Leaders look back at end of spring sitting

In the heat of a July Friday, the Saskatchewan legislative assembly finished its spring sitting, about three months after it started.

This sitting was a continuation of the sitting that had to be cut short in March because of the pandemic.

The house leaders negotiated and decided to bring everyone back in mid-June to pass the budget and complete the legislative agenda.

Premier Scott Moe on Friday touted the passing of the budget, indicating he believes it will show the voters which party is best to lead the province’s economic recovery from COVID-19.

Moe said the sitting was a little more challenging though, because of the gathering and distancing limits due to COVID-19. Only 10 government members could be in the House at one time and Moe said even their caucus meetings had to be divided up into different rooms and video-conferenced together.

“It was a different session. And I found that challenging, not to have the same camaraderie and everyone around all of the time and that’s the normal that is here for the time being,” said Moe.

The Sask. NDP has been saying since the budget was tabled, that there are holes in it in the lack of financial projections in the coming year, but Moe said any lack of clarity in the budget is reflective of a lack of clarity everyone has about the future.

“No one knows for sure where our economy is, how it is going to come back, how robust it is going to come back and to what level it is going to come back … and we share that uncertainty with everyone across Canada and around the world,” said Moe.

The NDP has said the Sask. Party will raise taxes, cut budgets and sell off Crown corporations to balance the budget if it gets into power again.

But Moe disagreed, saying he has faith the recovery will come.

“We don’t feel that there is going to be a reason for increasing taxes, we don’t feel that there is going to be a reason for any of the NDP are talking about,” said Moe.

The NDP had asked for another sitting in the fall before the upcoming election, but Moe dismissed the idea, saying there’s no need.

“The debate that we are going to have in the months ahead is not going to happen in the legislature, it’s going to happen in the communities, on the doorsteps, and in front of the people in this province,” said Moe.

Meili on the sitting

Sask. NDP leader Ryan Meili said having this sitting was really important, that it was a chance to provide some scrutiny and accountability – Meili said it was the highlight of the sitting for him.

“That we got to look part-way in and have a better understanding of what it is this government is hiding and be able to communicate that more clearly to the public,” said Meili.

Meili claims Moe doesn’t want to share a lot of his plans, pointing again to the lack of fiscal projections in the budget, and saying the government is hiding how it plans to get back to balance if it wins the fall election. He argues the government will sell off Crowns, will raise taxes, and cut ministry budgets.

“We’ve seen this movie before, we know this is how they operate, they will tell us that everything is going to be fine, that they won’t do those things – right after the election the tune will change, they’ll tell us ‘oh we have to now, we have to take these measures we have no choice,’” explained Meili.

There likely won’t be a fall sitting before the election, which Meili said is unfortunate. But over the summer he said he’ll be out working in his constituency, working on the campaign, and continuing to push for answers on tough questions.

“I firmly believe that as we go forward with a plan that Saskatchewan people can get excited about, as we present our vision for the future, and that clear contrast with a government that’s out of vision, out of ideas, that we will be very competitive and, really, the main message that we have to say is ‘we’re ready to do this, we would form a far better government than the incompetent and frequently dishonest governance that we’ve seen from Mr. Moe,’” said Meili.