The Moose Jaw Chamber of Commerce held their virtual Provincial Political Forum Thursday night, with SaskParty, NDP, Green, and Progressive Conservative Party Members vying to be elected as MLA, discussing their party's strategies and plans, while also attempting to dismiss each other's claims.

You can view the forum in its entirety below. 

During the forum, which lasted over 2 hours, the question regarding how each party plans to support local businesses came up.

NDP Candidate for Moose Jaw Wakamow, Melissa Patterson

"This government was missing in action when it came time to supporting small businesses during the start of the pandemic, refusing to give them a break on their rent, delaying the introduction of a financial aid program for months, and then rolling out a program that was actually too complex to support small businesses in our community."

SaskParty Candidate for Moose Jaw Wakamow, Greg Lawrence, Took the opportunity to jab at the NDP's stance on oil

"Let's take a look at something Jagmeet Singh said on social media; he said 'I've said this before and I'll say it again, climate leaders don't buy or expand pipelines'. Miss Melissa Patterson liked that one. Then even more recently, he tweeted 'Maybe we should just get off oil', she liked that one, and that was just from February of this year."

Other candidates involved in the forum were Moose Jaw North candidates North Hunter with the Green Party, Kyle Lichtenwald with the NDP, and Tim Mcleod with the SaskParty. Darcy Jensen with the Progressive Conservatives was involved as well, he is running in Moose Jaw Wakamow.

Those watching the forum online were able to text or submit questions for the candidates. One submitted question asked if any party would consider revisiting the grant-in-lieu cuts that were made several years ago, requiring municipalities to raise property taxes.

NDP candidate for Moose Jaw North, Kyle Lichtenwald.

"Everybody I talk to, their taxes are going up, water bills are going up, sewer charges are going up, everything is going up because were losing funding from the province. The initial municipal operating grant, or revenue sharing, was 1 per cent of PST divided on a per-capita formula to all cities. That was reduced by the province to three-quarters of a percentage point of the PST."

Tim Mcleod with the SaskParty, who's also running in Moose Jaw North, said that isn't something residents seem to be concerned about.

"Over the course of the campaign, we've been door-knocking and in that time we've knocked on over 13,000 doors. This is not an issue that we are hearing. This is not a matter of concern for the vast majority of Moose Jaw North voters. What we are hearing on the doorsteps overwhelmingly is that Scott Moe has done a fantastic job on leading this province through the pandemic."

Another submitted question from a viewer asked candidates what their plan was to bring more jobs to the friendly city.

Progressive Conservative candidate for Moose Jaw Wakamow, Darcy Jensen.

"Unfortunately the SaskParty has not been kind to industries over the years. They definitely haven't been kind to construction with the signing of the 2010 New West Trade Partnership Agreement. This agreement damaged and hurt trades jobs, construction jobs, and supply service jobs. With a conservative government, this would be the first thing scrapped when we form government."

North Hunter, Green Party Candidate for Moose Jaw North.

"We have to get down to making sure that our emissions go down by 60 per cent within four years, and 100 per cent within ten years. That means huge job creation. It's not job loss, it will mean that absolutely everyone who is unemployed will be employed. We need you and we need your work, and there will be no shortage of labour as far as the Green Party plan is concerned."

The provincial election is set for October 26.