REGINA – It was spicy at times, but in the end there weren’t a lot of surprises to come out of the Saskatchewan leaders debate at the Legislature.
Both Sask Party leader Scott Moe and NDP leader Carla Beck offered contrasting visions of how they would rule the province during the one hour broadcast, and there were a few times the two leaders mixed it up.
But the two leaders didn’t offer much that was different from the familiar themes and promises they had laid out on the campaign trail. While there were some good exchanges, those hoping for knockout punches or defining moments found those in short supply on the night.
In her opening statement Beck once again made the case that “Scott Moe and the Sask Party have taken us from leaders to laggards on issue after issue, and Saskatchewan people are looking for change.”
“I see opportunity in every corner of this province. But under Scott Moe and the Sask Party, there’s too much opportunity being left on the table and too many Saskatchewan people being left behind. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
By contrast Moe’s opening statement pointed to the theme of the Sask Party campaign, one of “a plan for a strong economy and for a bright future.” He also pointed to the contrast to the NDP.
“The Saskatchewan Party wants to lower your taxes and put more money back into your pockets so that you can decide how to spend it. The NDP wants to take more of your hard-earned money so that they can spend it. And that’s an important difference that you will see here this evening.”
Health care
As expected the health care issue was a major topic. Beck took aim at Moe on this issue.
“Our healthcare system is broken. Scott Moe and the Sask Party broke it. They can’t be trusted to fix it…. 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, retains 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 healthcare, a plan to get us out of last place when it comes to healthcare.”
Moe noted that the “challenges that we’re seeing in healthcare across Canada are just that. They’re not exclusive to Saskatchewan. They are a Canadian challenge, and they are challenges that require investment.”
Moe pointed to “$1.8 billion of investment over the last four years, and almost 11 per cent investment in healthcare this last year.” He pointed to the “most ambitious health human resources plan in the nation of Canada.” And Moe said “thank you to the healthcare workers.”
“Mr. Moe wants to thank healthcare workers now, while he’s standing here in this debate,” shot back Beck. “The reality is he didn’t even have the respect to talk to nurses who are raising concerns about safe staffing levels, about the level of care and the danger of our overcrowded emergency rooms in this province.”
In response Moe pointed to 1,800 nurses hired in the last 18 months. “Our record the last four years is $1.8 billion. The NDP platform moving forward is $1.1 billion, which is actually a cut to what the record of the Saskatchewan Party has been the last four years.
“In that $1.1 billion, there’s $685 million that actually isn’t in the costing platform. So when the NDP candidate arrives on your doorstep, I would ask them, why are they cutting healthcare in the province of Saskatchewan? Why are they not investing in a record number of surgeries like we did this last year? The surgical wait time in Saskatchewan is actually lower than it was in 2007, despite 250,000 additional people living here today. That being said, there is more work to do.
“You’re talking about how many you’ve hired,” Beck said. “You’re not talking about the fact that 4,000 healthcare workers in this province left last year alone. People are dying on our waitlist. People cannot get the care that they need.”
Affordability
Another hot issue was affordability. Moe pointed to Saskatchewan being “the most affordable place in Canada to live.
“We have the lowest inflation rate, largely because we removed the carbon tax from the way that we heat our homes in this province.”
“The reality is Scott Moe has done nothing before tonight to offer any affordability relief,” Beck replied. “In fact, he made things worse. He raised taxes 31 times in one year.”
Beck pointed to her plan to cut the fuel tax and remove the PST on kids clothes and groceries.
Moe responded by saying his party was reducing the cost of living “by removing the carbon tax off of the fuel that you heat your home with,” and also pointed to “the income tax savings over the next four years going to save $3,400. Add to that the expanded grad retention program. Add to that increasing the low income tax credit. Saskatchewan will remain the lowest, the most affordable place in Canada to live.”
Moe then took aim at the NDP platform.
“There are measures that are in place today and there’s measures that will be in place should we form government on Oct. 28th. Unlike the NDP party that has put forward a platform that simply has grabbed $800 million out of thin air. No one can explain where it came,” he said.
“And so when the NDP candidate comes to your door to ask for your support, ask them where the $800 million fictional dollars that they grabbed from thin air are in their budget, because I would say at the end of the day, they don’t have any intention on balancing the budget. They are going to raise taxes, and that means that you’re going to balance the budget.”
