REGINA - Scott Moe capped a week of affordability promises with even more pledges during the Saskatchewan Party’s first visit to Regina this election campaign.
At a campaign stop in Regina Mount Royal on Friday, Moe promised his party would be introducing a permanent Saskatchewan Home Renovation Tax Credit and increase the Saskatchewan First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit.
The Saskatchewan Home Renovation Tax Credit had previously been in place in 2020 as a temporary measure following the pandemic. Moe said if re-elected his party would make this credit permanent.
Homeowners would be able claim a provincial income tax credit of up to $4,000 in renovation expenses each year, with the party pointing to savings of up to $420 a year. Seniors can claim an additional $1000, for savings of up to $525 a year.
Moe is also pledging to increase the Saskatchewan First-Time Homebuyers Tax Credit from $10,000 to $15,000, with the benefit going up from $1,050 to $1,575. When combined with the federal tax credit of $750, first-time homebuyers could see a total benefit of $2,325.
The Saskatchewan Party is also pledging to increase the Personal Care Home Benefit from $2,500 to $3,500 a month. The Saskatchewan Party states that around 560 people who currently receive the Personal Care Home Benefit will receive an additional $1,000, while 1,500 more will receive the benefit with the increase. Moe noted it was the Sask Party that introduced the benefit in 2012.
The Sask Party is also pledging to increase benefits to the 140 Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disability clients under age 65 who live in a personal care home, which will go up by $1,380 per year.
The latest announcement follows a week of affordability promises to open the campaign for the Sask Party, including promises on reducing provincial income tax, increasing the Graduate Retention Program benefit, and doubling the Active Families Benet from $150 to $300 per year per child.
Moe also touted other affordability measures that the Saskatchewan Party had brought in, such as their decision “to take the Trudeau carbon tax off of our home heating bills in this province. That initiative alone saves Saskatchewan homeowners over $400 each and every year.”
Sask Party takes aim at NDP over carbon tax
In conjunction with Moe’s media event, the Sask Party also issued a news release calling out several NDP candidates for past statements in support of the carbon tax, although the current Saskatchewan NDP position has been against the carbon tax.
The Sask Party quoted Sally Housser, NDP candidate in Regina University, as saying “I very much support a price on carbon but ultimately the Liberals have not got the job done in communicating this and selling this to Canadians.” The party also quoted Erika Ritchie, running for re-election in Saskatoon Nutana, as saying the need for a carbon tax is “not up for debate any longer.”
The Sask Party also took aim at NDP candidates for quotes favorable to Justin Trudeau. They quoted NDP Candidate for Athabasca Leroy Laliberte for saying “Trudeau is amazing. Our Country is going places,” and noted NDP Candidate for Cypress Hills Clare McNab reposted the “I Stand With Trudeau” hashtag on the X platform in March.
“We need a government that’s going to stand up for Saskatchewan families, and Saskatchewan residents, not one that stands up for the Trudeau carbon tax that makes everything that we purchase cost more,” said Moe. “The Saskatchewan Party will make life more affordable for people buying their first home, renovating, renovating their first home, for seniors and SAID clients who are living in a personal care home, and this is all part of our plan for a strong economy and a bright future in our province of Saskatchewan.”
When Moe was asked why the party had not brought in these affordability measures much earlier, Moe said these were “in addition to all of the affordability measures that are not only in the most recent budget, but are in each of the annual budgets here in the province which lead to Saskatchewan being the most affordable place to live in the nation of Canada, and having the lowest inflationary rate across Canada.”
“That being said, we understand that Saskatchewan families, individuals are struggling with the cost of living pressures like other Canadians are, and that’s why you’re seeing a significant focus this first week by the Saskatchewan Party on the very affordability issues that are impacting Saskatchewan families, impacting seniors that live in this province, impacting students and those that are entering their career, encouraging them to stay in the province of Saskatchewan.”
Moe was also asked about some of the controversies that erupted on the campaign trail in recent days, including the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses voicing their dismay that neither Moe nor his health minister Everett Hindley met with nurses who had gathered in Regina on Thursday.
Moe pointed to the writ period as the reason — “we’re in the middle of a campaign“ — pointing to his own appearance in Prince Albert on Thursday and Hindley's own campaigning in Swift Current.
But he did say Hindley had met with SUN and all nursing designations “recently in the leadup to the campaign,” and out of those discussions had agreed with all of those nursing designations’ collective bargaining, regarding forming a nursing task force.
Moe also took aim during the media scrum against what his party estimated was “$4 billion” in NDP campaign promises.
When asked about that figure, Moe said the Sask Party came up with that by “counting all of (the NDP) commitments and putting them forward.” The Sask Party later issued their own detailed estimates of the costing of the NDP promises, pointing to $2 billion in education funding and $1.1 billion in operational expenses in health care.
While Moe was holding his event, NDP Leader Carla Beck was across town announcing details of the full costing of her platform at an event at the Atlas Hotel. The NDP pledged at that announcement that they would balance the budget if elected.
The NDP later put out a news release stating “Saskatchewan Party math can’t be trusted,” accusing the Sask Party of being off by $700 million in their estimates provided to media that day. The NDP also sent a statement on the affordability issue, stating that the Sask Party “can’t be trusted to reduce costs for families after ignoring them for years.”
After Moe’s media event, the NDP’s Meara Conway spoke to reporters and lambasted the Sask Party’s record on affordability.
“Saskatchewan families have been knocking on the door asking Scott Moe and the Sask Party to deliver on cost-of-living relief now for years, and no one has been home. This is a government that while office has a record of actually raising cost for families and these election promises cannot be trusted. Scott Moe presided over the largest tax increase in Saskatchewan history. He put the PST on children’s clothing, on groceries, and we have committed to get rid of that before Christmas in fact. This is a government that refused to give people relief at the pumps and we've committed to doing that on day one.”
Conway called it “disappointing to see Scott Moe run on a campaign of lies.” She also took issue with Moe’s statements claiming the NDP supported the carbon tax, pointing out that Beck had run a leadership campaign on the promise of the Saskatchewan NDP opposing the federal carbon tax.
“We see money sunk into attack ads that claim that Carla Beck had a secret meeting to prop up the Prime Minister. That is absolutely false. What does it tell us about a government that has been office 17 years and they cannot run on their record.”
