‘We need something now’: Sask. NDP calls for immediate government support

As the price of necessities continues to reach new heights throughout the province, the Saskatchewan NDP is calling for the provincial government to provide immediate support.

Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon and Critic for Jobs and the Economy Aleana Young are calling on the Saskatchewan Party to follow other governments in offering a cost-of-living rebate for residents.

“People are facing incredible hardships at the grocery store and when they’re at the pumps with record prices,” Wotherspoon said. “The impacts are huge. It’s a real crisis of affordability that Saskatchewan families are facing and that crushing cost of living presents incredible hardships for people and businesses.

“We’re calling for a very modest windfall profit service surcharge of one per cent. That leaves these industries in a highly profitable situation, but also ensures the owners of the resources, Saskatchewan people, get the dollars they deserve and the relief they need now.”

The NDP proposed a windfall profits surcharge in the spring, meaning there would be a one per cent resource surcharge when oil and potash prices hit a highly profitable threshold.

The party is also asking the provincial government to scrap the upcoming PST increase and immediately rebate $125 million to Saskatchewan people to help with the rising cost of living.

Other provinces around Canada have started to take a crack at addressing the soaring prices.

Alberta and Ontario have paused the collection of the provincial tax on gas and diesel sales, Nova Scotia’s government is actively looking at what measures it can take to help the people in the province, and B.C. has sent rebate cheques to drivers.

Premier Scott Moe has said the Saskatchewan government is looking at measures to help people manage the increasing cost of living, stopping short of committing to cutting the fuel tax, but saying his government is looking at what “levers” it has to return the windfall in the short and medium term.

“We are of the true belief that the resource in Saskatchewan is owned by all Saskatchewan people,” Moe said recently. “If we find our way to a surplus, we are looking at how could we return these dollars so that it would benefit all Saskatchewan people.”

Moe has also said some sort of rebate to Saskatchewan people is on the table, but it wouldn’t be a guarantee — adding the government has options including paying down debt incurred throughout COVID, dealing with operational debt, and starting a savings account for Saskatchewan people.

Young says the Sask. Party is taking too long to address the problems at hand.

“We’ve been calling for affordability measures for fuel relief since March 7,” she said. “Now here we are, three months later and nothing has changed from this government.

“Many businesses are now in a position where they can no longer afford to raise their prices and retain customers. Even if they do raise their prices, any profit or any increase that they’re making is going to be eaten up by these increased costs.”

Ray Orb, the president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM), is pleading for help. He says small municipalities really can’t afford to pay this much extra in gas expenses.

“It’s a huge concern,” Orb said Tuesday. “It seems to be going higher and for our RMs who have set their budgets probably going back to January or February and guesstimating what the price of fuel is going to be, many RMs are going to be in a deficit position and that is why we’re raising a red flag over this.”

Orb says RMs are allowed to run deficits, but says most if not all did not plan for gas prices to get this high.

“If they run into a deficit position, they have two choices: If they have any reserve funding, they would have to take it out of the reserve, or they would have to borrow money to make up the difference. It is going to be detrimental,” he stated.

Both Wotherspoon and Young stressed the provincial government needs to act now before the problems surrounding affordability get even worse.

“It’s crushing for people,” Wotherspoon said. “People are dealing with huge stretched wages, food costs are way up (and) fuel costs are way up.

“Many people aren’t in a position to fill their tank anymore. We need something now.”