REGINA — The budget appropriations bill passed the Legislative Assembly on Monday, and Opposition New Democrats responded by dumping the budget document into a wood chipper.
Opposition MLAs Aleana Young, Sally Housser and Hugh Gordon staged the media event outside their party offices at Tommy Douglas House in Regina.
There, they dumped several 2026 budget documents into the wood chipper, which tore up and spat mounds of paper onto the parking lot.
The scene was reminiscent of Finance critic Trent Wotherspoon's media event in 2025, when he put that year's budget document into a shredder.
The MLAs said a shredder wasn't enough for this year's documents, which the NDP has repeatedly referred as a “bad news budget” with a deficit of $819 million.
In recent days, the NDP has stepped up its attacks, characterizing the government's plan to extend coal generation as costing $26 billion.
The government has accused the NDP of mischaracterizing the cost of its plan, pointing to the true capital cost being $2.6 billion.
Speaking to reporters, Young pointed to the coming end of the legislative session this Thursday, May 14.
She said the Sask. Party was “desperate to get out of the Legislature, desperate to get away from scrutiny of the drip, drip, drip of billions of dollars of scandals.”
As for the party's plans after the session is over, Young said “we're going to take this show on the road.”
She said the NDP plans meetings with municipalities, Indigenous communities, industry and workers, “talking about the impact Scott Moe and the Sask Party's choices are having on affordability, are having on health care, and when it comes to the $26 billion coal catastrophe are having on the future of investment, on economic security and on cost of living here in Saskatchewan. The work is only going to pick up.”
In Question Period Tuesday afternoon, Finance Minister Jim Reiter ridiculed the NDP wood chipper stunt.
"Mr. Speaker, last year the Finance critic tried to put the budget through a paper shredder, Mr. Speaker, but it broke, Mr. Speaker. This year as the member opposite said, they put it through a wood chipper, Mr. Speaker. I think their time would’ve been better spent putting their so-called power plan through a calculator, so people could actually see the numbers."
Minister for Crown Investments Corporation Jeremy Harrison also took a shot at the NDP, saying the only thing that went in the wood chipper was the "last shred of the credibility of the Members' opposite."
