Sask update

I'm a day late on this one too (sister in law is getting married tomorrow), but here's the update from the People's Republic of Saskatchewan:

• Throne speech was yesterday, and among the usual stuff was an announcement on a new stat holiday tol be introduced in February, called Family Day
• The second thing that stuck out was the intention to introduce spend all the money collected in gas taxes on roads - this notion has been around for a while, makes a ton of sense, but governments have resisted...
• This morning, the Finance minister announced in the House (separate from the throne speech), that the PST would be lowered to 5% effective tonight.

That's one heck of a way to win a couple of news cycles!

If you are thinking that these kind of announcments signal an election will be sooner rather than later, I agree.  I think we can count on next spring.  By then a budget will have been passed, we'll have had the holiday, and the lower PST will have been in place for a while.  Maybe we'll even see some serious road work.

 

Politically this is a great move - it blunts a number of the key issues the opposition Sask Party wants to use: taxes and roads.  In my humble opinion, these measures should go a long way toward rehabilitating the fortunes of the governing NDP...