Legislative Report, 29 September 2004

Once again, Premier Lorne Calvert has left many of us scratching our heads. In a year when producers across the province are dealing with early frosts, damaged crops, delayed harvest and the continuing fallout from mad cow disease and the closed U.S. border, Calvert has decided the most important issue to debate during the upcoming fall session is the public ownership of the Crowns. In announcing the fall session, Calvert failed to even mention agriculture, healthcare or focusing on becoming a ‘have’ province by fostering an enterprising and entrepreneurial economy.

The Saskatchewan Party, on the other hand, plans to use the fall session to focus on agriculture, health, the economy, and continuing to hold Lorne Calvert to account for all of the promises he has broken since last fall’s provincial election. It is rather unbelievable that when farm families and producers across Saskatchewan are experiencing significant hardship, that Lorne Calvert doesn’t even utter the word “agriculture” when announcing the upcoming session.

During the fall session Saskatchewan Party will continue to pressure the NDP to live up to its commitments to agriculture, in particular, to fully fund the province's share of the CAIS (Canadian Agricultural Income Stabilization) program.

This fall’s session will also provide an opportunity to debate the Saskatchewan Party’s recently released economic vision and to contrast it with that of the NDP, which is non existent. We have put forward a positive plan that will enable Saskatchewan to fulfill its tremendous potential.

In the absence of economic vision or any vision for that matter from the NDP makes it clear the NDP is content to watch Saskatchewan maintain the status quo as it enters its second century.

Past Legislative Reports