With gas prices over two dollars a litre, the Saskatchewan NDP is calling on the provincial government to act on affordability, as many other provinces have, with an immediate cost-of-living rebate for Saskatchewan residents.

Critic for Jobs and the Economy, Aleana Young, says earlier this spring the Premier dismissed rising gas prices as just “a few extra cents”. She urges the Sask Party government to start listening to workers, families, farmers, municipalities and small businesses.

Young says the NDP proposed a windfall profits surcharge during the spring sitting of the legislature, which would be an extra one per cent on the resource surcharge when oil and potash prices hit a highly profitable threshold. Since then, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and New Brunswick have all provided affordability relief to taxpayers. She notes that the United Kingdom announced a windfall tax on oil and gas profits a week ago and the U.S. is looking at something similar.

The Saskatchewan NDP calls on the government to implement a windfall resource surcharge, scrap the upcoming PST increase, and immediately rebate $125-million to Saskatchewan people to help deal with rising costs.