NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter says everyday workers are getting fed up with smallscale wage increases while their superiors continue to get richer. And he doesn't blame them.
Lingenfelter was in Melville last Monday as part of his summer tour to communities across the province, and he says he is finding people are telling him they aren't getting their "fair share."
"I'm hearing frompeople who say it's true the economy is doing well and the government has a lot of money but I'm not getting my fair share," Lingenfelter says.
"If you look at people on minimum wage they have had their wage frozen for two years, no increase, so how do they pay for the 10 per cent increase on rent, 10 per cent increase on food, and 20 per cent increase on travel and gasoline (experienced over that time)."
He says teachers and health care workers are also among those being victimized as they "are being told to lower their expectations and take 1.5 per cent" increases.
Meanwhile, Lingenfelter adds, legislature staff are seeing 40 per cent wage increases, the CEO of the health region in Prince Albert got a 60 per cent increase in one year and the CEO of Saskatchewan Potash Corporation (SPC) received a 159 per cent increase.
"The system is upside down," Lingenfelter points out. "The people doing the work aren't getting their fair share."
In order to flip the system he says an NDP government would make significant increases to potash royalties to ensure Saskatchewan people are getting more money out of their own resources.
"I would have, as premier, added an extra $1 billion dollars a year if you were taking 30 or 40 per cent (in potash royalties)," he says, adding the people of Saskatchewan are only getting about five per cent of profits currently.
"I can build more roads, I can pay teachers something maybe a little better than inflation. Health care workers could get a better salary, and you could also look at lowering small business tax."
Lingenfelter adds, the raise received by SPC's CEO only highlights how the potash profits in Saskatchewan are being split unfairly at the moment.
"Part of the reason they can double his salary is because people of Saskatchewan aren't taking their fair share of the royalties.
"I think if we were taking 30 per cent or 40 per cent the board of directors of Potash Corp. would say to its CEO 'you didn't negotiate as good a deal, you don't need a 159 per cent increase'."
Another of the rural issues at the forefront of the Lingenfelter's platform is infrastructure improvements.
"What I am hearing across the board is the need for a major general infrastructure program."
"When I drive the roads in the province I haven't ever seen them in worse shape than they are this spring."
The NDP is also planning to address the lack of affordable housing in Saskatchewan and setting rent controls to prevent "huge increases in rent for families," he concludes.
