The provincial NDP is calling on Premier Scott Moe to find a new education minister.
Education critic, Carla Beck says the final straw for the opposition to call for a new education minister was when Dustin Duncan stated during a news conference last week that he met with the Saskatchewan School Boards Association to discuss a delay to the start of classes in the new year, although the opposition says this was a lie when hours later, the SSBA said that wasn’t the case.
“Simply put, when you don’t do your job, you don’t get to keep your job. It’s a simple as that and government ministers should not be an exception.” says Beck.
Saskatchewan was one of the only jurisdictions in the country to not delay the return of school in the new year or move to online learning as other provinces like B.C. and Ontario pushed back their start dates or opted for remote learning amid a surge in COVID-19 infections driven by the new Omicron variant.
The opposition would like to see the reinstatement of the province’s Education’s Response Planning Team and to get N95 masks out to schools to protect students and staff.
Duncan is the second minister the NDP has called on to resign during the pandemic. The opposition has requested that health minister Paul Merriman resign from his position a number of times dating back to last summer.
(CJWW)