2011 Saskatchewan Liberal Party Platform
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Natural resources won’t last forever. It is unwise to fund ongoing expenditures such as health care with volatile, one-time dollars that come from resource extraction. This leads to problems like the unexpected budget gap of 2009-10 due to miscalculated potash royalty revenue.
We need sustainable economic policies that will last for generations. Any financial advisor will tell you, the first thing you need to do for long term financial health is to get rid of your debt. And as anyone who has struggled with debt knows, this isn’t easy to do. It takes leadership and discipline.
The Saskatchewan Liberal Party is proposing the adoption of a Three-Step Plan to Secure Saskatchewan’s Financial Future:
The province is more than the big cities. Our growing communities, like The Battlefords, need support too. A new approach to economic and social development is required that isn’t focussed on the narrow interests of the government elites in Regina.
Instead of domed stadium mega-projects, the people of Saskatchewan should be the focus of the provincial government’s investments. We want to support our growing communities by empowering people to live with dignity and reach for their dreams. The best solutions are found closest to where the people are.
The Saskatchewan Liberal Party will support our growing communities by leading the fight for:
Regina is out of control. The provincial government has lost focus on what it is here for. Government can be a force for good, but not when the politicians in Regina have lost touch with our values.
The Sask Party’s 2007 election platform claimed that once all of their promises were implemented that “total government operating expenses before debt servicing costs are forecast to increase from $7.79 billion to $8.75 billion by 2011-12” (p. 43, 2007 Sask. Party Platform).
So how did the Sask Party do? Not so well. In the latest budget, government operating expenses were $10.26 billion. That’s over $1.5 billion dollars more than the Sask Party promised to be spending at the end of their first term.
This represents a 31.7% increase in government spending since the Sask Party formed government. At the same time, the provincial population has only grown by 5.8%.
Enough is enough. We need leadership to end this now.
To start making government make sense, the Saskatchewan Liberal Party will lead the fight to:
