LISTEN: Leaders of Sask. Party, NDP face off in sole election debate

Transcript from Wednesday’s debate

PANEL: Health care has been a major campaign issue. We’ve seen nurses rally outside of this building early on in the campaign. We’ve also seen reports of ERs being over capacity and people are struggling to find a family doctor. I’d like to know how your plan for health care is better than your opponents.

BECK: Let’s be clear, our health-care system is broken. Scott Moe and the Sask. Party broke it. They can’t be trusted to fix it. We hear heartbreaking stories every day about people in this province not able to get the care that they need see people dying on wait lists before they get the care that they need. We’ve got a plan. I don’t have a magic wand, but we do have a plan that invests in the valuable healthcare workers that we need in this province, retain the ones that we have, a plan that’s been built with them, a plan to grow your own to encourage more people to get into get into health care, a plan to get us out of last place when it comes to health care.

MOE: I would say the challenges that we’re seeing in health care across Canada are just that. They’re not exclusive to Saskatchewan. They are a Canadian challenge, and they are challenges that require investment, $1.8 billion of investment over the last four years, and almost 11 per cent investment in health care this last year, investment to expand our our health-care infrastructure and to look at innovative new ways to to deliver health care. Urgent care centres come to mind, to expand the number of surgeries that we are doing using all of the tools that are available to us, but most importantly, invest in our people with the most ambitious Health Human Resource Plan in the nation of Canada. So I would say thank you to the health-care workers. This is a party that will provide more doctors, more nurses, more training spaces, more hospitals, but also acknowledge we have more work to do.

PANEL: The costs of everything seems to be going up, from gas to groceries to rent. What are you proposing to do to deal with affordability concerns in the first year of your mandate?

MOE: Saskatchewan is the most affordable place in Canada to live and we have the lowest inflation rate largely because we removed the carbon tax from the way that we heat our homes in this province. That low inflation rate is helping, but we do understand that Canadian families and Saskatchewan families are feeling the costlier pressures that we are seeing across this nation. When you look at the platform that we have brought forward to increase the graduate retention program by 20 per cent. It’s a platform that the income tax reduction will impact everyone in the province of Saskatchewan. It is a platform that most certainly is increasing benefits and lowering taxes for students, for seniors, for homeowners, for families and for everyone that lives in this province and we’ll act on it quickly if we are elected your government.

BECK: This is one of the number one issues we hear on the doorstep, and I hear it from people all the time losing sleep, worrying about how they’re going to pay themselves. Hear from parents that they’re not going to be able to put their kids in dance or hockey this fall because of the cost of living in this province. The reality is, Scott before tonight affordability relief. In fact, he made things worse. He raised taxes 31 times in one year. We’ve got a plan to put more money in your pocket, and we’re going to do it by Christmas, cutting the fuel tax on day one, removing PST from kids clothing and groceries. We’ve got a plan to give families a break from the cost of living.

PANEL: Over the last year, we’ve heard repeated concerns about class size and complexity, overcrowding, the pronoun policy, and now we’re seeing increasing violence in schools. How are you going to create a safe learning environment for students in the public school system?

BECK: As a mom, there was nothing more that I wanted for my kids was for them to receive the best education possible. That’s what I want for all kids in this province. But that is not happening under Scott Moe and the Sask. Party. We’ve seen 15,000 additional students in our schools, but only one teacher. Scott Moe has put us in last place in education, and after 17 years, they’ve shown us time and time again how little they value public education. It’s time for change. We’ve got a plan to invest $2 billion dollars into our kids classrooms, hire teachers and more education workers. We’ve got a plan to get us out of last place and get our kids the education that they deserve.

MOE: With 250,000 additional people living in the province, they have brought their children and they are in our schools, and that’s why you have seen a Saskatchewan party increase our education budget by 53 per cent. That includes nine per cent this past year, really an unprecedented increase. We’re addressing classroom size by building new schools, 28 in progress as we speak, addressing and talking to frontline teachers about bringing innovation to the classroom, to address classroom complexity. Per capita today, Saskatchewan people are investing more in education than anywhere else in Canada. That is allowing us to build more classrooms, more schools, more teachers, more parental involvement in our schools and more funding for the education sector.

PANEL: The Saskatchewan economy relies on our wealth of natural resources. How would your government ensure that economic growth is shared with all Saskatchewan residents, including rural and remote communities and indigenous people?

MOE: I think you’re seeing that happen today. And I would point most recently to a co-investment by Indigenous communities and Indigenous people with a forestry company on an over half billion dollar investment in the Prince Albert area. I would point to Chief Bobby Cameron‘s comments when we partnered with SIGA on bringing our gaming framework online. This is economic reconciliation and action. I would point to the potash industry, the mining industry and the partnerships that they have and the procurement targets that they have on ensuring that as Saskatchewan economy grows, and it has tripled in the last 15 years, that it is there to benefit everyone across the province, and that is the case today.

BECK: Saskatchewan people are worried about the economy. And contrary to what Mr. Moe just said, it is not benefiting all areas, all sectors of the province. We’ve seen decline in seven sectors of the economy under Scott Moe and the Sask. Party. We’ve seen 40,000 jobs lost in rural Saskatchewan, 1000 businesses outside Regina and Saskatoon. We’ve got a plan to attract new investment and create good jobs, to revitalize downtowns and main streets, rebates on the PST, the construction labour that Scott Moe stuck the PST on, and attracting value added jobs here to the province. We need an all of the above approach, ensures in all sectors, in all areas of Saskatchewan.

