REGINA - Another year is almost in the books and it’s time again for Premier Scott Moe to reflect on the past 12 months and look ahead to 2025.
We sat down with Premier Moe just one day after the new Legislative session broke for the winter. In our interview, we discussed the issues facing Saskatchewan, as well as the election campaign that had just concluded this fall.
We conducted our interview in the Cabinet Room of the Legislature. Given the changes in who is sitting around the provincial Cabinet table following the election campaign, we thought that would be a good starting point in our conversation.
Moe on the Cabinet Room
We're in the Cabinet Room here, sitting around the third Cabinet Table that this room has ever had since 1912, so (the) third Cabinet Table in over a decade and 10-12 years, and you know there's a lot of history in this room… right down to the colour of the wood, which is different than the rest of the building, and this is the original colour of the wood in the Legislative Assembly dating back to 1912. So a little bit different room than what everyone else sees as you travel through what I think is the most beautiful Legislature in the nation.
… Really, how we're looking at approaching this 30th government in Saskatchewan, and our fifth term as government in Saskatchewan, is really in very much the same way as we did in 2007 — treating it like we're a new administration. Some fresh eyes in each and every Cabinet portfolio; half of our MLAs are newly elected in this majority government; and really… if there's anything that is shackling us to a particular policy initiative or ideology, that's not there. We are certainly taking our advice from Saskatchewan people.
Areas of focus this term
… (There are) really four points that we're focused on as we enter the first year of this term.
We're going to deliver on our platform, which was largely affordability-based, and that's what we were elected on, and we made a commitment to Saskatchewan people to deliver that if we were elected as the government, and we were, and so we will. Second, we heard that we need to have a renewed focus when it comes to health care. We need to have a renewed focus when it comes to education, and in particular K-3 outcomes, and we need to continue to focus on ensuring that the communities where Saskatchewan families live, regardless of where that is, are safe.
And so those are four areas that you are going to see very much a new beginning, a new look, and a new focus from this government.
On the election results
Yeah, when it comes to the popular vote, we're about 53.3 per cent, similar to what we saw in the Nova Scotia election, and a majority government. I'd said all along, the goal in every election is to have a majority government so that you can implement the platform that you run on, and to really implement the policies that Saskatchewan people would like to see implemented.
So we will implement our platform. However, we did hear that we needed to go further, in particular when it comes to education and healthcare, and we are very much focused on in those two areas with the government that we have.
So it's a fifth-term majority government. It does look different. The legislature looks different, but it is a fifth-term majority government, and I think that by the end of this term, the Saskatchewan party will be the second-longest-serving government that the province has ever seen, surpassing the days of Tommy Douglas. So it's a positive win for us as a party, but more importantly, I think it's a positive win, a positive opportunity for the people of Saskatchewan and for us to work much more closely than maybe we even have in the past with the people of Saskatchewan on the initiatives that are important to them and to matter to Saskatchewan families.
On efforts towards a change in decorum
Well, there's going to be points where there's, you know, tough discussion, but the discussion, as I say, should always be on policy. You know, I've been asked many times in the lead-up to the election, you know, what responsibility do you bear as leader or the governing party for the decorum in the Legislative Assembly, and I think when you look across, whether it be provincial Legislative Assemblies or the Federal House of Commons, we could all expect better of all of our elected members that serve and how they conduct themselves in their houses of government.
… We are the government. We're not the opposition, and we should act like the people of Saskatchewan expect us to, and perform and debate policy, not people on the floor of that legislature. That's what people elected us to do, and that's certainly what we should do.
Focus on affordability measures
So the immediate affordability measure is the introduction of the Carbon Tax Fairness for Families Act, which will remove the carbon tax off of how we eat our homes, about $400 this past year, with an increasing rate of the carbon tax, which is unnecessary, I might add.
That will be a savings of about $480 next year as Saskatchewan residents will not pay a carbon tax on heating their home with electricity or natural gas. That's immediate.
That's here for Saskatchewan families today. The Saskatchewan Affordability Act will offer a number of of these savings, but one of them is the most significant and largest savings in provincial income tax or a reduction in provincial income tax that Saskatchewan families would pay. That hasn’t occurred since 2008.
In 2008, we made changes that removed 112,000 people off the tax rolls. This will remove an additional 55,000 people off the provincial tax roll altogether. We've asked the federal government to change the formulary for employers sooner rather than later.
We believe this is possible. They're able to change the formulary for GST payment, for example, in less than a week or just a few days. So they need to have the will to be able to do this to benefit Saskatchewan people as well, sooner rather than later, because the law is passed and proclaimed as we speak.
There's a number of additional affordability measures in there for seniors, for those that are living with a disability, for students. The graduate retention program has been expanded.
Why it is the suite of affordability measures that you see is we wanted to be able to ensure that everybody felt an impact. Everybody virtually felt a positive impact by one or more of the affordability measures that we had put forward.
