The provincial government is outlining its agenda for the upcoming session of the Legislature by delivering the throne speech.
The speech entitled “A New Decade of Growth” says two goals in the speech being delivered by Lieutenant-Governor Russell Mirasty are for a population of 1.4 million and for 100,000 more jobs to be created in Saskatchewan by the year 2030.
As the speech notes, we are ten weeks from Saskatchewan entering the 2020’s and that the government’s goal is to ensure the province’s strong growth continues and that Saskatchewan people continue benefiting from that growth.
The exact plan as to how this will be achieved will be unveiled by the government during this seven-week session.
There are also a number of measures the government plans on taking. They include introducing tougher penalties for those who use their cellphone while driving, introducing legislation for the regulation of vaping and vaping products and creating a fund up to $10 million to assist Estevan, Coronach and surrounding areas transition to new economic development opportunities for workers affected by the federally-mandated phase out of coal-fired electricity by 2030.
Premier Scott Moe said it’s important to set realistic targets, especially when it comes to healthcare. “We need to stretch our targets and look to really doing the best that we can, but I think we set a target of zero wait with respect to emergency wait times. That’s a challenging target to achieve so we have to look across Canada with respect to emergency wait times and ensure that we are doing the very best that we can in this province and in this nation.”
Another big point in the plan is introducing tougher penalties for distracted driving.
Moe wouldn’t go into too much detail, but said the penalties could look similar to ones for impaired driving. “We went, in the case of impaired driving, to some of the highest enforcement level if you will. I think you can look for something to that degree with distracted driving as well.”
Opposition Leader Ryan Meili is critical of the plans unveiled, calling it a look back rather than a move forward.
Meili said the speech boasted about the spending that has happened since 2007, but it ignored the troubles Saskatchewan has seen over the past five years.
He added that the NDP is interested to see what the economic growth plan actually is. “Whether it is of sufficient diversity, that it’s actually going to work. What we have seen in the past our economic growth has depended, in this last boom, largely on expansion on potash, uranium and oil and gas. We would love to see those kinds of things happen again, but you can’t rely on those once in a life time conditions to occur.”
Meili said the government needs to realize that investing in people is a key element in growth. “That’s one of things that’s missing in this Throne Speech and has been missing in Scott Moe’s language in everything I have heard him say. He doesn’t understand that when you invest in healthcare, you invest in education, you invest in lifting people out of poverty, you’re actually investing in economic growth, as well as decreased public costs down the road.”
It is expected that about 30 pieces of legislation will be introduced during this session, but do not expect a budget as it will come during the spring sitting.