March 13, 2024 | Advertise with us

Presented by

Good morning. We’re officially one week until the 2024-25 provincial budget is announced. Of course, The SKoop will be getting ready for it, but we want to ask you: what are you going to be keeping an eye on as the budget is announced? Respond to this email and let us know!

Here’s The SKoop for today:

• More premiers call to scrap the carbon tax,

• Post-secondary faculty pitch in to support the Teachers, and

• Former radioman David Kirton announces he will be a one and done Saskatoon city councillor.

P.S. Please share The SKoop with your networks. At the bottom of this email you will see a new referral section - share The SKoop and gain points towards winning prizes like gift cards and a pair of AirPods. Thanks!

Multiple Premiers united in call for the Carbon Tax to be Scrapped

Two Atlantic Premiers took to social media yesterday calling for the federal Liberal government and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to scrap the planned April 1st increase to the carbon tax, and scrap it all together.

Andrew Furey, notably the Liberal Party leader and Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, said in his letter to the Prime Minister, “the high cost of living is enough of a burden on families.” Blaine Higgs, the Progressive Conservative Premier of New Brunswick said “New Brunswickers can’t afford a Liberal government that keeps making life more expensive.” Premier Moe shared in support of both of them on Twitter.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said if the Liberals don’t scrap the planned April 1st increase, it will cost them the next election, saying “The carbon tax is the worst tax ever put on a bunch of people,” adding, “I can’t believe the federal government is actually going to hike the gas tax.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, PEI Premier Denis King, and NDP Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew all agree that the carbon tax should be scrapped.

Saskatchewan is the first jurisdiction to remit the carbon tax on home heating following the federal government’s exemption made for home heating oil in Atlantic Canada.

Sponsored by the Saskatchewan Heavy Construction Association

Sask. Post-Secondary Faculty Show Support for STF

Faculty representatives from the University of Regina, University of Saskatchewan, and Saskatchewan Polytechnic held a joint news conference on Monday with Saskatchewan Teachers Federation President Samantha Becotte to pledge their support to the STF.

“Their students are, and will be, our students,” USask’s Faculty Association Chairperson Geraldine Balzer said in a news release. “We all thrive only with stable and adequate public funding. The chronic lack of priority for education puts Saskatchewan kids at a disadvantage, from elementary school to post-secondary institutions, and to the workforce both in this province and on the world stage.”

While faculty as the three institutions made their voices heard this week, none of the executive leaders at the schools participated.

When asked about the multi-year funding agreement signed by the Government and the SSBA, STF President Samantha Becotte said, “If they would just be willing to put them within the collective bargaining process, it would provide us with an opportunity to get back to the table and we could likely resolve the dispute relatively quickly.”

The Saskatchewan NDP continued on Tuesday to criticize the education situation and the province’s recent agreement with the SSBA, with the party’s education critc Matt Love saying “there’s chaos reigning in our education system.”

(CTV Regina)

Sponsored by Insurance Brokers Association of Saskatchewan

David Kirton is one and done on Saskatoon City Council

Saskatoon City Councillor David Kirton has announced he will not be seeking re-election this fall. Kirton, 70, was first elected to council in 2020 and represents the people of Confederation Park and Fairhaven, as well as Kensington and Blairmore in Ward 3.

Kirton says he wished he could have helped the City’s most vulnerable, saying “We’ve got to come together as a city to help and work with these vulnerable people. We can’t be chasing these shelters away and can’t be opposing them and making decisions about that even before we had all of the information, so there’s one frustration.”

As for his proudest moment, “I’m proud to have taken the initiative to change the name (of John A. Macdonald Road) to Miyo-wâhkôhtowin Road. The reason I’m proud is because I went to a ceremony the day that they put up the new sign, and I was in the school gym at wâhkôhtowin School, and to see the amazing glee and happiness in the eyes, it was an amazing afternoon. It showed me that maybe we can make a difference in people’s lives. I believe it was a move in the right direction.”

Kirton was previously a well-known broadcaster on CKOM for 43 years.

(CKOM News)

Sponsored by Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy

More news and info

• Province unveils new restrictions on urban bear spray possession

• Register now for the Saskatchewan Public Affairs Forum on April 9th in Regina, hosted by the Saskatchewan chapter of Public Affairs Association of Canada!*

• ‘It makes no sense’: Trudeau government promised rural residents a carbon rebate top up- so why aren’t these people getting it? (Toronto Star)

• Almost two in three support spending restraint over increasing spending or continuing as planned (Nanos Research)

_{*Sponsored content from Public Affairs Association of Canada - Saskatchewan Chapter.}

2024 Election Candidate Tracker