REGINA – The Saskatchewan Legislature heads into its final couple of weeks before the Christmas break, with a number of hot issues continuing to make the news from the Legislature.
With the Canadian Western Agribition expected to dominate the news and the province this week, it is expected agriculture issues will be a major focus.
That event in Regina is set to commence with the 'Burning of the Brand' ceremony involving provincial Agriculture Minister Daryl Harrison, federal Agriculture minister Heath MacDonald, and Lieutenant Governor Bernadette McIntyre, among others.
Another issue expected to dominate this week is rent control. The indication from NDP Housing critic April ChiefCalf is that she expects to introduce her private member’s bill for rent control this coming week.
Last Friday at a news conference at the Legislature, ChiefCalf pushed back against SaskParty criticisms that rent control stifled construction. She pointed to a graph indicating that Saskatchewan stood seventh in the country in investment in new home construction from 2017 to 2025, including behind four provinces that had rent control.
Last week saw a flurry of activity at the Legislature. As had been promised in the Speech from the Throne, the Sask Party government introduced for first reading The Heritage Recognition (From Many Peoples, Strength) Act on Thursday.
That act, according to Minister of Parks Culture and Sport Alana Ross, will create a framework to automatically recognize the days, weeks, and months that celebrate the unique heritages and cultures of Saskatchewan people.
The goal is to make it easier for those different heritage or cultural groups to have their dates recognized on an annual basis, instead of having to continually apply to the province each year to have those days proclaimed.
“They will automatically be recognized every year from here on moving forward,” said Ross, who also said the Act “will also provide us with the opportunity to add more… Saskatchewan’s so wonderful, it’s a beautiful mosaic. We get our strength from our many cultural communities that live here, and we encourage everyone to contact our office so we can include you within this Act.”
Health care still a focus
The opposition New Democrats also continued to hammer the government last week on various issues including health care. On Wednesday the NDP’s Rural and Remote Health critic Jared Clarke hammered the government in Question Period as he continued to accuse the province of instituting a new policy to require only one registered nurse to be on duty at a hospital.
During Question Period Wednesday, Clarke held up a memo from Saskatchewan Health Authority from Oct. 29 and claimed it “proves that this Sask Party government’s dangerous emergency room policy is real.”
But Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill denied that such a new policy was in place, responding that “The Facility Designation Regulations have been in place since 2011, Mr. Speaker.”
Clarke then attempted to tear up a copy of the Oct. 29 SHA memo during Question Period, but was cut off immediately by Speaker Todd Goudy, who had warned him previously not to use props in the Assembly.
Afterwards in the media scrum outside, Clarke was able to do what he couldn’t do in the Assembly chamber: he tore up the memo in front of reporters.
“It is dangerous, it is putting Saskatchewan people at risk, and the Minister needs to rip it up,” said Clarke in characterizing the policy, adding that it was “frustrating listening to the Minister deny the reality of what this policy means to our Saskatchewan people… this creates a dangerous situation in your local hospital.”
Use of hotels to house Social Services clients again an issue
Another issue that revived last week was NDP criticism of the use by Social Services of the Coachman Inn in Regina to house Social Services clients.
Opposition critic Brent Blakley has raised the issue earlier this year when he accused the Coachman of having filthy and bedbug-ridden conditions. On Wednesday he repeated those criticisms in the Assembly and pointed to an email from a senior-level director sent to the government from last year, and claimed the government knew of conditions there for over a year.
The email had stated: “Not sure that this hotel should be on our list if this is the conditions of the hotel. And it sounds like it is known in Regina to be not a great hotel.”
Blakely also posed the question to Social Services Minister Terry Jenson: “If it was his daughter, his niece, or his family member who was in a desperate emergency with nowhere to go, would he put them up in the Coachman motel?”
Jenson responded that in Regina we have “very few hotel providers who are willing to take some income-assistance clients. On occasion when we absolutely have to, as a last resort, use the Coachman Inn, Mr. Speaker…”
“Under no circumstances, Mr. Speaker, are we going to let an individual have to stay outside or find things on their own.”
In speaking to reporters Thursday, Jenson also noted that the Coachman property “has passed its most recent health inspection.”
Jenson added that if there “are concerns when it comes to pests, those concerns should be brought to Public Health and they could follow up.”
