The Saskatchewan N-D-P is once again calling on the Government of Saskatchewan to provide some affordability relief for residents.

Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon says the Government needs to stop sitting on record resource revenues and commit to immediate affordability relief.

The N-D-P is calling for an immediate cost of the living rebate, suspension of the fuel tax, and the scrapping of the P-S-T on restaurants and children’s clothing.

The N-D-P is also calling for quarterly rate reviews, as is done in Manitoba, to ensure utility rate fairness.

The Saskatchewan Government recently approved a 4 per cent rate increase for SaskPower which went into effect August 1st and will appear on September billing. Another increase is coming in April 2023.  Each increase will mean a roughly $5 monthly hike for residential homeowners and a $12 monthly increase for farm customers.

SaskEnergy is also asking for a rate increase.  The impact of the proposal on SaskEnergy’s residential customer bills is an increase, on average, of $11.95 per month (16.8 per cent) in year one, $2.43 per month (2.9 per cent) in year two, and $2.53 per month (3.0 per cent) in year three.