The NDP is calling on the Sask. Party government to focus on helping families and businesses who missed payments during the pandemic, rather than spending money on a rebranding project.Leader Ryan Meili explains that from March to September of 2020 the Crown Utility Payment Deferral Program allowed people to defer their SaskPower, SaskEnergy and SaskTel payments without penalty.

Customers were enrolled in a program to repay the balance over a period of up to 12 months, but missed payments from September of 2020 onward weren’t included. Meili says this is despite the much more deadly second and third waves of COVID-19.

He suggests the provincial government is looking at spending money to rebrand the Crowns in Sask. Party colours. Instead, the NDP is calling for the government to reopen the Crown deferral program and apply it to bills since September of 2020 and stop charging interest on all deferred utility payments.