Hon. David Marit: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, I’d like to welcome four guests to their Legislative Assembly. And they’re here today from the Gravelbourg Cares Shuttle Service. They are in the east gallery sitting in the very top row, and a few of them obviously I’ve known for a few years.

But I’d like to introduce — and I’d ask them to give a little wave — Betty Hawkins, who I’ve known for many years and we’ll leave it at that, Mr. Speaker. Linda Roberts is also there, and Al Sutherland. And Lynn Holmes is there too, I believe.

So it’s really my pleasure to introduce these four folks. They’ve been instrumental in orchestrating and getting a shuttle bus service working for the community of Gravelbourg since 2019, which I happened to be there for the unveiling of that project.

So these four folks have done an instrumental job in ensuring that the people in the community area . . . And I know there has been fundraising done and donations and sponsorships that they’ve seeked out as well to run this shuttle service.

So I want to take this opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to welcome these four very generous souls from Gravelbourg area to this their Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Northeast.

Jacqueline Roy: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to join with the member opposite in welcoming the Gravelbourg Cares bus shuttle. It is a bilingual service that I had the great honour of going to visit and meet with these people alongside with the MLA [Member of the Legislative Assembly] for Regina Walsh Acres.

So to Linda, Lynn, Betty, and Al, thank you so very much. We know your shuttle provides a huge service to members in the community not only of Gravelbourg, or Gravelbourg, but many surrounding areas. And it saves so much money when it comes to the possibility of ambulance rides or STARS [Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service] air ambulance as opposed to having this shuttle. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Agriculture.

Hon. Daryl Harrison: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to introduce the winners of the 2025 Agriculture Student Scholarships seated in your gallery.

With us today are Abbey Norek and her dad, Dallas — give a little wave; Noah Skoropad and his dad, Dana; Rebecca Mayerle and her mom, Rhonda; Ty Annand and his mom, Kara.

I had the pleasure of hosting them for lunch earlier and learning about their ideas for the agriculture industry here in Saskatchewan.

All four of these winners will be attending the University of Saskatchewan College of Agriculture and Bioresources this fall. Mr. Speaker, you’ll hear more about them in an upcoming member’s statement, but I ask members to join me in welcoming these students to this their Legislative Assembly.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Mount Royal.

Trent Wotherspoon: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a real pleasure to join with the Ag minister here to welcome these ag student recipients of the scholarship here today. These are leaders in our province, leaders in agriculture from right across the province. I look forward to hearing more about each of them.

I want to welcome Abbey, Noah, Rebecca, and Ty. It’s awesome that you’re here as well with your parents. Thanks for joining us here today. We wish you well in your pursuits moving forward. We know that you won’t just be leaders in agriculture today, but as world leaders in agriculture in this province, you’re going to be shaping the future of global agriculture and the future of agriculture in this province.

So on behalf of the official opposition, I ask all members to join with me in giving a very warm welcome to these agricultural scholarship recipients.

And while on my feet, I’d just like to give a shout-out to Noah’s dad who’s seated up there. Of course Dana served with us as an MLA last term. Awesome guy, good-looking guy, looks sharp up there, Mr. Speaker. Always had, you know, a great suit, good colour. Looking sharp up there today. I don’t know what he’s doing with all those suits now that he’s not sitting in this legislature. I’d ask him to borrow one, but I’m a little bit heavier than he is, so it wouldn’t fit properly. But I want to welcome Dana back to his Assembly.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Dakota-Arm River.

Barret Kropf: — I also want to welcome the Skoropads to their legislature. Noah, congratulations on your second-place finish in that contest. Your dad showed me the video. I think it should have won first place, but unfortunately I think the judges knew that your dad was a Maple Leafs fan and punished you to second place. So I want to just say congratulations to you, Noah. Hopefully that scholarship will help you at university.

And to Dana, thank you for all you’ve done helping me to get to this place down here. You know, we’ve sort of swapped seats, so to speak. And so I’m incredibly thankful for all the work that you have done to help me learn this position and to help me throughout the constituency. And I really appreciate you and thank you for all that you’ve done.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Chief Mistawasis.

Don McBean: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, I would like us all to recognize and welcome the grade 8 class from St. Angela in Saskatoon, in the riding of Saskatoon Chief Mistawasis, on Russell Road just around the corner from my home. I can’t see them but I know they’re all smiling and waving. Yeah.

They’re accompanied today by their teacher, Janelle Rasmussen, and other adults. I think maybe they’re all parent volunteers, so bravo to you: Kayla Lipinski, Elaina Thorsteinson, Heather Viden, Tony Scherban, and Olha Kuzmenko.

I’m looking forward to getting to meet them and share some ice cream. I look at the number and I think there’s going to be enough for me to have one, too. We’ll see. Anyway join me in welcoming the grade 8s from St. Angela School.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Weyburn-Bengough.

Michael Weger: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, Mr. Speaker, it brings such great pleasure to me to be able to introduce Frank Peter Leier, seated on the floor, to his legislature. He’s accompanied by his daughter Lorna.

Mr. Speaker, I could go on and I’m sure I’d go beyond the time limits of an extended introduction but very briefly, Frank has been so implemental in so many things in this province. For me personally he was the originating member of the Saskatchewan Cystic Fibrosis chapter. And at the time, the people out east called him Mr. Saskatchewan.

Frank, also very involved in Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, and I think many of us have attended the banquets put on here. Frank, he organized the very first one in this building.

And if you wanted to know more about Frank, there’s a book about Frank. It’s a collection of life stories, and I got my hands on it yesterday. Mr. Speaker, I got to Regina at about 11:30 and I couldn’t put it down. I had to read the entire thing last night. And this book was put together by Frank with the assistance of his daughter, and quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, I don’t think there’s any bigger show of affection for your parent than the work Lorna has done.

So again, lastly, just I would ask everyone to help me welcome Frank and his daughter Lorna to their Legislative Assembly.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Vicki Mowat: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to join in with the member opposite in welcoming Frank and Lorna to their Legislative Assembly on behalf of the official opposition. As the shadow minister of Health, I’ve had the opportunity to follow some of the advocacy work that you’ve been trailblazing and continuing to champion for so many years.

I want to thank you for that advocacy. I know so many people across the province of Saskatchewan with cystic fibrosis have benefited from that, and we have been proud to work with government and to make those calls as well. So I want to thank you for your advocacy, congratulate Frank on his medal as well, and I look forward to hearing more today in the Assembly. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Carrot River Valley.

Terri Bromm: — Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask leave for an extended introduction.

Speaker Goudy: — The member has requested leave for an extended introduction. Is leave granted?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Terri Bromm: — To you and through you, all members, it is my pleasure to welcome also Frank Leier, and accompanying him his daughter Lorna McEwan from Carrot River Valley.

Lorna has been a fighter and cystic fibrosis warrior from day one. She was diagnosed with CF [cystic fibrosis] from birth, and having just turned 65 last month is the oldest living CF warrior in Saskatchewan. Lorna and David’s adopted son Austin also had CF but sadly passed in December 2019, two weeks shy of his 25th birthday.

I’ve known Lorna for many, many years. She is the adult liaison for the North and South Saskatchewan chapters and CF adult clinic, and is very involved in CF advocacy and fundraising. She’s a passionate volunteer and a wonderful person. She is an amazing member of Kin Canada since 2019, and is currently the president of the Tisdale Kinettes. I could go on. She’s a past member of the Tisdale hospital auxiliary.

On May 25th she’ll be receiving the King Charles III’s Coronation Medal along with some of her peers in Regina. Her father, Frank Leier, also received his King Charles III’s Coronation Medal in 2024.

I would also like to mention that she and her brother Timothy co-founded the Ride for the Breath of Life motorcycle run for CF which ran for 40 years from 1985 to 2024 and raised over $900,000. Sadly Timothy didn’t get to see the first run as he passed away a few days before the initial run. But here we are acknowledging her wealth of volunteerism and the wonderful soul that she is. Welcome today to this your Legislative Assembly.

And while I’m on my feet, I would also like to join the Minister of Agriculture in welcoming Rebecca Mayerle and her mom, Rhonda; and Ty Annand and his mom, Kara, also from Carrot River Valley. I would ask all members to join me to congratulate them on their scholarships today, and welcome today to their Legislative Assembly.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Rochdale.

