REGINA - For the second time this week, the NDP have attempted another emergency motion on affordability in the Saskatchewan Legislature.
And for the second time, the Saskatchewan Party majority blocked the NDP motion from getting to the floor of the Legislative Assembly.
Earlier this week the Sask Party blocked the proposed NDP motion to suspend the gas tax, refusing unanimous consent to hear it. This time, Opposition Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon tried another emergency motion to remove the PST on all groceries.
The government made clear in Question Period they weren’t interested in cooperating. During Question Period, Premier Scott Moe pointed out there was “no PST on groceries.”
While it is true the PST isn’t applied to basic groceries, it is applied to other so-called “middle-aisle” grocery items such as granola bars, juice boxes and rotisserie chicken. This is an issue the NDP has raised in the past, calling for the PST to come off of all of those items as well.
What played out immediately after Question Period was a repeat of what happened with the gas tax motion. When Wotherspoon tried to introduce the emergency motion on the PST, several Sask Party MLAs responded “no,” refusing the unanimous consent needed to bring the motion to the floor.
Afterwards, Wotherspoon voiced his dismay to reporters.
“I think it demonstrates that the Sask Party hasn’t learned a thing, that they’re completely out of touch with the cost of living pressures that families face, the serious hardship that’s been caused by the cost of living including the many tax hikes and cost increases of this government.”
The Sask Party has said they will be bringing in their own affordability measures including an income tax reduction. Finance Minister Jim Reiter has given notice he would be introducing a bill next week in the Assembly on affordability. However, the NDP has been critical of those proposed measures for not providing the relief immediately.
As for Moe’s claim in the Legislature that the PST is already removed on groceries, Wotherspoon’s reaction was to characterize the government as “completely out of touch with the grocery aisle.”
“I don’t know who does the grocery shopping for the Premier or those ministers, but if they showed up at the grocery aisle, they’d realize that staples for families that are busy and working hard are taxed, whether they be granola bars or whether they be items of food that are items that are less than six by number… or possibly a chicken that has been cooked or a little pot of chili or some of the foods that have been prepped at a grocery store.”
The removal of the PST from groceries that the Saskatchewan NDP are calling for would have been a permanent measure. Lately there have also been calls for provinces to match the recently-announced federal two-month suspension of GST on certain items with a PST suspension.
Wotherspoon was asked about the Ontario government deciding to match the federal government’s move to temporarily suspend the GST on those items.
“I think these are the reasonable types of measures,” Wotherspoon said.
“The cost of living challenge that people face is really once in a generation. This province really stands alone as one of the only provincial governments that has failed to step up and offer relief during this challenge. All levels of government have been offering relief.”
As for the provincial NDP, they plan to continue their push to suspend the gas tax and remove the PST on groceries.
“We’re going to continue to take this to the streets as well and to apply that pressure, and certainly we’ll apply that pressure every day in this Legislature with respect to the cost of living.”
Finance Minister Jim Reiter responds
In an afternoon press conference providing his midyear financial update, Reiter gave his thoughts about the NDP’s latest affordability motion. He made it known he wasn't impressed by the NDP characterizing their bill as removing the provincial PST off of all groceries.
“You know, they talked about taking the PST off of prepared foods and off of granola bars, and they were very careful. And yet there was a social media post by the Opposition this afternoon with a basket of groceries saying, you know, join with us in asking the government to take PST off this. And if you look at the basket, it's fruits and vegetables and all kinds of things like that, that have no PST on them. So to me, it's a bit disingenuous for them to be trying to portray it like it's all groceries. It absolutely is not.”
Reiter also committed to fulfilling the Sask Party’s own election promises on affordability.
“So having said that, we just went through an election campaign where the opposition said, look, here's our platform. Here's what we would do for affordability. Here's what we would do for taxes. And we said the same. Here's our affordability. It's the low-income thing. It's the income tax package. It's those. And in the election, we were fortunate. We were privileged to be given another term with a majority government. And I think it's incumbent on us to deliver on the package of affordability promises that we made.”