PANEL: Rural Saskatchewan is facing this age old problem of shrinking communities and fewer farms. How can government address this?

BECK: This is an issue that we see right across the country. But even in in rural communities today, and I mean this, I see economic opportunity. I see opportunity everywhere. When people come to our small town, they’re amazed. They want to see the kind of community that is present in rural communities right across this province. But in too many of those rural communities, the opportunity isn’t available there now and the services people need are simply not available.

MOE: We are so fortunate in this province with the rural-urban synergy that we have. Many of our natural resources are located in rural areas of the province, ag land, mining products and oil and gas. The people that are bringing value to those natural resources, they often live in our villages, towns and cities in urban parts of Saskatchewan. And here comes the synergy, where those people add value to those products that are in the rural areas of our province. We are seeing successes, successes like the export value, going from $17 billion from under the NDP to $50 billion today. That’s wealth in our communities.

PANEL: Both the NDP the Sask. Party have very different ideas about how to spend our money when it comes to policing and public safety. The Sask. Party wants to have a Marshal Service. The NDP wants to hire more RCMP officers. Can you tell us how your plan is better?

MOE: Safer communities and neighbourhoods are a focus of the Saskatchewan party. We’re committed to ensuring that a family would be able to go to for a walk in the park after supper, for example, and feel safe in their neighbourhood. That’s what we are seeing across Canada when it comes to higher crime rates, higher rates vandalism, higher rates of homelessness. The root cause of all of this is addictions and the drugs that are available in our community and in our nation, and those drugs are nothing short of poison today. That’s why you’ve seen a government focus on recovery opportunities, building 500 intensive recovery beds, also adding 500 police officers, including RCMP officers, municipal officers, and yes, the Saskatchewan Marshals service to keep your community safe wherever you live in this province.

BECK: Right now, Mr. Moe’s record is that people in this province, too many of them don’t feel safe in their own homes or in their own communities. People should feel safe to be downtown, but too often they don’t. Now Scott Moe and the Sask. Party, they like to talk tough about crime, but the record speaks for itself: the highest rate of violent crime, domestic violence in the entire country. It’s no wonder Mr. Moe can’t even control crime in his own team. One of his MLAs charged in a human trafficking sting, another charged with assault and choking. We’ve got a plan to get tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, to put 200 additional officers on the ground now and address the issues that create crime in the first place.

PANEL: Since the pandemic, addictions have impacted many different avenues throughout our province, whether it’s overdose numbers, homelessness, mental health services and even the overcrowding of our emergency rooms. My question to you tonight, how does your platform address the concerns of Saskatchewan most vulnerable people?

BECK: We have seen a record number of overdose deaths in this province year over year. And this isn’t a new problem. What we haven’t seen is action by Scott Moe and the Sask. Party to actually deal with the root causes of crime, actually deal with keeping people safe and alive so that they can access the help that they need. We’ve seen cuts to health care. We’ve seen cuts to education and counsellors available. We’ve seen cuts to service after service help people recover from from addictions early, not when it gets to the point that they’re on the street when they are losing their lives. We need to invest in the root causes of addictions, something that we haven’t seen Scott Moe and the Sask. Party do.

MOE: I would like to speak to something that already in place, 500 police officers, yes, to make our community safer, and our downtown safer. 500 recovery beds, whether it be through urgent care centers or through our complex needs shelters, which today have taken 400 people off the streets before they harm themselves or someone else. And I would hope that all Saskatchewan people can resonate with this fact: for 95 per cent of those folks that have been taken off the street because they may be in a state where they’re going to harm themselves or potentially harm someone else, 95 per cent have self referred to some type of addiction. Recovery is the focus of the Saskatchewan party, and 95 per cent self referral rate is a positive step forward.

PANEL: You both brand the other as being fiscally irresponsible. How can the people of Saskatchewan afford either of your plans without falling further into debt

MOE: The last two budgets by the provincial auditor were balanced in this province, and we have put forward a fully costed plan, like we do in every election, to balance the budget, in this case by 2027. What I would say with respect to the opposition’s plan is they have a $3 billion gaping hole in the platform that they put forward. It’s missing $800 million of revenue. It’s missing $1.2 million in their education commitment, $685 million in their health commitment. That is not the Saskatchewan Party’s record. That is the NDP record, a record of decline, loss and closure that is going to bring us back to increased taxes and I would say this: the NDP don’t have a plan to pay for it, because they don’t intend to, you will.

BECK: Last time Mr. Moe was on the stage he promised that he was going to make life more affordable, he was going to lower power bills, and he was going to balance the budget. Mr. Moe has added more debt to the people of Saskatchewan than any other premier in the history of Saskatchewan. He’s done it in a record six years. Our plan is fully costed. It’s going to take us four years to get there, but we’re going to balance the budget at the end of four years. The reality is we can’t afford not to make these investments in health care and education. Our plan again fully costed and supported by Ron Styles, someone who served a number of premiers in this province.

Editor’s note: This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.

–With files from Canadian Press