Joan Pratchler: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, I’d like to introduce the students from Plainsview School. There are about 70 of them here today and they’ve been learning a lot in their grade 8 social studies about government. I welcome also their teachers Ty Millar, Carrie Yasinowski, and Alana Nelson. Could everyone please join with me in welcoming you to your legislature.

Speaker Goudy: — And if I can really quick mention as well. Lorna, I will never forget the day we sat at Tim Hortons in Tisdale when the now Minister of Finance was the Minister of Health and you had been pushing for Trikafta. And I don’t think anyone who could have run a marathon, won an Olympic medal, no one could have been more happy than you were that day for all of the people with CF in the province of Saskatchewan. So congratulations for all your hard work and thank you for all you’ve done.

And with that we’ll move to presenting petitions.

PRESENTING PETITIONS

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Silverspring.

Hugh Gordon: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to bring to the attention of the Assembly of Saskatchewan the need to increase the number of highway pullouts in Saskatchewan.

We, the undersigned residents of the province of Saskatchewan, wish to bring to your attention the following: highway pullouts are crucial for driver safety, allowing drivers to safely stop for inspections, switching loads, or addressing emergencies without obstructing traffic flow. Under the National Safety Code standard 10, drivers must inspect their loads every 240 kilometres or three hours to prevent cargo from shifting or spilling. Without safe pullouts, these required checks put both truck drivers and other road users at risk.

[13:45]

Previous commitments made by the Government of Saskatchewan to build more pullouts have not been fulfilled.

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request the Assembly of Saskatchewan call on the Government of Saskatchewan to immediately increase the number of pullouts in the province so that operators can meet requirements safely.

Mr. Speaker, the signatories of this petition reside in Saskatoon. I do so present.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Rochdale.

Joan Pratchler: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to present our petition regarding the federal-provincial child care agreement.

The undersigned residents of the province of Saskatchewan wish to bring to your attention the following: that child care operators, parents have all voiced their concerns and they know that affordable and accessible child care is critical for families, our economy, for jobs, and for our future; licensed child care centres have contributed to the local economy providing jobs, opportunities, and professional development and allowing parents to join or rejoin the workforce; without access to affordable and accessible child care, families will be forced to leave the workforce, which will have impacts on our economy, our communities, and of course our children.

I will read the prayer:

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan to call on the Government of Saskatchewan to immediately renew the federal-provincial child care agreement to save jobs, help families, and boost our economy.

Mr. Speaker, this petition has been signed by the citizens of Regina. I do so present.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Nutana.

Erika Ritchie: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to present a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan calling for mandatory intimate partner violence education.

The undersigned residents wish to bring to your attention the following: Saskatchewan has the highest rate per capita of intimate partner violence, also known as domestic violence, in Canada; the economic impact of IPV [intimate partner violence] in Canada is estimated at over $7 billion per year, and a large portion of tangible costs are paid by the government for items like the criminal and civil justice system and health care; annual estimated losses for employers from IPV are over $77 million in Canada; workplace orientation would include all genders from all walks of life and all areas of the province.

Employers and employees need to know the signs of IPV and where to call for help. Education is key for changing the rates of IPV. And I just want to mention a few of those key signs of abusive behaviour in a relationship, as identified by the Canadian Labour Congress. Those include putting your partner down, dominating conversations, checking up excessively, suggesting they are the victim, isolating the victim, acting as if they own their partner, and lying to make themselves look good.

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request the Legislative Assembly call on the government to immediately mandate education on IPV violence be included in the orientation process for all new employees across all workplaces in the province.

The petition is signed by residents of Lumsden and Regina. I do so present.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Pasqua.

Bhajan Brar: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We, the undersigned residents of the province of Saskatchewan, wish to bring to your attention the following: that there is currently no timeline for the completion and opening of the second joint-use school in Regina Harbour Landing; that Harbour Landing School and St. Kateri Tekakwitha School in Regina are over capacity in their first year of operation; that the building codes and fire safety regulation Act may be breached if fewer than 10 per cent of students are absent on any given day; that essential resources like the library have had their size reduced to accommodate temporary classrooms; that all children have a right to a well-rounded education in a safe environment.

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan call on the Government of Saskatchewan to immediately provide the support needed to complete and open the second joint-use school in Harbour Landing as soon as possible.

The petition has been signed by the residents of Regina Pasqua, especially from Harbour Landing area. I do so present. Thank you.

STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Silverspring.

Remembering Those Lost in the Battle of the Atlantic

Hugh Gordon: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday was the Battle of the Atlantic Sunday. I had the great honour yesterday of attending the parade and the ceremony in Saskatoon at HMCS [His Majesty’s Canadian Ship] Unicorn to mark that occasion. Ruth Bond, a 100‑year-old former member of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service who served in Halifax during the Second World War, presided over the parade.

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest battle of the Second World War. The Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force fended off the German U-boat threat to ensure troops — including my grandfather and my uncles — equipment, food, and vital supplies could cross the Atlantic to our allies in Europe. Without victory in the Battle of the Atlantic, there would have been no victory in the skies over Britain, no victory on the beaches of Normandy, and the war against Germany would have been lost.

Thousands of Canadian sailors lost their lives in the fight against the German U-boats, including many from our province, whose names are on the Saskatchewan War Memorial just a stone’s throw from this Chamber. Prairie sailors at HMCS Queen and HMCS Unicorn carry on that legacy today by serving Canada at home and abroad.

I ask all members to join me in recognizing Battle of the Atlantic Sunday and remembering those that lost their lives at sea in defence of our freedom.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Moose Jaw Wakamow.

Remembrance and Action on Red Dress Day

Megan Patterson: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today on Red Dress Day, we pause to honour the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. The red dress is a powerful symbol of remembrance, but it’s also a call to action. It’s important that we honour these women’s lives and work to help prevent the violence that disproportionately affects Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people.

Our government is committed to preventing and ending gender-based violence through proactive measures including community education, advocacy, and direct support services. Our programs focus on supporting women to live safe, healthy, and prosperous lives. By working together we can continue to move beyond remembrance and take meaningful steps towards preventing and ending gender-based violence.

Today, Mr. Speaker, we recognize Red Dress Day in the Saskatchewan legislature and across the public service. I want to encourage everyone to learn more about missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people; to attend a Red Dress Day event in their community; or wear red or display a red dress to honour the lives of those that have been lost. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Northeast.

Community-Led Shuttle Provides Medical Transportation to Gravelbourg Residents

Jacqueline Roy: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to celebrate a huge part of Gravelbourg and Saskatchewan’s francophone community, the Gravelbourg Cares bus shuttle. This community-run shuttle, funded in part by the town of Gravelbourg and the federal government, was inspired by the careful study of a similar program in British Columbia funded by the provincial British Columbia government.

What Gravelbourg has built is nothing short of remarkable. The shuttle ensures rural residents, often with no other access to larger areas, can reach medical appointments safely and with dignity. The cost savings, compared to ambulance rides or STARS air ambulance interventions, are nothing short of extraordinary. But the real value is in the lives it protects and the peace of mind that it brings.

In francophone culture, caring for others is one of the highest duties and callings. La navette de Gravelbourg [Translation: The Gravelbourg shuttle] embodies this.

Seated with us today are volunteers who made a five-hour round trip, choosing to be here over other important commitments.

Je vous remercie tous et toutes pour votre voyage ici aujourd’hui et surtout pour votre dévouement aux soins accessibles en français. Les fransaskois de Gravelbourg ont une longue et une fière histoire, et vraiment et honnêtement, je suis fière de cet esprit civique et de cette innovation communautaire.

[Translation: I thank you all for travelling here today and, above all, for your dedication to accessible care in French. The Fransaskois of Gravelbourg have a long and proud history, and truly and honestly, I am proud of this civic spirit and this community-minded innovation.]

I invite all members to join me immediately following question period to visit that shuttle and thank them in person. They deserve our recognition and our heartfelt thanks. Merci, monsieur le Président. [Translation: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.]

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Lumsden-Morse.

Remembering Second World War Veterans on 80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Holland

Blaine McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, exactly 80 years later, nations from around the world celebrate the beginning of the end to the Second World War. The liberation of Holland by Canadian forces on May the 5th led to the formal unconditional surrender of Germany’s forces on May 8th, 1945.

