As of Friday, a provincial NDP promise that would benefit northern Saskatchewan was getting buried by barbs traded back and forth between the NDP and Saskatchewan Party.
On Thursday, Saskatchewan NDP leader Cam Broten used a catchy slogan to criticize the Sask. Party, for using what it calls a “gravy plane for politicians.”
The NDP says the premier and cabinet ministers have used a government-owned exclusive fleet of three airplanes like a “personal taxi” up until now.
When it comes to the cost of trips for individual ministers who have taken hundreds of flights on Executive Air over the years, both the NDP and the Sask. Party have fired shots. The NDP has put Minister Bill Boyd under the microscope for the hundreds of thousands spent on his flights on Executive Air, and the Sask. Party is firing back by pointing out how many flights Belanger took when he was a minister.
Broten says if elected on April 4, the NDP will put an end to the Sask. Party’s that by selling off Executive Air.
Athabasca MLA Buckley Belanger explains the rationale, which is based on a study by Alberta’s auditor which looks at the pros and cons of owning your own aircraft.
“It indicated that it was wiser and more cost-effective to not have government-owned,” Belanger said.
So, the ministers and premier would take private flights from now on.
However, that promise and the promise to convert one of the Executive Air planes into an air ambulance to be stationed in northern Saskatchewan, have gotten lost in the political rhetoric.
The NDP dedicated only five sentences to speak on those promises in its 31-sentence news release on the Sask. Party “gravy train.” The NDP has also started a petition to call for an end to the so-called “gravy plane.”
With all this going on, Belanger made sure to highlight the promise that would impact northern Saskatchewan.
“Mr. Broten has decided that Executive Air no longer needs to be a cost of the taxpayer, the private sector can provide that service to us. All he wanted to salvage from Executive Air is the notion that one of these planed be retrofitted as an air ambulance,” he said.
“That’s certainly an initiative that I can support and in fact that I can also celebrate.”
Belanger said the NDP has been talking with northerners and getting a great response to the idea of an air ambulance to be stationed in northern Saskatchewan.
“The logic that we have is if you have an aircraft that’s retrofitted to become an air ambulance service and station it in northern Saskatchewan, then obviously you’re saving a lot of cost but more importantly you’re saving a lot of critical time,” he said.
They’re still hammering out the idea of where that plan will be located. Belanger says he’s heard compelling arguments from Buffalo Narrows, Stoney Rapids, La Ronge, and other areas.
An air ambulance “is needed, it is necessary so the commitment is there by the NDP to do so and we will negotiate our way through with northern leaders as to where it goes,” Belanger said.