Education
On education, Beck accused Moe of having “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, to hire more teachers, more education workers.”
Moe pointed to 250,000 additional people living in the province and bringing their children into the schools, and said “that’s why you have seen a Saskatchewan party since 2007 increase our education budget by 53 percent. That includes nine percent this past year, really an unprecedented increase, while our student population has increased about 18 percent.”
“Scott Moe just told us that he thinks that classroom size has to deal with the physical size of the classroom,” Beck replied, pointing out that for 15,000 additional students they added “one additional teacher.”
“Our plan is to invest in our healthcare system, or into our education system. It’s a plan to undo the damage done by a decade of underfunding by Scott Moe and the Sask Party.”
Moe shot back by blasting NDP costing again.
“The first thing I would say is, with respect to the NDP plan, is in their costing document, they had committed $2 billion to the education sector, and in their costing document had $200 million plus $200 million in year two, $200 million in year three, $200 million in year four,” Moe said, “$200 million times four does not equal $2 billion.”
He also pointed to the NDP record: “who, when they had the opportunity, closed a school a month the entire 16 years that they had.”
“Kids in grade 12 today have only known cuts and underfunding because of your underfunding of the education system. It’s ridiculous,” Beck responded. “You cannot drive where we need to go if you keep looking in the rearview mirror, Mr. Moe.”
Economic opportunity
Things got particularly heated when the leaders responded to how government can address the issue of shrinking communities and fewer farms in rural Saskatchewan, and they spoke about economic opportunity. Beck agreed with Moe that “there is opportunity in every corner of this province, but the reality is that there are whole regions of this province that are being left behind.”
“One of them is the federal government,” Moe said, “with the NDP support.”
“Mr. Moe, that’s not true,” Beck replied. “It is true,” Moe said.
“We saw Jagmeet Singh come out a few weeks ago saying he was not going to support Justin Trudeau.”
“Mr. Moe, people in this province right now want to know about jobs,” Beck shot back. “They want to know about health care. They want to know about education. Mr. Moe says he wants to run on his record, but we see him do everything but. He wants to run away from it. He wants to point to 20 years ago. He wants to point to everything else but his own record. It’s time you took responsibility for your record, Mr. Moe.”
“Our record is 100 new schools,” Moe responded.
Beck also railed against Moe over a lack of services in small communities. Moe responded small businesses needed support, and needed “less taxes and less regulation, primarily, that is coming from a federal government of which the NDP supported and have propped up for the last number of years. The NDP, very recently, Jagmeet Singh said ‘we’re not going to support Justin Trudeau anymore.’ That lasted two weeks, of which, at that time, he had an opportunity to go into the House of Commons and to not support Justin Trudeau, to not support a carbon tax, which would save small businesses across Canada so very much, but he chose not to.”
“We’re in a provincial debate right now,” Beck countered.
“He supported Justin Trudeau again, and he supported the carbon tax, and he’s costing Canadians, including those that live in Saskatchewan, money,” Moe said.
“And this is where Mr. Moe focuses his time,” replied Beck. “I’ve been very clear when it comes to any federal leader. It doesn’t matter the political stripe. If there are programs that are put forward that stand to benefit people in this province, I will be at that table making sure we get the best deal possible for people in this province.”
On the debt
When asked how they would keep the province from going further into debt, Moe took another shot at the NDP platform.
“They have a $3 billion gaping hole in the platform that they had 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’s 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.”
“Again, last time Mr. Moe was on this 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,” Beck responded.
“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 are going to balance the budget at the end of four years because the reality is we can’t afford not to make these investments in health care and education.”
Closing statements
In closing, Beck said this “isn’t about Team Orange versus Team Green. This is about Team Saskatchewan. And it’s time for change. This election, I’m asking for your vote to fix health care and to make life more affordable. Together, we can deliver that change.”
Moe closed by saying the Sask Party plan called for a “strong economy and a very bright future.” And he again blasted the NDP plan.
“The NDP plan will simply take us back to a time of decline, loss, and closures. Losing people, jobs, and opportunities to other provinces. Closing schools and hospitals and raising your taxes. Just like the last time they were in government. So you have an important choice to make on October the 28th.”