Mr. Speaker, in a time of international uncertainty and distasteful rhetoric from the leadership of our southern neighbours, it is more important than ever to remember the ties that bind us together. Canadians, including our Indigenous soldiers, Americans, New Zealanders, English, French, Irish, Australian, Indian, and more fought side by side to liberate the democratic world from fascism.

It was only through our combined strength that we overcame the Axis Powers and brought about an era of peace in Europe. And it was only with Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine just a few years ago that the peace in Europe ended.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of our constituents and the Government of Saskatchewan, thank you to all those Canadians who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Second World War, and thank you to our Second World War veterans who are now so few. You came from across our nation and united as brothers and sisters in arms, against tyranny. We will always remember your sacrifices and honour what you fought for — a united and free Canada. We will remember them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Athabasca.

Red Dress Day a Call for Solidarity with Indigenous Communities

Leroy Laliberte: — Mr. Speaker, I rise on this Red Dress Day in memory of all missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people.

On May 5th, red is the colour of mourning. We mourn our sisters who have been killed or disappeared and the ones left behind who live with the profound pain and fear.

This has been a particularly painful year with trauma brought out by the search in Manitoba for the remains of Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, and Ashlee Shingoose, also known as Buffalo Woman.

This has been an ugly reminder of the disproportionate violence done to Indigenous people and particularly Indigenous women on the prairies. Discrimination and violence against Indigenous communities are not in the past; they are ongoing. For too long they have been hidden away and made invisible by a racist colonialist system. We wear red to make the invisible visible as it always should have been.

It is necessary to recommit to equality, justice, and reconciliation. We need to listen to the Indigenous voices and experiences. We need to hold all levels of government accountable because all levels of government failed the ones who are gone. To the families and the communities that have lost someone or who have lost many, we stand with you. We will work with you to create a safer future for our sisters. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Martensville-Blairmore.

New Group Home in Saskatoon Provides Person-Centred Living for Residents

Hon. Jamie Martens: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On May 2nd, our government joined the Elmwood Residences to celebrate the official opening of a new build in Saskatoon which is now home to four former residents of Kinsmen Manor. This Elmwood fourth home is open as a part of the transition of Kinsmen Manor to the person-centred living.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Saskatchewan works together with people who have intellectual disability, their families, and communities to develop services and support that meet their individual needs. Our government supported this project through a $1.4 million capital funding and is providing 600,000 in annual operating funding to ensure 24/7 staffing and individualized services are available for residents.

Mr. Speaker, organizations like Elmwood Residences play a critical role in helping build inclusive communities. Since 1969 Elmwood has been providing quality, person-centred services that empower individuals with intellectual disabilities to live full, meaningful lives in their communities. I ask all members to join me in thanking Elmwood Residences and welcoming four more Saskatchewan people home. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Cut Knife-Turtleford.

[14:00]

Four Students Recognized with Agriculture Scholarships

James Thorsteinson: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Agriculture Student Scholarship is an important part of the Government of Saskatchewan’s commitment to developing young agriculture leaders. Each year we recognize four emerging leaders in Saskatchewan for their leadership, passion, and dedication to agriculture.

Applicants submit an essay or video about solutions to challenges facing agriculture. This year the Ministry of Agriculture again received many exceptional submissions from students across the province. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to welcome the 2025 winners of the Saskatchewan agriculture scholarship to their legislature.

Our grand prize winner is Abbey Norek from Gerald, Saskatchewan. Abbey created a video about the risks of an aging farming population and the urban-rural disconnect in agriculture. She proposed education and advocacy as key solutions to help solve these issues. Congratulations to you, Abbey.

We also have three runner-up recipients with us at their legislature today, Mr. Speaker: Noah Skoropad from Chamberlain, Rebecca Mayerle from Tisdale, and Ty Annand from Nipawin. Mr. Speaker, all of the recipients will be attending the College of Agriculture and Bioresources at the University of Saskatchewan, pursuing a Bachelor of Science.

I ask all members to join me in congratulating these students and wishing them luck as they pursue post-secondary education in the fall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — Before question period, could I request leave for one more introduction?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS

Speaker Goudy: — So I can’t leave Mr. Skoropad up there without having something said about him. But you know, we certainly miss your stories down here. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention — with your son sitting at your side — we all say it’s about family first. And the day that our friend decided that he was going to leave this Chamber, the reason he did so was to spend time with the boy he’s sitting beside and his other son.

And you know, though we miss his stories, we know that the most important work of all of our lives is . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . And we miss his suits too. But you know, Mr. Skoropad, you’ve done a great job. All of the parents up on the top row have done a great job. We look at our kids sitting in the Chamber, and that’s what the future of this province is about.

So thanks to our friend for leading by example, and all the best to you and your family with your beautiful life ahead. So all the best.

And with that I’ll remind us that we all have a bunch of wonderful children in the bleachers. So with that, question period.

QUESTION PERIOD

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

National Unity and Relationship with Federal Government

Vicki Mowat: — Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit here and now that if a referendum was held on Saskatchewan leaving Canada, he would cast his vote to stay in Canada?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Deputy Premier.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Mr. Speaker, the Premier made it very clear last week. We’re not interested in separation, Mr. Speaker.

We’re also not interested in the status quo. For too long, Saskatchewan people have felt alienated, so we’re looking forward to a path forward within a strong and united Canada, Mr. Speaker. In fact one of the founding principles of the Saskatchewan Party speaks to exactly that; it speaks about a growing Saskatchewan within a strong and growing Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Vicki Mowat: — Mr. Speaker, the question was for the Premier. We need leadership right now, and instead this Premier is taking his political direction from his MAGA [Make America Great Again]-loving pal Danielle Smith. Marshals service? He copied it from her. Tax agency? Same thing. Play nice with Trump while he tries to dismantle the country? The Premier’s all over that too, just like Danielle Smith.

Now Smith is changing the law to clear the path for a separatist vote. Will the Premier commit here and now that he will never launch a vote to separate from Canada using cabinet powers, and that he won’t lower the threshold to trigger a citizen-led referendum?

Speaker Goudy: — Before the member responds, I’m going to remind us that we can’t impugn or say to motives behind actions of some of the members in this Chamber.

With that, I’ll recognize the Deputy Premier.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Mr. Speaker, the Premier and, we believe, all members on this side in government represent all citizens of Saskatchewan. In a country that values free speech, we aren’t about to silence people that we don’t agree with, Mr. Speaker. The Premier said it very well last week when he said the only discussion about separatism in this House is coming from the NDP [New Democratic Party] opposition.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Vicki Mowat: — Disappointing lack of leadership from this Premier, Mr. Speaker. It just so happens that a group called Unified Grassroots has been collecting signatures to trigger a referendum on Saskatchewan separating from Canada. You might remember this group. It’s headed up by one Nadine Ness, who the Premier once spoke to for a full hour about this government’s political agenda.

Nadine Ness clearly has an audience with this Premier when so few others do. Will he personally contact Nadine Ness and tell her and Unified Grassroots to stop trying to break up the country when we need to be building it up?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Deputy Premier.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Mr. Speaker, as I’ve said, members on this side of the House believe that we represent all the citizens of Saskatchewan. Whether we agree with their opinion or not, they have a right to voice their opinion, Mr. Speaker. We’re not going to silence them like members opposite say they would.

Mr. Speaker, I can’t make it any more clear than this. The Premier indicated, I did already today, members on this side are not interested in separation.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Vicki Mowat: — Mr. Speaker, the Premier hasn’t indicated anything. He hasn’t answered the question. So I’ll ask him again. Will the Premier commit here and now that he will never launch a vote to separate from Canada using cabinet powers? And that he won’t lower the threshold to trigger a citizen-led referendum?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Deputy Premier.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Mr. Speaker, this is getting very repetitive, Mr. Speaker. As I said, members on this side are proud Canadians. I’m a proud Canadian. All members on this of the House are, Mr. Speaker. We’re not interested in separation. We’re also not interested in muzzling the voices of people who want to use freedom of speech, Mr. Speaker. We will follow legislation as it’s written, Mr. Speaker.

