Legislative Report

No Shortage of Issues for Spring Session

The spring session of the Legislature is underway and there is no shortage of issues to bring before the government. We have brought forward emergency debates on both agriculture and the nursing shortage and when speaking to these issues or those of the economy, the government’s answer is always the same. The NDP says that things are just fine. Well they’re not just fine and if the NDP have a plan, it’s not working!!

A growing economy is not about facts and figures or statistics. It’s about people, jobs and careers to support families. These are the building blocks of an economy. According to a Statistics Canada report published last week, Saskatchewan lost another 4,400 jobs. That’s six straight months of job losses during a resource boom.

Other Western provinces created an unprecedented number of new jobs. British Columbia created 72,000 jobs, Alberta created 64,000 and Manitoba created 4,000. The only province in Western Canada to lose jobs was Saskatchewan. So how does a province-rich with natural resources like Saskatchewan- lose jobs in the middle of a resource boom? The only answer is a lack of leadership and vision from Premier Lorne Calvert.

The NDP government is presiding over a time in history when resource prices are soaring, yet they fail to ride the resource boom. Jobs rates continue to fall, young people are leaving the province. Families are left behind when their sons and daughters are leaving the province to seek opportunity elsewhere. In the next decade, there will be an unprecedented shift of political influence and capital from Eastern provinces to the West. A new west is forming and Saskatchewan needs to be leader, not lagging behind.

We can not afford to waste an opportunity like this. People of Saskatchewan know the unbelievable potential of this province. It’s time we lived up to it.

Past Legislative Reports