Race for Saskatchewan: Week of Oct. 5-11

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With the 30th Saskatchewan general election now underway, the Leader-Post’s collection of pre-election announcements and developments that was being captured in Race to the Writ will look and sound a little different.

Since campaigning officially kicked off last week, it’s now the Race for Saskatchewan.

See our stories from this week about the stances of the parties that most recently held seats in the legislature. Some of the topics included health care and specifically IVF, as well as policing and community safety and small businesses.

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In this week’s roundup, we continue to highlight announcements made from their official campaign platforms that may have gone under the radar.

Saskatchewan NDP

Nicole Sarauer, who served as deputy leader of the Opposition and is running once again in Regina Douglas Park, promised that her party would create a tribunal to account for 17 years of Sask. Party “mismanagement.”

She cited concerns over lobbying practices as well as overruns by the Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) — used to centralize and integrate health systems — as issues the tribunal would address.

Leader Carla Beck reiterated an earlier promise to hire 100 more RCMP officers, funded by the redirection of dollars earmarked for the controversial Saskatchewan Marshals Service.

Beck has also reiterated a pledge to invest $1.1 billion to bolster health care and shared last month’s briefing note to the government from the union representing its employees that highlights concerns about staffing shortages in cancer care.

The briefing note said staff shortages are creating dangerous domino effects of staff burnout along with delayed and cancelled tests, putting patients at risk.

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Saskatchewan Party

Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe announced that, if re-elected, his party would give a 25-per-cent increase to the Disability Tax Credit for adults, the Disability Tax Credit Supplement for persons under 18, and the Caregiver Tax Credit for families who care for adult children or a parent with a disability.

That would mean each of the three credits would go up by $286 annually before inflation.

Moe also promised to extend coverage for insulin pumps and diabetes supplies to seniors and young adults, meaning that young adults up to the age of 25 and seniors aged 65 and older would receive continuous and flash glucose monitors at no cost.

Children and youth under age 18 currently receive such coverage for free in the province.

Moe followed the NDP’s earlier campaigning on small business with a pledge to keep the small business tax at one per cent, rather than return to two per cent as part of an increase that had been scheduled for next year.

Moe has also promised he would create a bursary program for young entrepreneurs to access grants of $5,000 to help with business development.

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The funds would be delivered through the Saskatoon and Saskatchewan chambers of commerce.

To find out who’s running in your riding, see our constituency list here.

We’ve also compiled need-to-know information about how to vote here.

Check out our complete election coverage here.

— With files from The Canadian Press 

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