Again, we’re not interested in separation. We’re also, Mr. Speaker, not interested in the status quo. For too long, people in Saskatchewan have felt alienated from Ottawa, Mr. Speaker. We have an opportunity now with the new Prime Minister. We want to see what he does in the next number of months, Mr. Speaker. We look forward to a Saskatchewan within a strong and united Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina South Albert.

Aleana Young: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I agree; it is getting tiresome. In fact it’s sheer lunacy that we have to be in this Assembly discussing breaking up Canada. That plays right into the hands of Donald Trump, Mr. Speaker, who just yesterday again reignited his threats about making Canada the 51st state.

And yet here in Saskatchewan, we have the Unified Grassroots group — known friends and allies of members opposite — launching a separation plebiscite. And the purpose of that separation referendum is to “negotiate new terms for Saskatchewan’s relationship, whether as a part of Canada or as an independent nation.” Divide and conquer, Mr. Speaker, giving Donald Trump exactly what he wants.

So a simple question to the Premier: will he tell his friend Nadine Ness and Unified Grassroots that we will never leave Canada to become an independent nation?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Deputy Premier.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Mr. Speaker, the member opposite covered a wide range of things there, going from President Trump to Nadine Ness, Mr. Speaker. The fact of the matter is simply this. Premier’s made this very clear: Canada will never be the 51st state, Mr. Speaker, and Saskatchewan plans on being a part of a strong and united Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina South Albert.

Aleana Young: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Let’s canvass a couple of things that that minister has left out. He has been very careful not to say that the Premier wouldn’t use the legislated threshold for a referendum that allows his own cabinet the power to call a vote on leaving Canada. He’s attempting to distract us from the massive power that that government has in existing . . .

Speaker Goudy: — To say what a person is or is not doing, attempting to distract . . . Please I’ll ask that we, again, don’t put intentions into the opposite side.

Aleana Young: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. What the minister failed to mention was that his government has the power through cabinet to trigger a referendum on Saskatchewan leaving Canada. It’s an attempt to distract from the massive power that currently exists in the legislation for that Premier and that cabinet. This would be bad for jobs, be bad for investment. It would be bad for the province.

So, Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit here and now that he will never use cabinet to trigger a referendum on Saskatchewan leaving Canada? Yes or no?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Deputy Premier.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Mr. Speaker, that legislation was passed I believe in 1996 by an NDP government. So I don’t know how many different ways we can say this, Mr. Speaker. This government is not interested in Saskatchewan leaving Canada. This government is not interested in separation. This government is also very concerned about the status quo. We feel we have an opportunity here with a new Prime Minister to forge a new relationship, Mr. Speaker. And we look forward to Saskatchewan having a vibrant role in a strong and united Canada.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Athabasca.

National Unity and Support for Treaty Rights

Leroy Laliberte: — Mr. Speaker, people in this province deserve to know where the Premier’s loyalty lies. Does he stand with MAGA-loving Danielle Smith and the groups like Unified that are trying to break up our country? Or will he finally condemn this type of rhetoric as harmful and divisive and promote unity, Mr. Speaker?

Indigenous leaders like FSIN [Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations] Chief Bobby Cameron are calling for . . . [inaudible] . . . unity and respect for the Indigenous rights in the face of these separatist talks. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier stand with Indigenous leaders and condemn these talks of separatism and stand up for the Indigenous treaty rights?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Deputy Premier.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Mr. Speaker, the Premier is the Premier of Saskatchewan. This is the Government of Saskatchewan. Mr. Speaker, we aren’t going to condemn what other provinces do, but we’ve made it abundantly clear — I have many times today, Mr. Speaker — saying that we aren’t interested in separation, Mr. Speaker. We aren’t interested in the status quo. We look forward to less alienation from Ottawa in this province, Mr. Speaker. And we look forward to, just as our founding principles said in the Saskatchewan Party, being part of a strong and united Canada.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Athabasca.

Leroy Laliberte: — Mr. Speaker, why can’t the Premier find his feet? A real leader would acknowledge the treaties that were signed between the First Nations and the Crown, Mr. Speaker, long before these provinces were created. A real leader will set the record straight and any talk of separation is a breach of Indigenous peoples’ inherited treaty rights, Mr. Speaker.

A quote from Chief Bobby Cameron: “Those that want to leave are free to do so, but the lands, waters, resources, and First Nations were negotiated in various treaties across Turtle Island,” Mr. Speaker.

Will the Premier finally shut down this rhetoric and uphold Indigenous treaty rights?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Deputy Premier.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Mr. Speaker, it’s interesting that that member said will the Premier shut down the rhetoric. It’s their rhetoric, Mr. Speaker. I can assure the member that this government respects the treaties, Mr. Speaker. We also respect our role in Confederation.

Mr. Speaker, once again, we look forward to Saskatchewan playing a vibrant role in a strong and united Canada.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Eastview.

Funding for Education and Conditions in Educational Facility

Matt Love: — Mr. Speaker, here’s an idea. How about instead of listening to people who want to leave the country, the Sask Party starts listening to the people that they’re leaving behind right here in Saskatchewan?

[14:15]

We’re joined today, Mr. Speaker, by people from École Boréale, the francophone school in Ponteix. They’re already a small school, and they are dangerously overcrowded. It’s gotten so bad that they took a portable and split it into two so that they could fit in two classrooms, Mr. Speaker.

Why has the Minister of Education allowed this school to end up in such cramped learning conditions?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Everett Hindley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I would thank the guests from Ponteix for being here today, Mr. Speaker.

This government takes the education system very seriously. We have made significant investments, record investments, into education, operating capital for school divisions right across this province — 8.4 per cent increase this year, and 8.8 per cent increase in last year’s budget over the previous budget, Mr. Speaker. In addition to that, also significant funding into school capital projects.

Now we recognize as a government when working closely with our division partners and with school boards, and as well with communities, that there are pressures across this province, Mr. Speaker.

And that’s why we work very closely with them and we try to address all the needs when it comes to whether it’s major or minor renovations to schools or building new schools, Mr. Speaker. And that is something that this government remains committed to, and we’ll work closely with this particular community and their school division. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Eastview.

Matt Love: — Mr. Speaker, all that I heard from that minister is that the francophone school in Ponteix is not a priority. And I knew that already because this is where the library and the gym are both in the basement, and that’s where the staff kitchen used to be a science lab. And that’s where the gymnasium is not a gymnasium, it’s a hallway, Mr. Speaker.

What will it take for the minister to say enough is enough and to prioritize fixing École Boréale after a decade of neglect?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Everett Hindley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Education is a shared priority across the province. And this government endeavours to work very closely with the school divisions, with communities, with parents and families, those with school community councils as well, and school divisions to identify the capital priorities and projects that are required and needed within their communities, Mr. Speaker.

And I would say that’s the same when it comes to this particular school as well, Mr. Speaker, and that includes the work that’s being done and the partnerships that we have with the francophone community. From 2020 to 2024, school divisions and the francophone community associations received nearly $5 million to support infrastructure projects across this province, Mr. Speaker.

Again we recognize that there are priorities right across Saskatchewan, in our major centres but also in our rural communities as well, from border to border to border to border, Mr. Speaker. And we’re going to continue to work closely with the francophone community to identify these priorities and work closely to try and address them as quickly as we can, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Northeast.

Jacqueline Roy: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, unfortunately that’s just not what we’re hearing. That’s why people drove three hours to be here with us today.

The Minister of SaskBuilds, however, is also at fault with the Minister of Education. Now the Minister of SaskBuilds has been invited over and over again to tour École Boréale — which is in his riding, I might add — and he has refused to do so every time. Now I’ve got pictures I can share with him of the conditions. But if he visited himself, he could see with his very own eyes the crumbling library, the cracks in the walls, and the broken mats in the gym/hallway. Then, then maybe he’d understand how bad things have gotten.

Will the Minister Responsible for SaskBuilds commit today to touring École Boréale and witnessing the problem himself?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Everett Hindley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I myself have not had the opportunity to visit this particular school but would be happy to do so, Mr. Speaker, to go and visit École Boréale.

Mr. Speaker, as I’ve said previously, we have had a significant capital budget here in this province: $2.8 billion committed to 105 school infrastructure projects, Mr. Speaker, since 2008; 74 new or replacement schools; 31 major renovation projects; five new schools announced in this year’s budget; 21 projects currently under way right across this province, Mr. Speaker.

