The three-year plan for the Saskatchewan Party government to bring the budget to balance is the focus of Moose Jaw’s two members of the legislative assembly.

The spring session begins March 4 and the budget will come out March 20.

“Really, building a stronger economy, managing spending and keeping taxes low is really part of overall looking at where we’re going to go with the ... sitting,” said Michelson.

The spring session is generally a continuation of what we started in the fall, Michelson said.

“I think generally speaking, we want to continue the economic growth of Saskatchewan,” Michelson said. “We want to stand up for Saskatchewan people, especially when there’s legislation against economic growth, like the carbon tax, or to support Alberta in the expansion and building of pipelines...”

The economy took a downturn when the resource prices fell, he said.

“They continue to be low,” he said. “We made some substantial changes to the budget process, as far as increasing the tax base.”

The last couple of years, Michelson said it has marginally come up and looks like it’s strengthening but it’s not where it was eight years ago.

“We’ve taken a lot of steps to make sure that we have curbed our spending as much as we can, we still invest in infrastructure and ways to keep the economy moving forward, and having good social programs,” Michelson said.

Michelson has said this is his last term, and that is scheduled to end in the fall of 2020. There’s a fair amount of responsibility, he said, and he’ll continue to work for the people of his constituency.

“I look forward to it,” he said. “It’s an exciting time anytime the legislature starts up again.”

Moose Jaw Wakamow’s Greg Lawrence is looking forward to the spring session.

“Our big thing on the agenda is we’ll be delivering on our three year plan to balance the budget,” he said. “While maintaining a competitive tax and business environment for our province.”

Lawrence said it would be a continuation of the agenda set out in the fall, highlighting the government’s commitment to fight for the province via their court case against the federal government about the carbon tax.

“We need that strong business environment, as the former premier Brad Wall used to say, that it’s the end of the sentence,” Lawrence said. “’We need a strong economy...,’ and the end of his sentence is ‘to help the most vulnerable in our society.’”

Lawrence highlighted the community recovery team here in Moose Jaw.

“The biggest thing is that nobody wants a carbon tax,” he said. “That’s everybody from our seniors, to people pulling me aside at hockey games, to all the other events, everybody’s talking about the carbon tax and keeping up the fight on the carbon tax.”

This begins the second year under new Premier Scott Moe and Lawrence is happy with the way things have gone.

“Everybody seems to really like our new premier,” he said. “He’s of course not Brad Wall, but he’s doing things as a great leader should. He’s leading well. My job as Whip has been easy since the transition to leadership has come in. Hands down, he’s doing a great job.”