PC Party Leader Tony Wakeham said the people he is talking to at the doorsteps of Waterford Valley are shocked that there is such a massive disconnect between the positive economic messaging of Finance Minister Siobhan Coady and the reality that most people are facing as they struggle with the ever-increasing cost of living.

“While Minister Coady boasted about jobs growing and the inflation rate decreasing, many people know they need two or three of those jobs to make ends meet, and their cost of living is continuing to rise, making it harder and harder for people living cheque to cheque on fixed incomes to make ends meet,” said Wakeham. “They ought to know that even an inflation rate of 2.3% means things are continually getting more expensive. It’s even worse for Labradorians. This is the biggest issue on people’s minds right now, but the Furey Liberals just don’t get it.”

Wakeham condemned the Furey Liberals for rejecting the pleas of the Seniors’ Advocate to index the Seniors’ Benefit to inflation, leaving seniors with less and less buying power each month for essentials like food and medicine that they are already unable to afford.

The Public Utilities Board has also just approved Newfoundland Power’s request to raise power rates by 7 percent effective August 1, leaving cash-strapped people with even less money for food and facing difficult choices of turning off the fan on hot days or suffering in cold homes during winter. People who can’t afford to pay their power bills are facing eviction and homelessness.

“Minister Coady and her colleagues in the Furey Liberal government seem oblivious to the suffering people are enduring as costs rise beyond their ability to pay,” added Wakeham. “The Furey Liberals have refused to index the Seniors’ Benefit, remove their failed sugar tax, develop a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy, and review taxes to reduce people’s burden. Instead, they’ve wasted hundreds of millions on overpriced travel nurses, a mostly empty treatment hotel, and shameless splurges like hundred-thousand-dollar logos on UK fourth-tier soccer team t-shirts.”

A Wakeham PC government would prioritize cost-of-living initiatives, including Seniors’ Benefit indexation, a poverty reduction strategy, a tax review aimed at relief, cancellation of the sugar tax, a national revolt against the carbon tax, and responsible budgeting to eliminate waste.