We understand that there are more projects to do, Mr. Speaker, and we recognize that this is a priority. And we’re going to work very closely with our communities and our school divisions to make sure that we’re addressing those needs in communities across Saskatchewan, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Northeast.

Jacqueline Roy: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I heard that minister say was that this is a priority. And so I absolutely would strongly suggest that he go as well with the Minister for SaskBuilds, and I strongly suggest they visit the school together.

Mr. Speaker, unsafe schools anywhere, anywhere in this province, are a failure in the duties of the Minister of SaskBuilds and the Minister of Education. But an unsafe school in Ponteix? That’s also a failure of the duty of the Minister for SaskBuilds for his own duties as the minister and MLA for Wood River. The stakeholders here today are his very own constituents, and he has ignored them time and time again.

The students of Wood River and of this province have a right to safe learning conditions whether they’re in English or whether they’re in French. Now I have visited this school myself, and I have seen things with my own eyes. Why, why has the minister refused for years to visit a school in crisis in his very own riding?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Everett Hindley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I highlighted in some of my previous answers this government’s commitment to both operating funding for school divisions but also significant, significant capital infrastructure and investment, Mr. Speaker. Billions of dollars since 2008 into school infrastructure right across this province.

And, Mr. Speaker, in addition to that, in this year’s budget we also announced a significant increase to preventative maintenance and renewal funding in this year’s budget, an additional $15 million for schools across this province. That is a significant increase, about 30 per cent, Mr. Speaker, over last year. And I can tell you that during their time in government, the NDP provided zero dollars in increases towards preventative maintenance renewal funding. Zero, Mr. Speaker.

So this is a government that continues to make record investments into operating, Mr. Speaker, and record investments into capital. And that will continue for years to come, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Walsh Acres.

Government Procurement and Contract for Tire Recycling

Jared Clarke: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now more than a hundred good-paying Saskatchewan jobs were lost because this Sask Party government took a contract from locally based Shercom and gave it to a California company, CRM. This was wrong when we first brought it up a year ago, Mr. Speaker, and it’s wrong now.

This Sask Party government has claimed for weeks it was going to focus on buying Canadian in response to Donald Trump’s tariffs, but despite weeks of questioning they have not identified a single American contract that they have cancelled.

Will the government cancel the contract for CRM today and give it back to Shercom so we can get back to supporting Saskatchewan people with good-paying Saskatchewan jobs?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of the Environment.

Hon. Travis Keisig: — Well thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank the member opposite for the question. It’s important to note that Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan is an independent organization, industry led, industry driven. It is not managed by the Ministry of Environment or the Minister of Environment. What they do with their contracts is the Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan’s business, Mr. Speaker.

It’s also important to note, Mr. Speaker, that over the past five years our government has awarded more than 99 per cent of our procurements to Canadian businesses and Saskatchewan industry. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood.

Support for Ukrainian Refugees

Keith Jorgenson: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Tires that should have been shredded in Saskatchewan, a budget that needs to be shredded, and a funding contract with the UCC [Ukrainian Canadian Congress] that never should have been shredded.

Mr. Speaker, last week I stood in this House and questioned why the minister would cut funding to Ukrainian victims of war who fled here to Saskatchewan for safety. This came after the Premier offered to open the doors of Saskatchewan to more Ukrainian refugees seeking safety and refuge from the devasting Russian invasion. The UCC has had to lay off six employees that provided unique settlement services. All — I repeat, all — of these settlement supports have now ended.

Will the minister commit to reversing these cuts today?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Finance.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I explained last week, as the federal government removed issuing those special visas about 14 months ago, the number of people that need those settlement services has declined. So the funding would decline as well, Mr. Speaker.

But what I wasn’t aware of at the time, Mr. Speaker, I’d asked my deputy minister to reach out to the executive director of the UCC. They’ve had some very good discussions, I understand, and they’ve been providing additional services, Mr. Speaker, but services that are very important. So they’ve been having contract negotiations, Mr. Speaker, and I believe within just a matter of days there’ll be an announcement on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood.

Keith Jorgenson: — Mr. Speaker. I’m beyond happy to hear that, Mr. Minister. Thank you for reconsidering these cuts. But I do have to wonder why such a decision was made in the first place. Last week the Minister of Finance said, “Any of the cuts the member opposite are referring to must be federal.” Clearly, Mr. Speaker, these were not federal cuts.

I hope to hear some positive news from the UCC around these funding in the future. But, Mr. Speaker, why did the minister make these cuts in the first place?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Finance.

Hon. Jim Reiter: — For clarity, Mr. Speaker, it was a federal decision to stop issuing those visas over a year ago, which has caused the decline in refugees coming in. Those settlement services, those initial settlement services that I spoke to last week are still being offered. And I would also reiterate, Mr. Speaker, that the Ukrainian refugees are entitled on top of that to all the settlement services that others coming into the province have as well, Mr. Speaker.

This government has taken this issue incredibly seriously. We’ve offered a wide range of support, far more than any other province, I would say, Mr. Speaker, to the people who are victims of this tragic, tragic war initiated by Russia in Ukraine. We will ensure that all of them continue to receive appropriate services. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Wascana Plains.

Supports for Vulnerable Children

Brent Blakley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when it comes to providing supports to the most vulnerable, the minister told me at committee that things are just fine. But we know people aren’t getting the supports that they need.

The independent Children’s Advocate says the issue of children not having their needs met tripled last year. The issue of health and safety in children’s learning environment quadrupled, and the issue of parents and caregivers saying they lack the financial means to care for their kids has tripled.

Mr. Speaker, why won’t the Sask Party government invest in supports needed to keep children in this province safe, healthy, and fed?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Terry Jenson: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this government appreciates the work of the advocate and the release of the annual report. We share the advocate’s commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of Saskatchewan’s children and youth, and our focus is ensuring the programs and services for children, youth, and families deliver the best possible outcomes.

I’m encouraged by the progress that’s been made and remain fully committed to continuous improvement. Mr. Speaker, the ministry works with vulnerable children, including those who are medically fragile or face complex health challenges or educational challenges, Mr. Speaker. This is work that’s incredibly important to this ministry and to this government, and this work will continue. Thank you.

MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of CIC [Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan].

Government Collaborates with Indigenous Communities on Renewable Energy Projects

Hon. Jeremy Harrison: — Well thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Last Thursday our government was proud to announce two major renewable energy projects in partnership with Indigenous communities and the private sector.

Through our competitive public procurement process, SaskPower selected partnerships led by Potentia Renewables, Meadow Lake Tribal Council, and the Mistawasis First Nation to develop, own, and operate two new renewable power facilities: the 200‑megawatt Rose Valley wind project located east of Assiniboia, which will operate under a 30‑year power purchase agreement with SaskPower; and the 100‑megawatt Southern Springs Solar project to be located south of Coronach, which will operate under a 25‑year agreement.

These projects represent far more than just infrastructure investments. They’re powerful examples of how our government, in partnership with SaskPower, is advancing economic reconciliation and building strong, lasting relationships with Indigenous communities.

[14:30]

These initiatives build upon a growing list of Indigenous-owned or -partnered projects, including a 100‑megawatt solar project in the Estevan area and the 200‑megawatt Seven Stars wind energy project owned and operated by Enbridge in partnership with five First Nations and the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan. Each of these projects includes meaningful Indigenous ownership which will drive long-term economic growth and opportunity across our province, not just during construction but for decades to come.

SaskPower also anticipates spending $1 billion on Indigenous procurement over the next decade, an unprecedented commitment that reflects our government’s determination to ensure all communities benefit from Saskatchewan’s growing economy.

As our population and economy grow, so too does the demand for power. That’s why we are making the necessary investments today to strengthen the grid and ensure Saskatchewan families, communities, and businesses continue to have access to reliable, affordable, and secure electricity.

While renewable energy is an important part of the energy mix, we must not lose sight of the critical role of baseload power. That is why SaskPower is continuing to work and move towards a nuclear power future for Saskatchewan.

Our government has also directed SaskPower to explore the potential for extending the life of our coal facilities, which have been the cornerstone of our power system for generations, as a part of our all-of-the-above approach to power generation including renewables, hydro, biomass, geothermal, and gas as we move into the future. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina South Albert.

