SASKATOON — Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck made a scathing remark on the government’s management of the province’s finances, and presented a ceremonial mock cheque amounting to almost $1.07 billion to Toronto billionaires signed by Premier Scott Moe.
Beck said the numbers don’t lie and everything is in black and white, that despite the Canadian Taxpayers Federation putting Moe on its “Nice” list released on Dec. 8, the Sas Party government had burdened taxpayers with its mismanagement.
“I'm sure that there are a lot of bankers who are going to have a fantastic Christmas. Maybe, an extra long vacation because of the billion-dollar plus cheque that we're sending them this year on interest on our debt in this province,” said Beck during a media event on Thursday.
“Again, a 123 per cent increase in debt in just eight years, that's impressive. Suppose it weren't so impactful under Moe’s leadership. The list is long with the way this government has spent money, but they're not good at ensuring the money they spent actually positively impacts people in this province.”
She added the government seems pretty content with its record, despite many people in the province, especially families, struggling this year and going without charging their groceries to credit cards and adding to their financial stress.
Beck said the Saskatchewan NDP is presenting Moe with the novelty cheque to illustrate the government’s financial management to the province's residents, as the amount printed on the cheque shows how much each taxpayer is forced to pay every year to Toronto’s bankers and billionaires.
“It's a pretty sizable gift for those bankers on Wall Street and on Bay Street, and I think that they're going to have an excellent Christmas because of this government's mismanagement. Unfortunately, I believe many people in this province won't have the same cheery Christmas. We see hard-working people right across this province who are working harder and harder, falling further and further behind, and paying the price for this government's mismanagement of the public finances,” added Beck.
“After 18 years, we've seen a government that presents budgets in the spring that are frankly more works of fiction than they are helpful. … We saw the government project a $12 million surplus at budget time, something that people rightly said was a budget that didn't work. Was it worth the paper that it's written on just halfway through the fiscal year? That supposed $12 million surplus has risen to a massive $427 million deficit. Another billion dollars in new data as well.”
Beck said that when Moe became premier in 2017, the province’s debt had more than doubled from $17.6 billion to $39.3 billion, a figure the people of Saskatchewan need to know, since they are the ones paying the price for the government’s billion-dollar payoffs to billionaire bankers.
“We have a government that seems allergic to balancing the budget or managing the finances in these problems, and frankly, after 18 years, people are becoming pretty tired of paying the price for this government's mismanagement. We've seen that the list is very long; it would be even longer. List that I can fit on that big check of mismanaged projects by this government, from the bypass to its systems that don't work,” she said.
SaskToday reached out to the government for comment, but they had not responded as of posting time.
