Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck speaks during a media event where she released her full platform for the upcoming provincial election in Saskatoon on Oct. 11, 2024.Liam Richards/The Canadian Press
Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck released her entire platform Friday, with plans to address health care, schools and affordability if she’s elected on Oct. 28 – but also took aim at the old Saskatchewan Party government for mismanaged boondoggles.
The plan includes spending $2.7-million to launch an “accountability commission,” which would investigate cost overruns for government projects and offer recommendations to avoid problems in the future.
Beck’s platform says an NDP government would examine a faulty payroll system for health-care workers, known as the Administrative Information Management System, which saw costs grow to $240-million, three times as much as initially promised.
It would also look at government hotel spending for social services clients after it was revealed the province was paying inflated rates for a motel owned by a former Saskatchewan Party member.
And it would pour through dealings involving a Regina highway project that was built five years ago, where the cost ballooned to $1.88-billion, nearly five times more than what was promised.
“The commission would be led by an independent non-partisan person like a retired judge,” an NDP spokesperson said in a statement.
“With the support of staff with experience in law enforcement and forensic audits, the commission would examine Sask. Party mismanagement, report out on any wrongdoing found and provide recommendations on how to avoid cost overruns and boondoggles into the future.”
Asked about the NDP’s plans for the accountability commission, Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party said Beck needs to get her finances in order first, adding she’s not being forthright with her spending plans.
“A party that doesn’t understand the difference between revenue and expenses should not be in charge of reviewing any finances,” the party said in a statement.
It pointed out Friday that the NDP’s platform had its revenues and expenses mixed up. New Democrats said it was a typo and later corrected the error.
“Our plan has been signed off by a respected former deputy minister of finance,” the NDP said.
“We are confident in Carla Beck’s plan and are committed to getting Saskatchewan out of last place, where Scott Moe has put us.”
Moe has proposed broad tax relief to reduce personal income taxes, an expansion to the Graduation Retention Program, additional rebates for families with children in sports and arts, and tax credits for first-time homeowners, among others.
He has not yet fully costed out his platform.
Beck’s platform shows an NDP government would run small deficits during the first three years and then have a small surplus at the end of its term.
It promises $1-billion over four years to fix health care and $2-billion to build more schools and reduce class sizes.
Beck has said her government would pay for the plans by growing the economy and cutting $58-million in Saskatchewan Party waste in the first year.
“Mr. Moe has one of the worst fiscal records in Canada. He doubled Saskatchewan debt in just six years and missed his last budget by $1.2-billion,” the NDP said. “We’re not surprised that he hasn’t done the work to develop a plan to get Saskatchewan out of the mess he created.”
Beck’s platform contains suspending the gas tax for six months and removing the provincial sales tax from children’s clothing and ready-to-eat grocery items.
It also proposes to boost the province’s economy, including a provincial sales tax rebate for retrofits to downtown businesses.
“This is a plan to kick-start the economy, to ensure that there are good jobs, and economic growth in all sectors and all areas of this province,” Beck told reporters in Saskatoon.