Aleana Young: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My thanks to the minister for providing a copy of his remarks in advance. It’s wonderful to see this announcement last week. And on behalf of the official opposition, I’d like to extend our thanks as well to SaskPower, their procurement team, and the leadership that they’ve shown, as well as our congratulations to MLTC [Meadow Lake Tribal Council], Potentia resources, and Mistawasis Nêhiyawak on the significant projects, Mr. Speaker — much needed in Saskatchewan.

Investing in the power grid is something that we’re happy to stand up and celebrate, I think, on both sides of the House. And refreshing to see an investment as well in renewable power infrastructure, Mr. Speaker, because we do truly need an all-of-the-above approach when it comes to our power generation in future here in Saskatchewan.

A great announcement, Mr. Speaker. Of course there can be no reconciliation without economic reconciliation. These partnerships and the power and the jobs that will be provided to communities across this province are a testament to that. And with that, Mr. Speaker, happy to conclude my remarks on this excellent announcement.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

PRIVATE MEMBERS’ PUBLIC BILLS AND ORDERS

ADJOURNED DEBATES

PRIVATE MEMBERS’ MOTIONS

Motion No. 1 — Prioritizing Local Businesses in Government Procurement

[The Assembly resumed the adjourned debate on the proposed motion by Erika Ritchie.]

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Government House Leader.

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I’m happy to briefly enter into debate on this topic. With respect to procurement, Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to confirm that over 90 per cent of executive government procurement goes to Saskatchewan suppliers. And when you restrict that criteria to when Saskatchewan suppliers have bid, that number goes up to 95 per cent, Mr. Speaker.

This is in stark contrast to the NDP who outsourced 70 per cent of their election campaign across the services, Mr. Speaker. But with that . . .

Speaker Goudy: — Sorry, I’m just going to mention too, when it’s concerning our elections and our political sides, that that’s not part of debate. So I’d ask the member to continue on, please.

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I suppose the point to be made is simply that over 90 per cent of government contracts are going to Saskatchewan suppliers, and 99 per cent to Canadian suppliers, Mr. Speaker. With that, I now move that we adjourn debate.

Speaker Goudy: — The minister has moved that we adjourn debate. Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Speaker Goudy: — Carried.

Motion No. 3 — Use of Virtual Doctors

[The Assembly resumed the adjourned debate on the proposed motion by Meara Conway.]

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Eastview.

Matt Love: — Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Proud to be on my feet to put a few comments on the record here while I just get a little assistance from my seatmate here. He’s such a great guy to sit next to because he does such a fantastic job in the Assembly here as he welcomes guests in and does a great job — we’re working on it — does such a great job here as a seatmate keeping things lively in the Assembly and keeps us all on our toes.

And he’s been a good mentor for me in this job as he certainly helps all of us here with his years of experience. I think he’s been here for much longer than any of our colleagues here. And he’s been a good colleague and a leader here on our side to help us get after issues and address questions that are before the Assembly, especially when we have legislation and motions. And so he’s been an excellent support here for me as a seatmate and a colleague and somebody who approaches this work as a parent, as a great local MLA, as an ambassador for his constituents, and he helps all of us learn our way through this important work.

Okay. So, Mr. Speaker, you know I heard a lot of debate last week in the Assembly on this idea of where our health care workforce needs to be to provide the top level of care to people of Saskatchewan. And you know, I heard passionate debate from members on both sides of the Assembly and a lot of questions as well about what’s best for people in our province as far as whether they should be accessing care from an in-person health care professional, whether that’d be a physician, an ER [emergency room] doctor, perhaps a nurse practitioner. And I also heard a lot of debate about whether or not that could be done through virtual means with that health care professional on the other end of a webcam or a camera and providing advice to somebody who’s in person in the room with the patient.

And I’ll tell you, Mr. Speaker, I just have to think about, as I heard members on both sides reflect back on their experiences often as parents — because one of the things that came up was about obstetrical care and about what kind of care you’d expect to be there — and reflect back, for those of us who are parents, on the birth of our own children. And I think if we were to list the best days of our lives, many of us would list those days when our children were born.

And so I think back to those days for me as a parent. And we had our first . . . My daughter is 17. We were — I think back, like, at the time — felt quite young. And really, we were the first of our friends, in our circle of friends, who had a baby. So we didn’t have anyone in our group that had gone before us, and so there was so many unknowns.

And we were so fortunate at that time, Mr. Speaker, to have midwife care. And we had for our first and our second just amazing midwife care. And how important that it was to have somebody walking with us every step of the way. You know, even as a new dad, like, a lot of those meetings leading up to the birth of our first child were equally important for me as they were for my wife as we prepared to become parents.

And I think about what that process would be like. And you know, I just have to say that that process would not have been the same for us as a family had that care been delivered virtually. You know, so many of those meetings leading up were mostly conversation, you know, like learning things as new parents. And it was so important to us to have that midwife there in person. And again, I know how in demand midwife care is in this province. So few people are able to access that professional in our province already, and this was 17 years ago. It was even harder back then, even before midwives were registered and funded in the province of Saskatchewan.

So I think about that, and then I think leading into our second child, she again had midwife care but it was a hospital birth. But we still had that care to transition from that process in the weeks leading up to and the process of starting out at home, you know, through part of the labour process and then moving into the hospital where that midwife was able to follow us there. I was just so thankful and appreciative, even as a dad to my second child, as we got ready for the birth of my son, to have that in-person care to follow us through the process.

And the level of compassion, the incredible commitment, the intellectual knowledge that our midwife and her team brought to the process is just simply something that couldn’t be replaced by a professional on the other side of a screen, perhaps hundreds, maybe thousands of kilometres away delivering that care. We needed somebody in person, Mr. Speaker. So that’s the history that I bring to this consideration of this motion and this amendment, Mr. Speaker.

One of the things that I like to do in this work is to approach this work in terms of what would I want for my own loved ones, for my own family, recognizing that other people might make different decisions, but working for things that I want for my loved ones and my family, and then wanting that same access, the same opportunity for everyone, and then working to make a reality. That would be, Mr. Speaker, the way that I would define justice or social justice, wanting the same things for all people that I want for the people closest to me, and then working to make that a reality. Not just wanting that, but working towards that. And that’s one of the beliefs that really compelled me to want to get into politics and to do the work that we’re so honoured to do here, Mr. Speaker.

So I think about that level of care that I would want for all people, and the level of care that we’ve received in my family through the birth of our three children, you know, and then working to make that a reality. But some of the questions that have come before this Assembly and this motion and the amendment is, who is best positioned to provide that care. And do they need to be a professional in the room with that expectant mother, with that patient who’s come to an emergency room in Saskatchewan looking for care, often in a very challenging or troubling moment of their life?

They’re looking for emergency care. And I just can’t help but think about how they would feel getting there. And the current situation, the state of our health care system in Saskatchewan right now, Mr. Speaker, is one that’s raising a lot of concern for people when they get to the hospital in or near their community.

I’ll give you a few examples of this, Mr. Speaker. We’ve heard story after story. And back several years ago when I was on the file as critic for Remote and Rural Health, we heard a lot of stories from folks who, you know, whether they be mayors or councillors in their towns and cities across Saskatchewan, who witnessed people show up to the hospital in their community only to see a sign on the door stating that the ER was closed or that the hospital was closed, and they don’t know until they get there.

And the concern that we raised time and time again in this Assembly was, when will we encounter that terrible situation when the time that they lost in getting to that hospital and turning around and driving the other way was too much to handle given their condition. And we’re concerned that that’s still the case here years later, that folks are looking for care in their hospitals in our smaller cities and towns across the province, and that they don’t know until they get to the hospital if they’re going to be able to get the care that they need. And we hold firm to our belief on this side, Mr. Speaker, that people deserve health care where and when they need it. And we’re going to keep working to make that a reality in this province.

Now, Mr. Speaker, to get back to some of these examples of things that we’ve heard from around the province. We’ve heard from mayors in smaller cities and towns who have to monitor . . . It’s not their job but they do it because they care about the folks in the community. They’ve got to monitor that hospital door when they see cars pull up; people walk up to the door; the door is closed and there’s a poster, there’s a sign on the door telling them where to go. And they are the ones in the position to grab these folks off the doorstep of the hospital and give them that bad news that the hospital is closed.

