Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert is promising students a $1,000 tuition cut, making the pledge days before what is widely expected to be an election call.

A report on post-secondary education released Tuesday by Advanced Education and Employment Minister Warren McCall recommended cutting tuition for each University of Regina and University of Saskatchewan undergraduate by $1,000.

McCall said the cut in 2008-2009 will reduce the average tuition in Saskatchewan to about $5,063 to $4,063. That will mean Saskatchewan will have the fourth lowest university tuition in Canada, he said. It will cost the province about $60 million a year in extra payments to the universities, McCall said. 

Calvert said the proposal will become part of the NDP's election platform.

The McCall report also called on the province to provide grants to First Nations students who are on federal financial assistance waiting lists. There's also a plan to target grades 9, 10 and 11 students in low socio-economic-status neighbourhoods with programs designed to help aboriginal students, children of immigrants, rural students and people with disabilities get post-secondary educations.

"I see in Warren's report a game plan that can take us forward for the next four years of government," Calvert said.

The Opposition Saskatchewan Party said the announcement is too close to an election to be anything more than politics.

Saskatchewan Party MLA Wayne Elhard would not say what his party will do but said the platform will be released during the campaign.

Calvert's nomination meeting is set for Wednesday night in Saskatoon. An election call is expected within days.