The Sask Party presented it’s budget for the 2023/24 year and it was a disappointment. This is a party that say they care about the province and the people in it, but sadly their budget says differently.
The Sask Party has introduced an increase in health care spend for this fiscal year. While they try to make this sound good, this is the reality of these numbers. They are increasing the Health Care spending 6.7 percent while this number sounds impressive, what they are not telling you is that this is still lower than the rate of inflation. What they also do not mention is that $61 million of that was the money promised to the province by the Federal Government. So, the provincial input is not that great.
Next the Sask Party was pleased to announce an increase in the SAID benefits. When this is looked at further this only equates to $1 per day for recipients. Again this does not keep up with the current cost of living which leaves some of our most vulnerable people in the province destitute and not being able to fully provide for themselves with any degree of comfort. Meanwhile the current sitting MLA’s who are currently earning an excess of $100 000 per year just gave themselves and $8 per day raise.
The biggest disappointment to today’s Provincial budget was there was nothing for the people of the province. The Sask Party fell short again on providing relief for people, who are just trying to keep up with bills and trying to feed themselves. With the ever increasing price of food, power, energy and fuel hikes there was nothing to help offset these costs. Nothing in this budget has provided any relief in sight for the people.
This budget just showed how the Sask Party is not working for the people in Saskatchewan
Rose Buscholl
Interim Leader