Alec Salloum
Regina Leader-Post
Any Saskatchewan resident could be excused for thinking the provincial election was already underway, what with the number of provincial announcements and NDP declarations being made.
But the writ has yet to drop, making the campaign period technically not underway.
Elections Saskatchewan explained in an email that the Election Act, 1996, “does not prohibit potential candidates from advertising before an election being called.” There are some stipulations on top of that though, for example, a candidate must submit the appropriate form to Elections Saskatchewan, appoint a financial agent and must also be listed on the register of potential candidates.
This week alone, the province has made several announcements, including one in downtown Regina on Thursday, while the NDP has already started to paint a picture of what it plans to do if it forms government.
Beck and the NDP were back out on the pre-writ trail Thursday morning, announcing her party’s plan to, if elected, create a program to feed students across the province, funded by the province and the federal government but administered by Saskatchewan’s 27 school divisions.
“We’ll make it locally adapted and integrate it with existing food programs, food programs like Regina Food for Learning,” said Beck. The plan is to phase it in over three years, with the aim that divisions work toward a universal system.
“This provides some relief to those families, and it ensures that the children aren’t trying to learn on an empty stomach.”
Executive director of Regina Food for Learning Lin Gennutt said the way it works right now is that her organization has to apply for grants and fundraise each and every year. Over the coming scholastic year, the program will feed approximately 1,100 students across 17 schools. This years she said need has grown beyond their capacity, as more schools and more students have sought the service.
“A lot of those kids arrive at school hungry. They haven’t had breakfast, they don’t have anything for lunch, chances are they didn’t have supper last night,” said Gennutt. “The meal that they get at school is very often the only meal that they’ll get for that day.”
She said having baseline funding guaranteed every year for programs like theirs would “make a difference for thousands of kids” and would allow for better programming.
“Most of our funding comes from corporate and private donors. So a lot of those donors and those corporations, they don’t want to pay for rent, they want to pay for food,” Gennutt explained.
And as the NDP spent Thursday focused on K-12 students, the Government of Saskatchewan celebrated graduates from the provinces’ post-secondary institutions and the $801 million paid out from the graduate retention program (GRP) since it began in 2009.
The GRP provides a rebate “up to $20,000 of tuition fees paid by eligible graduates who live in Saskatchewan and who file a Saskatchewan income tax return.” In 2009, the annual average tuition in Saskatchewan for an undergraduate was $5,173, according to Statistics Canada.
Average annual tuition in Saskatchewan is now $9,609 according to Statistics Canada, well above the national average of $7,360.
“I think that what we have in place currently right now is working very well,” said Minister of Advanced Education Colleen Young when asked if the government was considering an increase to the amount people were eligible to receive, given the increase in tuition.
“At this point in time there is no appetite to change it.”
For those looking at the calendar wondering when the writ will drop, here are a few things to consider. The minimum writ period is 27 days and the maximum is 34. The last two elections, in 2016 and 2020, took place over 27 days and this year’s election is set to occur on or before Oct. 28.
So if the scheduled day holds, that makes Oct. 1 the latest possible date to drop the writ, while the earliest possible date is Sept. 24.
