Four weeks to the day following the hotly contested election campaign ending on October 28th, where Premier Scott Moe and the SaskParty won their fifth straight majority government, Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor, the Honourable Russ Mirasty, delivered the first throne speech of the new government. The speech struck a conciliatory tone by acknowledging that while “many people voted to re-elect” the SaskParty government, “at the same time, many other Saskatchewan people voted for change.” The speech went on to say that the government will continue to focus on keeping the economy strong but also focus on the kind of change that Saskatchewanians seemed to support in the campaign – most notably around health care service delivery, enhancing support for education and continuing to address affordability concerns that many in Saskatchewan voiced.
Health Care
The throne speech referenced three key focus areas on health-care to support Saskatchewan people;
- To be able to find a primary health care provider;
- To be able to access surgery in a timely manner;
- To have access to mental health and addiction recovery supports when required.
In order to achieve these objectives, the government announced its intention to;
- Shorten surgical wait times by ensuring that 450,000 surgeries are performed over the next four years;
- Open additional urgent care centres in Saskatoon, Prince Albert, North Battleford, Moose Jaw and Regina to provide timely access to mental health and addictions services and take pressure off emergency rooms in hospitals;
- Continue to increase the number of doctors, nurses and other health care professionals in Saskatchewan;
- Work to ensure everyone in Saskatchewan has access to a primary health provider – a doctor or a nurse practitioner – by the end of 2028;
- Engage with nurses throughout the province by creating a patient-focused nursing task force;
- Provide women with the option to do cervix self-screening at home for the human papillomavirus (HPV), the leading cause of cervical cancer; and
- Expand coverage for glucose monitoring to seniors ages 65 and older and young adults ages 25 and under.
Education
The throne speech’s stated objective for education was to “provide better support to our children in their classrooms”. More specific steps that will be taken to support this objective are as follows:
- Expand its specialized support classroom pilot to 200 more schools throughout the province;
- Focus on improving reading levels, specifically in Kindergarten to Grade 3;
- Increase funding to school divisions and add more teachers and support staff to help meet the pressures of growing student enrolment and the challenges of classroom complexity; and
- Provide funding for 12,000 additional new childcare space developments.
Affordability
The cornerstone of the government’s plans to make life more affordable is to increase the personal, spousal and child exemptions and the senior’s supplement by $500/year in each of the next four years – in addition to fully indexing income tax brackets.
As well, the government announced a number of other measures including increasing the Saskatchewan Low-Income Tax Credit by 20% over the next four years, extending the carbon tax exemption on natural gas and electricity for home heating (through 2025), doubling the Active Families Benefit, increasing the Saskatchewan First-Time Homebuyers Credit from $10,000 to $15,000, introducing the Home Renovation Tax Credit of up to $4,000/year in home renovation expenses/year, and several other measures . The Throne Speech committed that Bill 1 of the new legislature will be the Saskatchewan Affordability Act to enact these commitments and others.
The Economy & Safer Communities
Finally, the throne speech made a number of economy, jobs and safer community commitments;
- In partnership with the Chambers of Commerce, award $5,000 bursaries for young entrepreneurs;
- A new investment tax incentive in line with a proposal from the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce;
- Increase the Graduate Retention Program benefit by 20%;
- Introduce a $5,000 Class 1 Driver Training Rebate;
- Add 500 more police officers and 500 addictions recovery spaces;
Amend The Safer Communities and Neighborhoods Act to empower officers to shut down nuisance properties.
Related Links:
- News Release
- Throne Speech (English)
- Throne Speech (French)
We’re Here to Help
For more information and insights about what these developments mean for the political landscape in Saskatchewan, please reach out to our experts:
Darin Banadyga – Senior Strategy Advisor
darin@prairieskystrategy.ca
306.213.8211
Theo Bryson – Senior Strategy Advisor
theo@prairieskystrategy.ca
306.537.4465
Kevin Doherty – Senior Strategy Advisor
kevin@prairieskystrategy.ca
306.570.7123
Tom Lukiwski – Senior Strategy Advisor
tom@prairieskystrategy.ca
306.501.7933
Bronte Prosser – Senior Strategy Advisor
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306.270.7405
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