Budget Debate (26 March 2024)

From Hansard (26 March 2024)

 

Budget Debate

Mr. Keisig: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Always a pleasure to be on my feet and enter into debate on the 2024-25 budget. First of all, I have to thank the constituents of Last MountainTouchwood. They sent me here to represent them and work for them, and they are always top of mind on every issue that we bring forward on a daily basis.

I also have to thank my constituency assistant, Tina Knowles. She does great work in the office and goes really above and beyond to help constituents and help myself. And I also want to thank Nicole McCullough. She has been just so helpful in mentoring Tina and helping her learn her role and responsibilities, and you know, working together on solving problems.

I also want to talk about my daughters, Mr. Speaker. My oldest daughter, she’s a licensed practical nurse working at the General Hospital in Regina. She works in a general surgery ward. And we have a bit of a routine, Mr. Speaker. After work she’ll phone, or on her way in to work, and just kind of talk every day as she walks to her shift. She always talks about some of the challenges and what happened during her day, and she also sends me a lot of Snapchats on the construction update of the parkade at the General Hospital.

This is really going to be a fantastic thing. There’s going to be over 1,000 parking spots for employees, patients, visitors, and it’s really needed. Construction is progressing rapidly, and it’s going to be open later this year. And it’s great to see. It’s going to be a huge boon to all of the employees and visitors and users of that hospital facility, Mr. Speaker.

My other daughter is Sharlize. She’s a veterinary technician. She’s working in Melville at the clinic. She loves her job, loves her animals, the large and small animals that she works with. And she truly loves the work that she does.

Both of my daughters were able to apply for the student loan forgiveness program that’s open to certain fields for all Saskatchewan graduates. And they were also able to apply to the graduate retention program, which is open to all Saskatchewan residents as long as they choose to stay in this province. These are good programs, Mr. Speaker, that are going to help many of our young people and provide them with a financial incentive to stay home. I’m very proud of my daughters, Mr. Speaker, and I’m glad they’re both living and working in Saskatchewan.

Whenever we work on policy issues in caucus in government, Mr. Speaker, there’s always kind of the north star that I always like to use. I grew up in a time when there was no opportunities in this province and all of my friends left for Alberta. Anyway, I mean that really shapes your vision when it happens at a younger age. And every policy that I try to bring forward, that I advocate for, that I want to see happen, is to encourage young people and make sure there’s opportunities for them in this province and they don’t have to leave anywhere.

Classrooms, care, and communities is the theme for this budget and is delivered by our esteemed Minister of Finance. I want to thank her for 25 years of public service. Her work ethic is huge, and she really sets the bar high for all of us serving in caucus together. That plucky young girl hailing from Guernsey who went to school, became a lab tech, then got into public service, now she’s part of Canadian history as the longest serving female cabinet minister. You know, that is such a remarkable feat, Mr. Speaker. And it really shows that in Saskatchewan it doesn’t matter where you come from, you can achieve anything you want in this province.

A $4.4 billion investment in education is record investment, Mr. Speaker. 2.2 billion for our 27 locally run kindergarten to grade 12 school divisions. It’s also the largest ever budget. Increase of 180 million, over 9 per cent from last year. The school divisions in the constituency that I have the honour of representing, 7.3 per cent increase across the board, Mr. Speaker. Our locally elected school boards know what’s best for their communities and their schools. This increase in funding will assist them in delivering high-quality education in our schools and preparing young people for a very exciting future.

I was curling in a bonspiel this weekend, Mr. Speaker, and the number one topic people wanted to talk to me about was the ongoing contract negotiations between the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation and the government-trustee bargaining committee. Now I know negotiations do not belong on the floor of this Chamber, but I do want to address the issue briefly.

Our government fully supports teachers and their valuable work. I know many teachers across the constituency and across the province, and I consider many of them my friends. They do great work in their communities. I had some teachers growing up who inspired me to serve in public office, and I know my daughters had some fantastic teachers who helped them through their educational journey. I want to reassure every Saskatchewan teacher, we are listening to their concerns and bringing forward policies to assist you in your work. We look forward to a timely conclusion to these negotiations.

