REGINA – It may not have been an explosive provincial leaders’ debate Wednesday night, but it was a far different story on the campaign trail Thursday.
At a Sask Party campaign event in Christine Tell’s campaign office in Regina Wascana Plains, Scott Moe pledged that the first thing his re-elected government would do was issue a directive to ban biological males from female change rooms in schools.
“This would be in response to the allegations about a couple of biological males changing with biological girls in a change room,” said Moe.
“When it comes to change rooms, I would say this — the first order of business with a re-elected Saskatchewan party government would ensure that biological males are not changing in a biological female, or alongside biological females or in a female change room. That order will be sent by our Education minister, that would be the first order of business if we’re re-elected.”
The directive would be sent out to school divisions, he said. As for why this wasn’t in his platform, Moe said “this has come to light in the last day or two, we’ve maybe heard some rumours or inklings from before.”
“But if re-elected, this would be the first order of business. And this would be a response to what’s come to light in the last few days.”
Moe added that he hoped the school divisions “maybe would act and we wouldn’t be required to. Again these schools are operated by the school divisions… we think many of them have policies in place already, but should they not, we will ensure there is a provincial policy in place.”
When asked about concerns this went against human rights and the Charter, Moe responded “what about the rights of all the other girls that are changing in that very change room? They have rights as well.”
That drew applause from the crowd at the campaign event.
When later asked what he meant by ‘biological boys’ or ‘biological girls’, Moe responded “I don’t know how much more clear I could be,” which also got applause.
When asked how many genders are there, Moe replied: “Two. From a biological perspective there are two. To my knowledge. I may stand to be corrected on that, I’m not sure.”
New Democrat leader Carla Beck responded in a statement later on Thursday in which she blasted Moe.
“I want to be clear about exactly what’s happening right now — Scott Moe had a bad night in the debate last night. And now he’s desperate,” said Beck.
“He’s weaponizing vulnerable kids in a desperate attempt to keep his job, stoking fear and division. It’s the lowest form of gutter politics. He’s doing this because he knows the people of Saskatchewan want change. He’s failed our kids. He’s failed parents. He’s failed Saskatchewan. Still, he will try anything to hold onto power. This is a time for us to come together, not a time for division and fear. We know that in Saskatchewan, hope beats fear. Every time. It’s time for change.”
While Moe was speaking in Regina Wascana Plains, Beck was at the legislature in Regina announcing that three former high-ranking Sask Party members were now supporting her party.
Those were Ian Hanna, former communications advisor to Premier Brad Wall who later worked with the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, and former Sask Party MLAs Glen Hart and Mark Docherty.
In a statement, Hanna said: “I didn’t leave the Saskatchewan Party, the Saskatchewan Party left me.” Meanwhile Docherty, a former Speaker, said in a news release that the “Sask. Party has lost their way. They don’t understand that you’re here to serve — and that it’s not their money, it’s the people’s money.”
The NDP’s news release also repeated a theme Beck had touched on during the debate that this was not about “Team Orange or Team Green – it’s about Team Saskatchewan.”
When asked about the Sask Party defections at his campaign event, Moe took the opportunity to blast the NDP platform.
“They’re going to support a platform that has come forward supporting Justin Trudeau and his carbon tax, they’ve come forward supporting a platform that has an $800 million in missing revenue that they pulled out of thin air, that not even a university economist can say where its come from… a total of $3 billion missing in that platform. If that is what they choose to support, I think it would be disappointing to say the least. But you know in this province, we each have the opportunity to cast a vote, however we see fit.”
Following his appearance in Regina, Moe went to Moose Jaw, where he announced the Sask Party would double the Community Rink Affordability Grant and introduce a new School Playground Equipment Grant. The community rink grant would go up from $2,500 per ice surface to skating and curling rinks across Saskatchewan, to $5,000 per ice surface, beginning next year.
According to a Sask Party news release Moe has also committed to a School Playground Equipment Fund of $3.75 million annually, to fund 50 per cent of the cost of new school playground equipment to a maximum per playground project of $50,000.
The NDP responded with a news release saying their party would “fund playgrounds AND classrooms,” pointing to their $2 billion education funding commitment.