[14:45]

And something that folks often wonder: they say, well why did we have to get here and find out? Why did we have to get to the hospital and then get turned away at the door? And the fact that this government no longer communicates this means that folks have turned to things like Facebook groups to find out when facilities will be open. They’ve turned to organizing their own streams of communication so they can let each other know — in Saskatchewan people are always looking out for their neighbour — but to let their neighbours and the community members know what kind of care they can expect if they were to show up at the hospital.

I don’t think that that’s the way that it should be, and I would be shocked if we didn’t all agree on that fact, that we shouldn’t have people showing up to hospitals and finding out only then that the ER is closed.

Now as far as how this relates to a virtual physician or a doctor on the other end of a webcam, Mr. Speaker, I think it’s pretty clear, but I’ll go through it nonetheless.

Imagine getting to that hospital. Maybe you’re experiencing symptoms that have you and your family concerned that you’re in potentially a life-threatening situation. Maybe you have signs of stroke or cardiac arrest. And you get to the door and there’s no sign on the door, so the ER’s open.

And then you come in, but you don’t have a person there who can help walk you through fully understanding, with that in-person physician care of the symptoms that you’re experiencing, to have that bedside manner to put you at ease to understand what’s happening in a real thorough way. Because not everything can be communicated through a webcam as far as what doctors, especially in an ER in an emergency situation, all of the different information that they’re trying to gather from a patient.

I can’t help but believe that there are some challenges in being able to ascertain the whole situation through a webcam as opposed to having an in-person professional there. So it kind of leads me to the feeling, Mr. Speaker, that perhaps this is a government acknowledging, with this reliance on virtual care, that their health care recruitment and retention plan is failing.

We know in Saskatchewan we have the worst rates of recruitment of health care workers in the entire country. We have lost I think it’s 25 per cent of our registered nurses in rural Saskatchewan — 25 per cent. We know that we have incredible gaps, upwards of 200,000 people in Saskatchewan who don’t have access to a family doctor; 200,000 people who when they need acute care their only choice in many situations is to go to an emergency room.

And so it feels a little bit, Mr. Speaker, like this reliance on virtual care is just a little bit of ownership and admission that this government is failing to provide the right kind of health care professional in the right place at the right time for the people of Saskatchewan.

Mr. Speaker, looking in some of these numbers a little bit further, we have over the last number of years — and our team and our researchers have done incredible work to look at this — we have over 4,000 days of blackouts. Those are 4,000 days of closures of hospitals; 4,000 days of closures of emergency rooms; 4,000 days that . . . In most cases, Mr. Speaker, it’s due to a staffing shortage, that we don’t have the right individuals with the right professional designation and training, whether they be lab techs or X-ray techs or folks who perform diagnostic services, or perhaps physicians, registered nurses, so on and so forth, Mr. Speaker, in the right place to keep these services available to the people of Saskatchewan.

And when we look again at one of the issues in this motion and the amendment, when it comes to obstetrical care, there were 500 days where obstetrical services were not available over the last five years. So we’ve heard stories and we’ve brought those stories to this Assembly, Mr. Speaker, of mothers who went to the hospital in labour, expecting to give birth — should be the best day of their life — and they’re turned away because there’s no obstetrical care and there’s no ER care, and they’re sent to a different facility.

And we’ve brought those stories into this Assembly of the one mother, Mr. Speaker, who ended up giving birth on the side of the road. Again not something that any of us would expect for any of our loved ones, for any of our constituents. We certainly would expect better for them than to be turned away and to be left giving birth on the side of the road. That is simply beyond what any of us would find acceptable, but that is the current reality in this province due to the failures of this government, Mr. Speaker.

And again it feels a little bit like a failure that they’re owning up to when they’re now moving to an overreliance on virtual care. And I honestly thought, Mr. Speaker, when I read the motion that my colleague brought forward, I honestly thought that this is not something that should be up for debate. And it’s not a debate about whether or not there’s any space at all for virtual care; I believe that there is. It isn’t an all-or-none response, Mr. Speaker. It’s about having the right professional there for the right purpose.

And when it comes to giving birth, obstetrical care in Saskatchewan, I’m actually shocked that we spent as much time as we did in this Assembly debating whether or not that is something that’s up for debate. And again I come back to that, my initial comments here today, about thinking of the birth of my own children and the incredible care that we received from nurses and midwives and doctors. And I would expect that that is available to all mothers and to all fathers and to all children and infants in this province when it’s needed.

You know, I can’t be on my feet in this debate here, Mr. Speaker, without reflecting on a little bit of my history on the job here as an MLA and as a shadow minister, and for a time, about a year and a half, as critic for rural and remote health care. And that all kind of started for me, the journey started for me . . . well I guess part of it started as being critic for Seniors for a number of years, Mr. Speaker, and having that perspective on our health care system.

But then it also kind of took off when I was asked to attend a rally in Kamsack. And I wasn’t at the time, I wasn’t the critic for rural and remote health care, Mr. Speaker. But our then chief of staff contacted me and said, “Hey, what are you doing on this date?” I said, “I’m available. Where do I need to be?” And she said, “Well there’s some folks in Kamsack who are upset about the state of health care in their community. Would you like to go?” I said, “Sure, I’m game.”

Hopped in the car. I think I went out to Yorkton the day before and met with some health care workers there who were working in long-term care. Met with some health care workers, spent a day in Yorkton, went out to Kamsack the next morning. And I got out to Kamsack and it was a pretty lively situation.

One of the members opposite was there and remembers it, I’m sure. He’s smiling at me, so he won’t forget that one. It was quite the day. It was the Kamsack shuffle, and we got only one of them left. His dance partner has departed.

But here’s the situation in Kamsack on that day, Mr. Speaker. There was — I’m not even sure how many — several dozen, maybe upwards of 100 people on the lawn of the hospital. And they’re upset because their hospital in Kamsack had gone from 20 acute care beds down to 10, down to 5, down to 0.

And these are folks who are concerned about what that means, not just for the future of their access to health care in their communities and the many First Nations in that area of the province around Kamsack, but concerned about what that means for the future of their town. They’ve seen the decline in the beds again from 20 to 10 to 5 to 0, and they were upset. And so the crowd was pretty lively.

And I got there and walked around and introduced myself to some of the community members. Really engaging conversation. My intent in being there was simply, you know, to listen, to hear their concerns, and you know, to hear them out and to see what we could do in our role in the official opposition to advocate for what they need.

But things pretty quickly turned into most of the crowd kind of coming around, and we held kind of a . . . They were waiting for the minister to show up, to be fair. They had heard that the Minister for Rural and Remote Health was coming, and they were waiting for their local MLA. And they were growing a little bit agitated, I suppose you could say.

And so I was on the lawn of the hospital. I introduced myself to a few folks and within a few minutes the crowd surrounded me. And I wasn’t . . . I showed up planning to listen, but we ended up kind of holding a bit of a town hall. As they waited for their MLA to show up, we had a bit of a town hall on the lawn of the hospital.

And there was a lot of folks there, you know, asking me some . . . Well I opened myself up. I said, does anybody have any questions? So they started asking questions. And they said, well I heard this, I heard that, I heard this. And it was interesting because I didn’t even have to refute, you know, some of the ideas that they had about what happened in the past, what happened in the ’90s, and what the NDP of the past did, what the Sask Party had done. The folks in the crowd, I didn’t have to correct the record, Mr. Speaker. The folks in the crowd corrected the record for me.

And by the end of that little impromptu town hall — it was maybe 20, 30 minutes of question time — they had their attention directed to, why couldn’t they access health care in their community. Why couldn’t they access doctors in their community? Why didn’t they have registered nurses working in their community to keep their hospital open and to improve from that zero-bed capacity that they found themselves in? And the direction very quickly turned to this current government that we’ve been stuck with for going on 18 years now that had left this community without the acute care beds that they needed.

And I have to think, Mr. Speaker, would that gathering of people, would they have been satisfied by saying, well we don’t have doctors, we don’t have nurses, but we do have a very well-positioned webcam for you? I don’t think that that crowd would have been satisfied with that as their health care provider. Really regardless of who was on the other end of the screen, I don’t think that the crowd would have been satisfied at that point.

