REGINA – The opposition New Democrats resumed their attacks on the government Monday on affordability concerns, again taking aim at the issues of power bills and rent increases.
In a media availability at the legislature Monday, NDP energy critic Sally Housser blasted away at the Sask Party. She pointed to data from Stats Canada released last week for the second quarter of 2025 that reported almost 47 per cent of Saskatchewan people were finding it either difficult or very difficult to meet their household's financial needs.
Housser said that figure “was higher than anywhere else in the country.” It was also up considerably from the 31 per cent feeling that way in the first quarter.
Housser also pointed the rate of inflation on food and groceries being higher in Saskatchewan than the national average. On the real basics, she said, “we are worse than anywhere else in the country and nearly half the province are finding it hard to pay their bills and put food on the table.”
She also accused Premier Scott Moe of being “hell-bent on making things even harder,” pointing to the applications by Sask Power for increases to household power bills and the application by SGI to hike vehicle insurance for 98 per cent of the vehicles running in Saskatchewan.
Housser repeated again the NDP call for Moe to reopen the Legislature to block the rate hikes, and to cut taxes to food and clothing. She also wanted to see passed the NDP’s Rent Control Act, a “landmark piece of legislation introduced by my colleague and the Shadow Minister for Housing, April ChiefCalf.”
On the Rent Control Act, the NDP's ChiefCalf was taking aim at the latest numbers on rent in her media availability in Saskatoon.
The NDP pointed to numbers from Rentals.ca which reported a 9.3 per cent increase in rent for Saskatchewan last year, and a cumulative increase of 16 per cent over the last three years. Meanwhile, the NDP noted, rent decreased almost everywhere else in Canada.
“Not only is the cost of rent increasing in Saskatchewan, but it’s actually picking up speed while people suffer,” said ChiefCalf in a statement.
“No wonder people are leaving Saskatchewan — they can’t afford to stay.”
In response the SaskParty issued a statement accusing the NDP of being “lost, reckless and dishonest.”
They pointed to other numbers from Rentals.ca, showing average apartment rents in Saskatchewan are 32 per cent below the national average and among the lowest in Canada.
They also noted there is no PST on essential grocery items like meat, fish, eggs, milk, and vegetables, accusing the NDP of wanting to remove the PST applied to items like chocolate bars, candy, and pop while “knowing that PST revenues help fund important services in health care, education, and social services, as well as infrastructure investments that communities rely on.”
The province also pointed to their other affordability measures including reducing income taxes and initiatives in The Saskatchewan Affordability Act to provide over $250 million in tax savings this year, in addition to the more than $2 billion in affordability measures in each and every budget.
