NDP opposition leader Ryan Meili noted there had been a multitude of changes in the legislature during this busy spring session.
“It’s been a pretty big session — a new Premier, new leader of the Opposition, new Speaker of the House and a chance for us to really start to make out some of the challenges that this government has, and start to talk about some of the things we’d like to achieve,” Meili said to reporters in conference call last Tuesday.
The session, the first since Meili was elected NDP leader and also the first one for new Premier Scott Moe, wrapped up Thursday morning.
Meili’s remarks came just prior to legislative discussion on “premier’s estimates,” normally presented during the final week.
From his standpoint, the NDP said it was an “exciting” session.
“I’m really pleased with the way our team has come together to hold the government to account.”
Meili said his party has continued to point out “cuts in health care and education, and the way that that’s resulting in more challenges in schools, more schools falling apart, more teachers having trouble with being able to manage the loads they are facing work wise, with growing wait times in surgery, with growing wait times in emergency rooms.”
He also said the party pointed out “ongoing issues with the GTH, and the many questions that continue to persist both around the shady land deals involving Bill Boyd at the beginning of this and the ongoing struggles as the debt and the expenses of this boondoggle continues to grow.”
Meili also noted the final repeal of Bill 40 happened last Monday — the bill that would have allowed the province to privatize up to 49 per cent of the Crowns.
“The government pushed back hard on that and we were happy it was repealed once and for all,” said Meili.
The NDP leader also said his party has been pushing more on issues important to them, such as addressing the minimum wage, getting “big money” out of politics with a bill to eliminate corporate and union donations, and advocating for action on a national pharmacare strategy.
In his conference call Meili fielded a number of questions on the national carbon tax that the Sask. Party government has opposed.
Meili accused the provincial government of not coming up with a plan. “All they want to do is say, ‘no,’ and try to paint the Opposition in a negative light,” he said. He pledged the NDP would roll out a policy on carbon emissions that would “hit the key points.”
“The reality is carbon pricing is coming,” Meili said. “We actually don’t have a choice. The federal government is going to impose this. And the fact that Scott Moe is allowing Trudeau to design that policy is reckless and irresponsible.”
On issues important to the Battlefords area, Meili was asked about the Saskatchewan Hospital construction and some of the issues being encountered by the P3 — public-private partnership — in charge of it.
While Meili endorsed the project as a “step forward” in mental health, he was critical of P3s. As examples he pointed to the struggles with the hospital in North Battleford, the huge cost of the Regina bypass and with school construction, particularly the “lack of autonomy with schools being able to use the facilities and have the control over them that they should to deliver education to kids.”
“Overall I think the P3s are a growing problem,” said Meili. He pointed to a recent decision in Manitoba, who “did the math” and found out that under P3s you can afford four schools but under a traditional build they could afford five.
“I think we need to be looking at these projects through the lens of how do we make sure that we’re building them in a way that they get done on time, that they’re done at the best cost, and also that they involve Saskatchewan companies in the building of them.”
One of the issues Meili had with the P3 projects was that the size of the projects and the way the contracts work, price out Saskatchewan contractors. “We really should make sure we design these projects in a way so that Saskatchewan contractors do the work.”
Also in the conference call Meili voiced his opposition to the government’s decision to, in his words, “cut the rental housing supplement.”
He noted the government had said changes were coming in advance of a program coming from the federal government, but Meili said they didn’t know when or whether that is happening or what it would look like.
“To hear them in advance be cutting off this rental housing supplement when rents have not fallen seems like a pretty poor choice and a good way to make sure that we actually end up paying a lot more,” said Meili.