Many of the other measures that you see various governments put forward, whether it be temporary gas tax relief, it's smaller. First of all, it's smaller in the quantum of what you see in this Saskatchewan Affordability Act. It's temporary, not permanent, which is not what you see in the Saskatchewan Affordability Act. And it would only in that case impact drivers. The GST holiday federally also appreciated, I think, is an affordability measure, but affects a few goods for a temporary amount of time and certainly isn't going to benefit everyone.
On education, and whether Premier Moe feels the labour strife is now in the past
Yeah, I do. And I think we're finding our way to a very positive space when it comes to our positive conversation when it comes to the conversation around, one, education; two, our educators; three, our students. And four, the outcomes and the opportunity that our students have.
And again, our students, those are our children and grandchildren. And so the outcomes are so very important.
What you will see this government focus on and really set targets on and invest in the success of achieving those targets is in the K-3 space.
…Expanding the specialized support classrooms, which is really expanding the number of teachers and the number of support personnel that we have in our classrooms to provide those that maybe need a little bit, those students that might need a little bit more support or work in one area.
And also providing for that broader positive learning environment in the general classroom is one of the ways that we are really addressing the classroom complexity discussion that has been at the heart, I think, of a lot of the more friction-based discussions that have happened over the course of the past year here.
Again, we heard this in the campaign, and we've heard it in the lead-up to the campaign. And this is one of those areas where this government is going to use the strength of what is the strongest and most vibrant economy in Canada to ensure that we have positive outcomes, in particular, in the K-3 space with our students.
Healthcare, and the challenges of staffing
The human resource challenge of the staffing shortages, therein lies very much a Canadian challenge — again, not exclusive to Saskatchewan.
We're actually starting to see some successes when it comes to the Health Human Resource Plan that we have and have provided in excess of $100 million of funding and incentives and training and opportunities for healthcare staff to offer services in a provincial facility and communities from corner to corner of this province. And we are seeing increases in the hiring and in the net numbers of staff that are working.
But we still have some work to do, and we acknowledge that. Again, this is an area that you saw another step taken in the Speech from the Throne relative to the platform that we ran on, and some significant, I think, commitments in that Speech from the Throne. And then throughout the session, really setting the platform for us to achieve those commitments. And you'll see more of that very foundation being built in the months ahead as we head towards our budget in the spring.
But a commitment to ensure that Saskatchewan people will all have access to a primary healthcare provider. People want access to a primary healthcare provider, and we are, again, going to use the strength of the Saskatchewan economy to ensure that's the case. We made a commitment to increase the number of surgeries that we're doing to 450,000 over the next four years.
What that will ensure is that people in this province, maybe not everywhere in Canada, but people in this province are going to be able to access a timely surgery in Saskatchewan. And then we had also committed to expanding the Urgent Care model that's working quite well here in Regina, and seeing numbers that are rivaling our emergency departments at the Pasqua and the Regina General Hospital, to expand that to another Urgent Care Centre in Regina, two more in Saskatoon, and then expand to Prince Albert, North Battleford, and Moose Jaw to ensure, again, that Saskatchewan people, Saskatchewan families, do have access to the healthcare needs that they have when they need it. And so, maybe not a significant strain from our investment and commitment to healthcare, but very much a focus on providing the opportunity for Saskatchewan people to have access to a primary healthcare provider, whether through the Urgent Care Centre or increasing the number of providers available, and ensuring that they have access to a timely surgery.
On conflict of interest, and whether we will see fewer of those issues going forward
There's been a number of people that have been investigated by the Conflict of Interest Commissioner with respect to the Conflict of Interest Act on both sides of the House as well. Some have been discussed more than others.
… I would just say this, the expectation of myself, of all members, is that they are in compliance with the Act that we have. And the Commissioner is there to help MLAs and to protect MLAs and to ensure that MLAs are in compliance with the Act.
That's the expectation and there is no other option.
That being said, the Conflict of Interest Act was actually brought in and introduced in 1993 and hasn't had any significant modernization efforts in any way put to it. You know, 1993 is a long time ago. In fact, I think the first cellular telephone was brought into Saskatchewan about ‘88 or ‘89. And it didn't — it looked very different than the phones that we use today. It didn't have a lot of Internet access… it wasn't a smartphone. It didn't even have the T9 function, for those that can remember just a few years back when texting on a flip phone was a thing. So things have changed.
There is a need to look at the Act over the course of the next year to modernize it to the needs and the needs of today. And so we'll be doing some work with respect to that. But like always, the expectation for all members of the House is that they work with the Conflict of Interest Commissioner to ensure that they are in compliance with the Act.
If they find that they aren't, they need to be — shortly, quickly, and to the Conflict of Interest Commissioner's expectations.
