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Scott Moe brings campaign back to Estevan

Scott Moe was back in Estevan on Monday night as part of his ongoing campaign to become the next leader of the Saskatchewan Party, and the next premier of the province.
Scott Moe
Saskatchewan Party leadership candidate Scott Moe spoke at the Estevan Elks Club on Monday Night

Scott Moe was back in Estevan on Monday night as part of his ongoing campaign to become the next leader of the Saskatchewan Party, and the next premier of the province.

Moe, who has the backing of Estevan MLA Lori Carr, spoke to about 20 people at a town hall-style meeting at the Estevan Elks Club. He spoke for about 30 minutes, and then answered questions from the audience.

It was his first time in Estevan since September.

He reiterated his support for the carbon capture and storage project at the Boundary Dam Power Station. While Moe believes Saskatchewan needs to clean up its emissions in power generation, through such options as wind and solar, he pointed out they aren’t baseload options.

“Wind and solar need to be backed up by either natural gas, or coal with CCS,” said Moe. “There are all sorts of economics with each of those, and we need to take a generational view with where we’re going to be from an emissions perspective and a cost perspective.”

He encouraged people in the audience to imagine renewables complimenting CCS. From an emissions’ perspective and a baseload power perspective, it looks pretty good.

Moe said SaskPower will have to consider the price of natural gas in the long-term, while remembering there is a healthy supply of coal.

“We have the fuel here, the price of a CCS facility is coming down, and they are getting more efficient,” said Moe.

Moe says his campaign is operating off of three platforms. The first fiscal sustainability by following the three-year plan to balance the budget by the 2019-20 fiscal year.

Moe’s campaign also wants to support families of Saskatchewan through investment in schools and healthcare. 

The third plank, which he is most excited about, is to support Saskatchewan jobs, industries and employees.

“We have a pretty simple idea with respect to how we can grow our population and our communities out into the future,” said Moe. “If we are able to increase our exports, our agricultural products, our mining products, our energy products, forestry, uranium and manufacturing goods (that will be great).”

Saskatchewan has rich history when it comes to exports, he said, and the province’s exports currently stand at $30 billion.

A robust economy will allow Saskatchewan people to stay and work in this province, rather than being forced to head to Alberta.

Moe also outlined a couple policy ideas. The first is connected to balanced budgets. He expressed his support for restoring the provincial sales tax exemption on insurance premiums. There was an exemption in place until this year’s budget.

Residents, farmers, businesses and insurance brokers have expressed the impact of removing the PST exemption.

“We found those dollars, and we’re able to backfill that to insure that we remain on that three-year plan to balance the budget,” said Moe.

The other policy, announced early in the campaign, would be to replace the Ministry of the Economy with a minister focused solely on export, trade and investment attraction. That minister would be tasked with continuing Saskatchewan’s exports.

Government needs advice and direction from exporting industries to provide it with guidance to ensure the government is supporting exports and not trying to lead them. Moe wants to see an export advisory panel established.

He also reiterated his opposition to the carbon tax, saying it would hurt the province. If he becomes premier, Moe said he would continue Premier Brad Wall’s fight against a carbon tax.

The Sask. Party leadership campaign is just part of the process, he said, because the goal is to form a majority government for the fourth consecutive term in 2020.

The Saskatchewan Party will elect a new leader at a convention on Jan. 27, 2018.