REGINA - The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce wanted to hear Tuesday from two Sask Party ministers about their policies heading into the 2024 election.
Minister of Energy and Resources Jim Reiter and Minister of Trade and Export Development Jeremy Harrison were the guests at the Chamber’s pre-election dialogue Tuesday at the Hilton Doubletree in Regina.
It was the first of two Chamber dialogues scheduled for this week, the other being with NDP leader Carla Beck on Thursday.
It was an opportunity for the Saskatchewan Chamber and their members to pose questions to the two ministers on key parts of the Chamber's own platform, titled Fueling Momentum 2024.
It was a platform developed by the Chamber earlier this year. Saskatchewan Chamber CEO Prabha Ramaswamy said that in June the Chamber had “put out a provincial election platform that had about 27 proposals for the next government of Saskatchewan.”
“All of these proposals were really aimed at enhancing the business climate in this province and supporting businesses to thrive.”
Ramaswamy said they were asking the politicians “very pointed questions on what they would do in relation to some of our recommendations. So I think that’s exactly what we’re expecting is to hear from the politicians and the parties on what their priorities would be if they were to form government.”
One of the hot topics was on taxation. Ramaswamy asked the ministers in particular about the Saskatchewan Chamber’s stance that the federal carbon tax should be removed.
Both Reiter and Harrison reminded the audience that it was their own government that was first to oppose the carbon tax.
“Lately, that has been changing,” Reiter said, pointing to moves from provincial governments across the country to oppose the carbon tax.
Reiter said it was “even to the point that the NDP in British Columbia seem to have changed their opinion, as have the provincial NDP here. They kind of flip-flopped on this issue a number of times.”
Reiter told the Chamber audience that the federal government’s move to remove the carbon tax on home heating oil for Atlantic Canada was “completely unfair… we finally said enough’s enough, we’re going to draw a line in the sand here, we’re not going to collect it, not going to remit it. And if we’re given the privilege to form government again, that’s not going to change. We’re not going to collect it, not going to remit it.”
“We have been opposed from day one, not just because it was fashionable or popular,” said Harrison.
“I can guarantee you the NDP had been in government in 2015, not only would we still have the carbon tax in place right now, but they would’ve been the most enthusiastic cheerleaders for Justin Trudeau in imposing it.”
“I want to pile in this one,” said Reiter. “Don’t take my word for it. You can look back on the record, you can search on Hansard, you can search old news stories. All along when we were doing the legal challenge to it, the NDP here were calling it ridiculous. They were fully supportive of the carbon tax, and that was suddenly recently they read the tea leaves and they see it’s incredibly unpopular, and their position’s changed to the point that their MLA‘s on social media are saying ‘we never supported the carbon tax.’ Which is ridiculous, as a matter of fact, they’re flip-flopping.”
Affordability was another issue raised, and the ministers were asked about the Chamber’s stance that the provincial sales tax should be reduced from six per cent to five per cent.
Harrison acknowledged affordability was an issue and he teased “stay tuned.”
“We’re not going to be announcing a bunch of campaign commitments here at this podium right now. Stay tuned on affordability.”
Harrison also took aim at the NDP’s proposals on taxes and spending.
“They say they’re not going to raise taxes, but massive spending increases,” said Harrison. He said they had been tracking the promises and it was “up around $4 billion now in annualized spending increases from the opposition.”
“You can’t not raise taxes, increase spending by $4 billion and not have to either increase the deficit, increasing depth, increase taxes, or make significant program cuts… they really haven’t been getting questioned about ‘how are you going to actually, so far, fill a $4 billion budget hole.’ It’s a question they need to answer.”
“And yet they’re saying they’re going to cut taxes and balance the budget,” Reiter added. “It doesn’t work. People are smarter than that.”
International trade was also brought up, an issue in which the NDP have hammered the government over international travel and as well as the province’s presence at COP28 in Dubai.
Harrison pointed to growth from $10-16 billion to over $53 billion in international exports, and spoke in favor of their international trade efforts to “engage internationally”. He took aim at the NDP for their stance on the province’s nine international trade offices.
“They’ve been very clear up until now that they’re going to shut down the international offices and they’re not going to engage internationally to support our businesses. That has been their position. Well, that’s not a recipe for growing the economy. I can tell you. The reason that we have been able to move those exports the way that we have us because we’re out there. If we are not, as the government of Saskatchewan, supporting our companies and industries around the world, I can tell you right now Justin Trudeau isn’t doing it for us.”
