Sask NDP leader Carla Beck was at the border markers in Lloydminster Friday calling on the Sask Party government to extend affordability measures to residents to battle the rising cost of living and hot gas prices at the pumps.
The Saskatchewan opposition leader is touring the province and views the stop in the Border City as a place to highlight the “two different provincial approaches to addressing the generational cost-of-living crisis.”
The Sask NDP points out that Alberta is “already on its second round of affordability relief measures while Saskatchewan has yet to take action despite windfall revenues.”
With inflation at a 40-year high in Canada, Beck says the Sask Party government “has done nothing to provide relief to people at a time when they really need it.”
“We have been all across the province just before the leadership campaign and the last few weeks on our Building to Win tour, and what we are hearing from people; the number one issue is that cost of living, the affordability crisis. And people need their government; their leaders to be taking this seriously and taking measures now.”
Beck is keen to continue to tell the NDP story across Saskatchewan as they build to 2024 elections. Apart from fielding concerns about the economic crunch that people are facing, she says people also feel alienated.
“I think people do (feel alienated). I think people have given up hope, in some cases that things can change. I do think that there are very real decisions that are being made that are leaving economic opportunity on the table in this province. We are hearing it’s difficult to recruit people to come to take jobs in Saskatchewan right now. That’s something we are hearing across sectors.”
She adds they are hearing that “a lot of people who voted Sask Party as recently as 2020 are saying,”I am not voting for them anymore.”
“Some people are feeling that they don’t see themselves in that party anymore. That they are looking for change. That they feel they have lost their way. That they are pandering to a smaller and smaller segment of the population. That they are instead of showing leadership and decreasing those divisions and reducing fear, that they are playing into it.”
Looking at federal and provincial politics, Beck says people want the provincial voice to be heard at the national table.
“The people want their governments to act like the grown ups in the room. They want them at the table. There are a lot of concerns that I think the government in Ottawa does not understand about the realities here in Lloydminster and Saskatchewan about the economy, and where the pressures are and where the opportunities are.”
The Saskatchewan opposition leader will take in the chuckwagon races Friday evening at Halstead Downs before travelling to Onion Lake Cree Nation on Saturday for the annual Powwow.