REGINA – Opposition New Democrats were back at work attacking the government on affordability Thursday, this time claiming the budget made Regina more expensive than living in Vancouver.
But the government took issue with the NDP claims and accused them of using selective information to create a false narrative.
At a news conference at the Legislature Thursday, NDP Energy critic Sally Housser pointed to comparison statistics in the provincial budget document for families making $75,000 a year.
She pointed to a graph showing local residents paid provincial taxes of $3,054 and power bills of $1,556 for a total $4,620, which was compared to $2,475 in provincial taxes and $1,019 in electricity bills for a total of $3,494 for residents in Vancouver.
“Yes, that's right, Vancouver,” said Housser.
Despite this, she said, Premier Scott Moe is “pressing ahead with his $136 million power rate hike on families, firms and businesses. He's pressing ahead with a planned increase on car insurance rates. He's continuing to pull in $25 million annually in taxes on groceries and another $20 million in taxes on kids' clothes.
“The bottom line is this, if you need it, the Sask party is going to tax it. And we pay more taxes here than they do in Vancouver.”
She reiterated the NDP call for the government to stop the rate hikes for power and car insurance, remove taxes on groceries and clothing, and temporarily suspend the $0.15 per litre fuel tax due to the conflict in the Middle East. She also called for passage of the Rent Control Act and a “stop to provincial cost downloading onto municipal governments which drives up property taxes.”
In their emailed response later in the afternoon, the Sask Party government stated that “once again, the NDP is using selective and partial information to create a false narrative and run down Saskatchewan, in this case, making the ridiculous claim that it is more expensive to live in Saskatchewan than Vancouver.“
In their response the government provided a full text of pages 61 and 61 of the budget document, both of which also listed a whole range of other costs for a family of four that were not included at the NDP news conference.
Those included higher automobile insurance ($1998 in Vancouver to $1250 in Regina) and home heating expenses ($1515 to $972), and a significantly higher housing cost. Total housing costs in Vancouver were $69,571 compared to $21,622 in Regina.
The total for taxes, utilities and housing costs was listed as $77,324 in Vancouver and at $29,388 in Regina.
“This is why no one takes the NDP seriously and why their leader now has the highest disapproval rating of any Opposition leader in Canada,” the government stated.