And I really want to thank our Minister of Education. He is going above and beyond. His work schedule is loaded, and he is truly doing everything he can to assist everyone in the province.

It’s also worth noting, Mr. Speaker, that a growing economy is seeing billions of dollars invested in this province’s resource sector. Agri-food processing and manufacturing all have one thing in common. They need a highly skilled workforce to sustain that growth. That’s why the additional investment of over a million dollars in the Saskatchewan Apprenticeship and Trade Certification Commission is a very timely investment. We need more boilermakers. We need more ironworkers, pipefitters, and all construction trades. And well of course, Mr. Speaker, we always need more welders.

I’ve worked in the construction industry. I know it very well, and these tradespeople are so important to our community, our province, and society. A thriving economy presents tons of opportunities for the youth to venture into the trades, learn practical skills, and earn a good income.

It’s worth noting that every mine, every canola plant, every processing plant, every power station that gets built in this province hires a lot of people for construction, but there’s ongoing maintenance employment opportunities at those plants for 50 to 100 years. The mine at BHP, that’s a 100-year mine, Mr. Speaker. These plants are great places to work and good opportunities for all young people in this province.

I encourage all young people as they’re graduating high school this year, consider a career path in the trades. You will not regret it. There is tons of opportunities, and this is a great time to get involved in that process.

Care, Mr. Speaker. This budget includes a record investment of 7.6 billion in our provincial health care system, an overall increase of 726 million over last year’s budget. This includes 4.7 billion for the Saskatchewan Health Authority. This budget includes a three-and-a-half-million-dollar increase for the breast cancer care and screening. This means Saskatchewan residents will witness technology enhancements, new diagnostic imaging equipment, and the establishment of the breast cancer health centre in Regina. The establishment of this centre is going to be very beneficial for everyone in southern Saskatchewan.

And I really want to thank the Minister of Health and the Minister of Rural Health for all of the hard work that they do in this file and meeting with so many stakeholders and always having such an open-door policy in their offices. It’s greatly appreciated, Mr. Speaker.

And I also want to thank the Minister of Rural Health. We toured the constituency this winter. We stopped at three different facilities across my constituency, and we talked about different challenges within those communities. And it kind of all boils down to our health human care action plan. We need more staff. We need more nurse practitioners. And we have a vision and a plan, and this budget is going to help see that come to fruition, Mr. Speaker.

Community. Mr. Speaker, it’s also another focal point of this budget. Municipal revenue sharing, a policy brought forward by this government, is returning over 340 million to our local municipal governments, an increase of 42 million from last year. Revenue sharing is very simple — three-quarters of 1 per cent of the PST. As our economy grows, our municipal partners share in this economic growth. It’s a simple but very effective policy, with both levels of government working together to continue growing our economy and creating opportunities for all of our citizens.

We’ve also allocated $15 million for our provincial parks. I had the opportunity last fall to attend a groundbreaking ceremony with the Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport at Rowan’s Ravine. It’s going to be a beautiful multi-use pavilion in that facility. And I really want encourage everyone to get out to our parks. They are just absolutely gorgeous, and Rowan’s Ravine is tremendous. It’s going to be a nice addition to the park.

And I really want to thank everyone involved that brought forward the $1.2 million increase to our regional park system. There’s several regional parks across my constituency. They do beautiful work, and they are very fiscally prudent with all of the funds that these parks are able to accumulate.

I’m going to do a little bit of criticism right now, Mr. Speaker. I know that the member from Regina Elphinstone likes to refer to us people in the backbench as clapping seals. But we do have independent thoughts, and I’m going to just criticize a little bit of this budget.

Our Minister of Trade and Export sector, we’re putting $40.6 million in this budget, Mr. Speaker. I believe that should be larger. We should grow that part. We produce the highest quality agri-food products in the world, the lowest carbonintensive energy and mine products. We have a highly-trained and responsible workforce. By any measure, we produce the best qualities in the world, and we need to sell that. We need to sell that globally and get the premium that the market . . . we can extract from that and provide more money for our farmers, for our energy workers, for our forestry sector. And it’s crucial that we have to take that initiative, Mr. Speaker. Nobody else will do it. And I want to commend everybody in the Trade and Export Development file for all the good work we’re doing.

