Sask. NDP feeling good about opposition effort during spring session

Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili felt the official opposition in the Saskatchewan legislature did a good job during the spring session, which adjourned on May 16.

“It was a good session in a few different ways,” he said during a May 21 conference call with media. “Sometimes in opposition you have to work for victories and we actually had a couple.”

He considered the government’s decision to reverse a proposed funding cut to Cornwall Alternative School in Regina as one of those victories. Another success for the opposition was an amendment to a law to include five days of paid leave for victims of domestic and sexual violence, which was an improvement on the original government proposal that only allowed for unpaid leave.

Meili said the opposition continued to raise concerns about various issues, including rising classroom sizes in schools, longer emergency room wait times, and economic issues such as the negative impact of adding PST to construction labour.

The federal carbon tax came into effect in Saskatchewan on April 1 and in early May the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruled in a 3-2 split decision that the federal government has a constitutional right to set a minimum national price on greenhouse gas emissions.

Meili felt the approach of Premier Scott Moe’s government to the carbon tax has been frustrating and ineffective.

“He made a lot of noise about this, but not a lot of progress,” Meili said. “They've lost the court case and we have the Trudeau carbon tax here, and it didn't have to be that way. He could have come up with an alternative, he could have tried to negotiate us a better deal, but he went in with this all or nothing approach, and as a result we got nothing.”

He considered it essential that Saskatchewan should have a climate change policy that can be a real alternative to the federal carbon tax.

“Something that will not do what the Trudeau tax does, which is make life less affordable for people around the province, isn't fairly distributing the cost, and isn't making the biggest polluters pay,” he said.

“So it's time for us to push forward and say here's what a better plan would look like. … We are putting forth real alternatives, including our Renew Saskatchewan model that would help people to get into renewable energy all around the province. So people are going to start to see that there's not a lot behind the noise and the misrepresentation that's coming out of the Sask. Party.”

Premier Moe talked on the last day of the spring session about the option of using small modular nuclear reactors in Saskatchewan, but Meili is not convinced this technology will be the answer to a transition away from coalfired power stations.

“It just doesn't really exist yet, let alone in such a way that we would know whether it was a good investment or a wise choice for Saskatchewan,” he said. “Our option of renewables for communities like Estevan and Coronach as part of our transition to renewable energy really focus on those communities that have traditionally been part of our energy and electricity infrastructure, helping them to have new employment opportunities at the same time as we transition into wind, and solar, and geothermal.”

The NDP introduced various bills during the spring session, but all of them died on the order paper.

One bill was aimed at creating a suicide prevention strategy for the province, the goal of another was to strengthen the regulations for lobbying of public officials in the province, and the purpose of a third bill was to ban paid blood donations.

“That means in order for them to be reconsidered they'll have to be reintroduced in the fall session, which is frustrating for all of those bills, because they're all very valid things,” he said. “The most upsetting of all though was to have the government choose, despite repeated questioning and repeated opportunities, to ignore the call for a suicide prevention strategy.… When they chose to let that bill die on the order paper, it's the first time that a government, provincial or national in Canada, has not passed an introduced bill on a suicide prevention strategy. Just a week earlier there was a unanimous passing of one at the federal level. So it's very disappointing to see the government not take the opportunity to deal with such a pressing crisis in our province.”

Meili considered it essential that the current lobbying regulations are improved to create a more transparent system.

“We have a lobbying registry, but it allows for 100 hours of lobbying before anyone has to register,” he said. “You can get a lot done in 100 hours of conversation with a minister. That really makes no sense that this kind of activity wouldn't be fully disclosed. So I don't think we should have that 100 hour limit. It should be much, much less.”

He is also in favour of stricter controls on donations to political parties and changes to the conflict of interest rules.

He felt it is worrisome that the provincial government did not clarify its position on the issue of farm-saved seed royalties during the spring session.

“We think that's sending a lot of concern into rural Saskatchewan, especially right now with the trouble with canola and potentially other exports to China,” he said. “There's lots of concern with the addition of the federal carbon tax and it's differential impact on agriculture. There's real concern and add to that the possibility that people will have to pay trailing royalties or end royalties in order to replant seed that they've grown, and these are farmers that have laser thin margins. We need to make sure we're protecting farms and their profitability and the seed saving is just a basic part of farming.”

The NDP is in favour of universal coverage for the abortion drug Mifegymiso, but the government did not provide any clarity during the spring session on this matter.

“When abortion is legal and covered through our health system and should continue to be, we should also be making sure we're making available the most cost effective and safe methods for doing so,” he said. “It's been very disturbing to see us as a province so far behind the rest of the country. We're the last to approve the sale of this drug and we're now I believe the only province that doesn't offer full coverage. So we really are making things more difficult for women in Saskatchewan, more costly and less safe.”

The fall session of the Saskatchewan legislature is scheduled to start on Oct. 23, which will be two days after the federal election.

The Saskatchewan NDP will keep an eye on the national issues that are resonating with people locally, and at the same time the party will be interested in the outcome of the federal election.

“It will be very interesting to see after the federal election what the dynamic is,” Meili noted.

“The premier has made most of his time about fighting Justin Trudeau, which I think in many ways has been a way of distracting from his own record and not wanting to deal with the issues caused by the Sask. Party. He likes to point fingers federally. What does he do if Andrew Scheer is prime minister? How does he change the channel when suddenly his friend is there and he needs to start taking responsibility for some of his own actions?”