REGINA — NDP Leader Carla Beck pointed to opportunities as well as risks that she saw in the 2025 federal budget delivered this week.
Speaking to reporters at the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities midterm meetings, Beck called the budget a “potential game changer.”
“There's a lot of opportunities, a lot of talk about investing in the things that we've been calling for,” said Beck. She pointed to “that critical trade enabling infrastructure, those pipelines, those power lines, those rail lines, increasing port capacity and efficiency, being able to get our world-class goods to market. And I think that's important.”
That was one thing that stood out, she said. The other, “on the risk side,” was that Saskatchewan is “one of the provinces that have not signed on to a new bilateral agreement when it comes to health-care funding, something that could potentially cost us $130 million in this province.”
“At a time when we've already seen our health-care system go from first to last, when we've got… challenges and ER closures and program closures, that is not a price that the people of this province can afford to pay. So we would be looking at making sure that Saskatchewan's getting their fair share.”
She said in her conversations with delegates at SARM that there was cautious optimism, but that they “want to make sure that Saskatchewan gets their fair share of this generational investment into infrastructure in this country.”
“I think we need to see the provincial government make sure that Saskatchewan gets their fair share. When I look at things like broadband funding, Saskatchewan certainly has not gotten our fair share. We need to make sure that we're clear about the projects that we are championing.”
Beck also criticized the government, saying “we do not even know the projects that the province has advanced to be on that infrastructure list.”
“I don't know why it's so top secret. We've seen other provinces publish theirs, and I would offer today, we would be happy to champion those projects. But we don't know what they are right now.”
She said for Saskatchewan to get their fair share, “we have to be really clear about what we're asking. And we have to demand that we get our fair share in this province. I think if we're able to make these investments, actually get these things built, we can tap into the incredible opportunity, the knowledge, the hard work that we already have going for us in this province.”
Beck was asked about the uncertainty in Ottawa on whether the budget would pass, and on the floor-crossing rumours circulating. She said she did not know if there was “a lot of appetite” for a federal election right now.
“But I think the real urgency right now is for all of us not to be focused on those internal political battles,” said Beck.
“It has to be on actually getting this infrastructure built. I mean, that's what I'm hearing time and time again,” said Beck. “There's so much uncertainty right now, whether it's tariffs, threats from, threats to our sovereignty. There's an urgency to get things built right now. And I think people want leaders at all levels of all political stripes to find a way to put some of those things aside and get things built.”
As for what projects she wanted to see on the top of her list, she pointed to building the grid capacity here in the province — “those power lines, the pipelines, whether that's… oil and gas or LNG, increasing that capacity.” Port capacity, investment in rail lines and “using the infrastructure we have and building extra capacity” were other priorities she identified.
“And we have to do it quick. I think that's my number one message. Some of this sounds really good. I think the next weeks, the next months, how quickly these things can actually be built, I think that's going to determine how well we weather the storm we're in right now.”