We just learned today, $300 million to Vietnam in durum. That’s a huge boon to everyone . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . Pasta. Durum is pasta.

The world wants what we produce, and we have to get the premium that we can extract from the market.

So this winter, Mr. Speaker, was relatively mild, but there was a very terrible cold snap in early January. It is critical that our infrastructure system operates effectively and delivers the electricity and natural gas to our ratepayers, and SaskPower and SaskEnergy do a fantastic job. Our facilities ran flawlessly, and we were even able to assist Alberta this winter and sell them 150 megawatts of electricity in the brutal cold of winter.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I’m sure you’re curious as to why an energy superpower like Alberta was short of electricity on a very typical cold snap in January. I can provide you with that answer. A previous NDP government in Alberta closed all of their coalgenerating facilities and had a build-out of 6100 megawatts of renewables. And in that cold spell, that 6100 megawatts of energy produced 6. Six megawatts of energy was produced in that minus-40-below weather. At the point in time where you desperately needed power for your house, for your business, for your hospital, for your seniors’ care home, for your school, it was producing 6 megawatts.

This proves, Mr. Speaker, in real time, baseload electricity is absolutely critical. And we cannot take ideological stances when it comes to critical infrastructure. And it just shows how much damage environmental zealots can do when they ever have the power to control government, Mr. Speaker. Our Crown corporations are investing billions in system expansions, upgrades, and maintenance. In the harsh climate we live in, this is vitally important.

The members opposite are always talking about affordability issues, Mr. Speaker. And the government removing the carbon tax on home heating, following the policy implementation by the Liberal-NDP coalition, you know, it’s all about fairness, Mr. Speaker. They brought that policy forward for Atlantic Canada, and we are making it fair for Saskatchewan people. Our inflation rate dropped in January by 1.4 per cent. This clearly shows how inflationary the carbon tax can be and how it has such a pervasive and destructive impact on our economy, making life very difficult for everyone in the province.

You know, in the media, the federal Environment minister referred to our Premier as immoral. And I went back in Hansard and I looked, and one of my very first speeches in the Chamber here, Mr. Speaker, I said, “It is immoral for any government to tax people to stay warm in this country.” So it’s, I don’t know, a little bit flattering to see the Environment minister copying my work.

And it’s also important to note, Mr. Speaker, the carbon tax is going up April 1st — 23 per cent increase. So we’re going to have more inflationary impacts, more taxes, more costs, and more harm to our economy with zero environmental benefit.

There’s one more thing I want to talk about, Mr. Speaker: our highway network. We’re investing over $600 million in this budget and over $400 million in new construction. The gas tax, which is charged at the pump, it collects around $500 million. And the members opposite, even today in question period, they were asking us to remove it. But they never, ever have a plan. If we remove it for six months, we lose $250 million. They never say, are we going to cut $250 million from our highways budget? Are we going to run a $250 million deficit? Are we going to cut something else? They never have a plan. No darn plan. That’s what they have, Mr. Speaker — no darn plan.

I just want to end on a positive note here, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the member from Saskatoon Northwest. It was very good serving in this Chamber with him in caucus. He was a very talented minister and very inclusive for a newly elected member. He was always there to assist and answer any questions.

I want to thank the member from Weyburn-Big Muddy. He was the first minister I ever had the privilege to serve under as a Legislative Secretary, so I’m always going to remember him. He was a good minister to work with and always tried to include me in the different things and get me up to speed on the files, and I truly appreciate that.

And the member from Indian Head-Milestone. He was truly a mentor to me and has been just someone I consider a very, very good friend. I thank him for his service, and I’m still going to learn lots from him even when he’s not in this Chamber, Mr. Speaker.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting the budget. I will not be supporting the amendment. And it’s critical that Saskatchewan people know, it is only through the strength of our economy that we can make these investments in classrooms, care, and communities. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

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