Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan Russ Mirasty opened the fall sitting of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly with the Throne Speech.
The speech outlined the province’s goal to provide growth that works for everyone and lays out the Government’s priorities for the session.
The list was topped by legislative changes focused on provincial autonomy, changes to the SLGA, and a new policing service to help the RCMP.
The speech states that Saskatchewan will seek more independence, especially over its natural resources.
Canada’s Constitution already separates provincial and federal powers, but Saskatchewan wants to write its laws.
-The Government is set to introduce legislative changes, including introducing The Saskatchewan First Act clearly defines and defends Saskatchewan’s exclusive jurisdiction over natural resources
-Introduce legislation allowing Saskatchewan to collect corporate income tax and continue to pursue greater control over immigration
“The legislation will draw the jurisdictional line and defend that line based on the existing constitutional division of powers,” the speech said. “To be clear, this is not about abrogating or ignoring the Constitution.”
“These measures are about removing barriers to unlock Saskatchewan’s incredible economic potential,” Moe said. “We just need to remove the barriers preventing us from sustainably developing our resources to their full potential and exporting them to markets around the world where they are needed.”
Moe said that despite record investment, the Federal Government is preventing the province from seeing even higher investment.
“We want to see more and are working hard to attract additional investment, but at the same time, we had a challenge with a canola crush plant that didn’t move forward down in the southeast,” he said, “There are challenges around some of the environmental costs of setting up here relative to other areas of the world.
The speech also listed changes to the SLGA that will see the province exit the retail liquor market and expand opportunities for independent retailers.
“We’ve had private liquor stores across this province for years, all of our cannabis stores are private stores here in the province, and they do quite well,” Moe continued. “We want to focus our efforts as a government on what people view as the core businesses of Government. That is offering healthcare services, building new healthcare facilities, education, highways, those types of things.”
The province said that it would also be creating the Saskatchewan Marshals Service to work with the RCMP and other police services to enhance law enforcement throughout the province.
“They’ll be based out of Prince Albert, and they’ll very closely with all the municipal police forces as well as the RCMP on some of the challenges that they have.”
To go along with the Marshal service, The province will be adding eight new officers to the Warrant Enforcement and Suppression Team and a new Crime Reduction Team in North Battleford
Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck said that this year’s Throne Speech recycles promises and falls short of addressing the most pressing issues facing Saskatchewan people.
“I thought throne speeches were supposed to be visionary. Certainly, we didn’t see the vision in this speech, and we didn’t see a throne speech that actually connected to the concerns we’ve heard from people across this province.”
Beck said over the summer; they heard concerns about affordability, a lack of healthcare and education services, and a lack of jobs in the province.
“Health facilities and hospital beds are closed across our province. It is nearly impossible to find a family doctor. People are struggling to find good, mortgage-paying jobs. Families are struggling to make ends meet, and instead of relief, the Sask. Party is making life more expensive by hiking taxes and fees and raising utility rates. The Throne Speech does not measure up to the challenges Saskatchewan people are facing. In fact, it eliminates hundreds of good paying full-time jobs through the SLGA.”
The NDP said that the majority of the measures announced in the speech are recycled announcements. New measures are based on Scott Moe’s white paper — a document that has been widely dismissed and mocked by economists and experts.