On April 30, Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck responded to the latest business closure figures from Statistics Canada. She states that under Premier Scott Moe, the province is seeing an alarming number of local businesses shut their doors. “I think these numbers confirm what we’ve been hearing from workers and local business leaders over the past few weeks. This government is selling out Saskatchewan one industry at a time,” said Official Opposition Leader Carla Beck. “It’s time for a change. We need to be putting Saskatchewan workers and businesses first.” Statistics Canada released new data yesterday showing that, over the last 12 months, Saskatchewan suffered an overall decrease of 91 local businesses. Regina lost 8 businesses overall, Saskatoon lost 30 businesses, and the rest of the province lost 53 businesses. The Greater Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce is calling for transparency after a government agency gave the contract of one particular Saskatoon business, Shercom, to a California-based company. At a press conference, Shercom President Mike Richards and CEO Shane Olson said that, in 2016, then Environment Minister Scott Moe promised ‘assurance of supply’ of tires for Shercom, a promise that has since been broken and has led to over 60 job losses. Shercom’s Marlin Strangeland has likened the situation to being “stabbed in the back in our own backyard”. Shercom also alleges that Moe was one of the leading architects behind the creation of the controversial Tire Stewardship agency. A release from the NDP say that Beck’s Hire Saskatchewan Plan would see the province prioritize growing Saskatchewan businesses, hiring Saskatchewan workers, and building more made-in-Saskatchewan products when public dollars are being spent.