The Sask. Party has voted unanimously against a motion proposed by the NDP to temporarily suspend the provincial fuel tax.
Opposition Leader Carla Beck says the motion was put forward as a way to mitigate the affordability crisis, but Premier Scott Moe disagrees, stating that the NDP postponed the vote for two weeks to take care of other matters.
“How could the Leader of the Opposition say that there is an affordability crisis and then delay a vote, because they have to go and attend a campaign school to extend that affordability crisis that Canadian’s might be facing?” Moe questioned. “Why is it such an urgency? The affordability crisis is just that, a crisis, but yet they need to delay it so that she can attend a campaign school to ensure that Justin Trudeau can once again be elected.”
During Question period, Opposition Leader Carla Beck stated that the Premier knows very well that she did not attend a campaign school, however she did not specify the reason for the two-week delay.
Beck says both Alberta and Manitoba have suspended the tax, and now it’s Premier Scott Moe’s turn to provide some relief.
“Is the Premier, today, going to vote for our motion to suspend his PST on gas and diesel in this province, and if he’s not, I want to know, what’s he going to tell the people at the Co-op in Shellbrook why he voted no?” Beck questioned.
Moe says instead, his government chose to remove the carbon tax on home heating, natural gas, and electricity.
“That alone is going to save Saskatchewan families more money than anything that is put on the floor of this legislature that was supposed to be voted on two weeks ago couldn’t be voted on, because the members opposite were attending the Trudeau campaign school,” Moe accused.
Beck states that Moe is out of touch with the cost-of-living crisis that Saskatchewan residents are facing.
“Yesterday, during Premier’s estimates, I asked the Premier if he thought that Saskatchewan people were facing an affordability crisis. Here’s what he had to say, and I quote; ‘I wouldn’t say it’s an affordability crisis,’ end the quote.”
The fuel tax charges Saskatchewan families an extra 15 cents per litre.