Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck speaks during a press conference before the 2024-2025 Saskatchewan budget is presented in Regina on March 20, 2024. Saskatchewan New Democrats have kicked off their election campaign promising to not hike taxes and to suspend the gas tax.Heywood Yu/The Canadian Press
Saskatchewan New Democrats kicked off their election campaign Thursday with Leader Carla Beck signing her name to a placard promising to suspend the gas tax and not hike other levies.
Beck said the plan would mean no increases to income taxes, small business taxes, provincial sales tax or corporate tax.
“Everywhere I go in this beautiful province, the No. 1 thing I hear from people is they’re struggling to get by,” Beck told a news conference at a Saskatoon sporting goods and apparel store.
“And while life is getting more expensive, there’s no doubt [Premier] Scott Moe and the Sask. Party have done nothing to lower costs for Saskatchewan people and Saskatchewan businesses.”
She said Moe’s governing Saskatchewan Party has made life more expensive by increasing the provincial sales tax and having it applied to children’s clothing, snack foods and admission to sporting events and concerts.
“It’s time for change. If I get government, we will not raise your taxes. That’s my no-tax-hike guarantee,” she said.
Saskatchewan’s election is to be held on or before Oct. 28.
Beck’s NDP is the Official Opposition in the legislature and has 14 seats, with the Saskatchewan Party holding 42. There are four Independents and one vacant seat.
The Saskatchewan Party has not officially kick-started its campaign.
Moe has rejected suspending the gas tax, while other provinces like Manitoba and Alberta have done so. Manitoba’s is in effect until at least Sept. 30 and Alberta’s was reinstated this spring.
Moe has said the 15-cent-a-litre tax brings in about $500-million in revenue and is needed to pay for road repairs.
He has also argued residents are saving more money by not paying the carbon levy on natural gas, which the province stopped remitting earlier this year to Ottawa – a move Beck supported.
Beck said suspending the gas tax would save the average resident up to $350 dollars in those six months. She would also consider extending the suspension beyond that.
She said an NDP government would pay for the measure by growing the economy, finding efficiencies and cutting the Saskatchewan Party’s wasteful expenditures.
Beck pointed to Moe’s $1-million trade mission to Dubai last year and his “high-priced consultants” as areas to get the chop.
“There’s a long list of places where we see this government wasting money or not directing it to priorities, whether that’s in health care or in education,” she said.
“The inefficiencies we’re seeing currently undertaken by this government, that’s one of the first places we’ll redirect those funds.”
While polls suggest Beck’s party isn’t favoured to win, they show the NDP could see large seat gains as it’s outperforming the Saskatchewan Party in Saskatoon and Regina.
A party could form a majority government in the province without seats in Saskatchewan’s two largest cities.
Beck said she’s been door-knocking across the province, including rural areas where support isn’t as high.
“My whole family still lives out in rural Saskatchewan,” she said.
“We’ve tried to focus on those issues that span rural, urban, north, south, and then getting out and making sure people know what our position is and not allow the Sask. Party to misrepresent (that).”