Saskatchewan’s NDP says the provincial budget doesn’t respond to the crisis Saskatchewan people are facing and it breaks re-election commitments. The government now says it is going to run deficits until 2026-27.

The NDP says the Sask.Party government fails the province by on several fronts including lack of action to prevent the severe second and now third waves of COVID-19 in the province. NDP leader Ryan Meili says the level of fear and frustration among the people on the front line is beyond what he has seen to date. He says he was on the phone to a doctor in Regina talking about the number of people in ICU’s, “They’re younger, they’re staying longer, they’re sicker and we’re maxing out our capacity. And we’re seeing those variant numbers rise in Saskatoon as well. We need to see this government take this seriously and enact measures to get it under control.”

Meili says the government can’t just sit and wait for vaccines. The NDP says the budget also falls by not removing the PST from construction labour and restaurant meals and it leaves Saskatchewan with the lowest minimum wage in Canada.

Meili also pointed out that Premier Moe has gone back on his election commitment to hire 300 more continuing care aides in the Province’s long term care sector. Budget 2021 only contains a commitment for 100 continuing care aides and points to a “three-year, $18.4 million election campaign commitment to hire 300 continuing care aides”. But NDP says the  Sask. Party’s election promise makes no mention of this commitment being  phased in over three years.