Legislative Report
(18 May 2011)

Government Continues to Honour Promises

During the spring session of the legislature, our government continued to take action to move Saskatchewan forward.

We announced the Saskatchewan Advantage budget, which makes life more affordable and keeps our economy moving forward by:

• Cutting income and property taxes for individuals, families, homeowners, farmers and businesses;
• Reducing the provincial debt by over $3 billion since 2007; and
• Investing in infrastructure – building and repairing highways, schools and hospitals.

The Saskatchewan Advantage budget is one of only two balanced budgets in all of Canada and will ensure our economy remains the strongest in the country.

During the spring session, our government completed all of the outstanding promises from our 2007 election campaign, including reducing the education property tax and implementing a new municipal revenue sharing program.

We have kept over 130 election promises – WE DID WHAT WE SAID WE WOULD DO in the 2007 election campaign. You can be confident we will keep the promises we will make in the 2011 election campaign.

Meanwhile, Dwain Lingenfelter and the NDP want to turn back the clock – to what it was like in Saskatchewan before he left office and moved to Alberta over a decade ago:

• Back to Saskatchewan being a have-not province;
• Back to a stagnant economy and young people leaving Saskatchewan; and
• Back to higher taxes and fewer jobs.

Lingenfelter’s job-killing potash tax, for example, is a throwback to the 1970s. He said he wants to tax potash companies out of Saskatchewan and have the government take them over. That would cost taxpayers billions of dollars, kill thousands of jobs and drag Saskatchewan back into have not status.

You can’t trust Dwain Lingenfelter. He consistently says one thing, but does another.

Lingenfelter says he wants to improve health care. But when he was in government, the NDP closed 52 hospitals and drove hundreds of doctors and nurses out of the province.

Lingenfelter says he wants to help farmers. But he and his government ripped up GRIP contracts with thousands of Saskatchewan farmers.

He says he wants better highways. But under the NDP, Saskatchewan had the worst highways in Canada. Lingenfelter even told people in the Val Marie-area they should fix their own highways.

Lingenfelter says he wants to bring more jobs back to Saskatchewan. But he got the NDP government to change the law so he could move Nexen’s head office – AND HIS OWN JOB – from Regina to Calgary. Lingenfelter says he wants to protect taxpayers’ dollars. He seems to have forgotten that he was the lead Minister involved in starting SPUDCO, which lost $35 million taxpayers’ dollars on a botched investment in the potato industry.

Lingenfelter says he wants rent control. But he and the NDP got rid of rent control in 1992, and, just before the 2007 election, said rent control doesn’t work.

Lingenfelter says he’s against nuclear power and nuclear waste storage in Saskatchewan. But when he was working for his Calgary oil company, he gave speeches in favour of nuclear power and nuclear storage in Saskatchewan. He said it was what Tommy Douglas would do.

Lingenfelter says he wants higher resource royalties. But when he was working for his Calgary oil company, he was against higher resource royalties.

Dwain Lingenfelter – he says one thing and does another. Can voters really trust a leader like that?

Past Legislative Reports