The Sask. Party would prefer its campaign plan not be scrutinized, in contrast to its own governing record and current public demands.
Upon first glance, it may seem as if much in the Saskatchewan Party plan rings alarm bells.
The slick 74-page platform document heavily emphasizes the economy and tax reductions. This will especially appeal to those in farming and natural-resource-heavy ridings that could provide the Sask. Party with another majority.
As a result of this, voters can expect added budget costs of almost $1.2 billion: $2.8 million in 2024-25; $197.4 million in 2025-16; $271.6 million in 2026-27; $323.2 million in 2027-28, and $375.7 million in 2028-29.
However, the document insists that future deficits will be limited to $366.6 million in 2024-25, $178.9 million in 2025-26, $46.5 million in 2026-27, followed by proposed surpluses of $16.4 million 2027-28 and $195.5 million by 2028-29 before the next election.
The result?
“The platform that we are putting forward today is fully costed,” Sask. Party Leader Scott Moe said Saturday — his last public availability until Wednesday’s debate.
Unfortunately, voters just have to take Moe’s word for it. And that may be harder this time around.
By releasing it on Saturday morning of the Thanksgiving weekend, the Sask. Party was making a big statement that it seemed to want to avoid scrutiny. If anything, such political gamesmanship only draws more attention to the Moe government’s growing problems.
For as many problems as there are with the NDP platform, it at least had a former Sask. Party government Crown president and former deputy minister of finance staking his reputation on it. Who is vouching for the Sask. Party platform that Moe hoped turkey-stuffed voters wouldn’t much notice?
But it may be the platform’s content — or lack thereof — on the province’s two biggest controversies this past term that may be an even bigger problem.
You have to get to Page 50 of the 74-page Saskatchewan Party platform — after it outlines its plans for funding community rinks, playground equipment and $5,000 rebates for those applying for a Class 1 trucking licence — before the party begins to outline its plans to address health care.
And much of what it then offers is the threadbare recitation of what its government has already done, like recruiting more international doctors and nurses. What about that growing problem?
In no small irony, the day before the Sask. Party platform was released, a memo was circulated throughout Regina’s General and Pasqua hospitals stating that “due to a lack of physician availability, interventional radiology services will be temporarily unavailable” until Nov. 1.
“(Our health-care system) is red-lining,” NDP candidate for Regina Elphinstone-Centre Meara Conway said at a Monday press conference unveiling the leaked memo. “And this is a status quo platform from the Sask. Party.
“Health care is on the ballot this election … We can make these investments. Scott Moe has called these investments irresponsible. He has gone after the specific dollars the Saskatchewan NDP (platform) wants to invest in health care. We couldn’t disagree more.”
After the health-care mention on Page 50, you have to scroll down another 20 pages in the plan to find “investments in education,” which is mostly an aggrandizement of school building projects.
Bizarrely, the words “classroom complexity and composition,” which dominated education debate for the last two years, are not even mentioned.
Yes, it’s an election campaign and campaigns are deliberate political strategy. One guesses the Sask. Party is banking on voters to focus on those tax cuts over other matters.
But what is the governing party’s plan to address health and education? And what if voters see the Sask. Party’s inability or unwillingness to address these issues as reason not to trust them?
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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