the people of Saskatchewan in the most serious ways.”
“(The province) needs a government focused on the future.” stated Wotherspoon. “We need a government that steps up, builds strength, and extends hope and opportunity.”
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