But within a few minutes, you know, the minister did show up and the MLA for Canora-Pelly showed up, and you know, safe to say they caught an earful from the crowd. And at one point the minister and the MLA tried to leave. They said, we’re done answering questions; we’ve got to go. And they tried to walk through the crowd, and the crowd said no. They turned them back and sent them back for more questions.

And I suppose that’s the way democracy works. You know, the folks are upset and they wanted answers from their elected officials that failed to bring answers.

So it was a pretty interesting situation, got a lot of media attention, Mr. Speaker. But then, you know, I drove home to Saskatoon. It was getting late in the day. Had a really good experience, really warm reception there from the folks in Kamsack. They just wanted someone to listen, you know. They’re struggling to access the types of services that they need. They want somebody to listen. So I had to hit the road home.

And I was there with a friend, a colleague who was helping me with the event. And on the drive home I got a call from her and she said, you won’t believe it; the sign on the door in Kamsack says if you need emergency services, go to the hospital in Canora. And so she stopped in Canora on her way home just to double-check, just to make sure. And you wouldn’t believe, Mr. Speaker, the hospital in Canora said, “We’re closed today. If you need services, go to the hospital in Kamsack.”

And that’s the state of health care in Saskatchewan that has not been addressed by this Sask Party government — one hospital closed, sending patients to another hospital; that hospital closed, sending patients down the highway the other way. Now thank goodness, as far as we know, no one really had any significantly negative outcomes from this incredible and embarrassing failure of our government.

But again I think when it comes back to this motion, Mr. Speaker, we have to ask ourselves, what are the expectations of the people of Saskatchewan? They have a fair expectation when they get to their hospital that there will be someone there. There will be a person there to provide the care that they’re looking for.

[15:00]

And we have to imagine a situation where somebody on that day, that hot summer day, you know, maybe they’re again having something that might be more life-threatening. You know, again could be a stroke, a heart attack, cardiac arrest, some the other concern. Maybe it’s somebody in labour. It’s a mother in labour and she’s going to give birth.

And if she was stuck in that situation, (a) I can’t imagine the anger that they would have at those who caused this incredible failure, but (b) would virtual care, would a well-positioned webcam and a kind voice on the other end, would that have met the bar of expectation for what people want in this province. And I come back to the question: would that be satisfactory to us, for our family members if that were me? And I would say no.

And again to the members opposite: I know it’s not a conversation about whether or not any kind of virtual care is acceptable. That’s again not what we are talking about here, Mr. Speaker. We’re talking specifically about emergency care and about obstetrical care. So I think we have to look long and hard at what we’re doing in terms of our strategy to recruit and retain health care workers. And when we rank last in the country in those areas, especially in retainment, we see more health care workers leaving the job and leaving the province here in Saskatchewan than we do anywhere else in the country. We really need to be honest with ourselves if what we’re doing is working.

And so we hear this line from members opposite all the time about — what’s the word that they use? — the most aggressive strategy, or something like that. They think that their strategy has somehow been called . . . They’ve anointed themselves as the best in the country. They’ve patted themselves on the back and anointed their plan as the best anywhere in Canada. No one else is saying that. No one else says that about their plan. Health care workers don’t say that about their plan. Municipal leaders don’t say that about their plan. They call their plan the best. And I have to say, Mr. Speaker, it’s kind of a bold move, to come up with a plan and then advertise it as the best while it continues to fail people so badly.

And you know, I think people in Saskatchewan, they know the realities. When they get to their hospital, like some of the stories I’ve shared today, and there’s nobody there to provide the care that they need, I think that they know that this plan from the government is not doing the job that it needs to do. Not at this moment in time when so many people in our province don’t have access to acute care. They don’t have the family medicine that they need.

And there’s a lot of fear out there that, will the care that I need be available when I get to the hospital for whatever condition I’m experiencing? Will it be open? Will there be a professional there to provide in-person care for my emergency care, obstetrical care? Some of the best and worst moments of our life. And I think Saskatchewan people expect the right professional to be there.

Mr. Speaker, I think I’ve talked long enough for this afternoon to put some comments on the record about this motion and this amendment. But at this time, Mr. Speaker, I’m going to move that we adjourn debate on the motion. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — The member has moved to adjourn debate. Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Members: — No.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Stonebridge.

Darcy Warrington: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to be on my feet. Happy to be on my feet to debate this motion. It is of particular interest to me and my family. It’s really unfortunate they gutted our motion with an amendment.

We support the use of webcams to complement health care, but we do not, and I do not, support the use of webcams to replace a health care professional, in particular physicians, and even more specifically physicians involved with obstetrics. And here’s why: my son was born on a chilly March 1st, 2019. It was a Friday. It was about minus 40. After he was born, I couldn’t start the vehicle. I had to get a buddy to go boost it.

But anyhow, prior to that my wife had a very difficult pregnancy. My son was causing a lot of discomfort to . . . My son Miles in the womb was causing a lot of rib problems, pain for my wife to the point that it was unbearable. So she went into the hospital. We went into the hospital I believe it was five days prior to that. And for a few hours they observed her.

She ended up having a total of seven doctors work with her over the course of those five days, and each time webcams could not have been used to determine my wife’s situation. It required the doctor to use their hands, which was very invasive for my wife. Obviously there’s a lot of discomfort in carrying a child, but under the circumstances she was very happy with her level of care. But it required a physician, and in our case it required seven.

She was told to take Cervidil. This was as a result of a doctor in person telling her that it was the right . . . She was only dilated about a centimetre or so which I think it needs to be six if I recall.

An Hon. Member: — 10.

Darcy Warrington: — Okay. Sorry, 10. Thank you. Sitting beside a registered nurse is always helpful. You feel free to feed me more tips like that.

So it didn’t work. We ended up back the next day. Again I can’t remember specifically when they switched over doctors, but potentially another doctor did the examination and determined that Cervidil would be the best course of action despite the fact that she’s in enormous amounts of pain and she feels like her ribs are going to burst.

My son was a giant when he was born. He was 10 pounds, 6 ounces. So I can’t imagine what Christina was going through this whole time.

An Hon. Member: — Hell.

Darcy Warrington: — Hell, absolutely. She was going through hell. After two failed Cervidil — now it’s Tuesday, so started on Monday — they tried using a balloon. So this is a way to induce labour. Again very uncomfortable and it also requires you to use your hands. This is not something you can do with a webcam. I’ve used a lot of YouTube tutorials in my time, and I know for a fact my wife would not allow someone to use a YouTube tutorial or a webcam in this situation.

So we went home and she’s even more uncomfortable now because she’s using this balloon method. But unfortunately it fell out of place onto her bladder, and she had significant issues going to the bathroom. So we went back and they removed . . . As a result of Christina struggling to go to the washroom — and by the way she’s given me full permission to tell this story today — they removed three pounds of liquid from her body as a result of her not being able to use the washroom. I couldn’t imagine that sort of sensation.

We still couldn’t get the labour to go. And after all of these procedures that she went through, we decided to do something simple. They tried Pitocin, and they kept her there for a few hours. It didn’t work and we were again sent home. Her body was physically exhausted by this time. Four or five doctors had directly examined her. And my wife’s still, you know, again very appreciative of the care that she received, but she does not look back with a lot of joy for those few days before Miles’s birth.

So now it’s Thursday and the doctors have finally said to do an epidural even though she’s not in active labour. Again couldn’t imagine someone on a webcam saying put the needle over there, just a little bit more, just a little bit more. So once again to encourage the pregnancy, to encourage the birth, they used the balloon but they needed specialists to do this. You can’t insert a balloon without having someone directly involved with the situation that knows what they’re doing and isn’t being coached through a webcam.

On Friday her water finally broke at 4:11 a.m. We weren’t privileged to be in the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital. So husbands certainly should never complain about where they’re sleeping in these situations, but by this time I had found a couch next door because my chair was relatively broken. So a nurse came and got me. They brought me in, and she was at 4 centimetres dilated, which still wasn’t enough for this 10‑pound, 6‑ounce boy to be born.

And finally, despite us asking for a while “please let her have a C-section,” they decided it was finally time to have a C-section. A C-section is a very major surgery. Again obviously I would hope that the government agrees that we can’t do a C-section with a webcam. But we were at that stage.

The doctor held him up — I was behind the curtain — and they said he’s enormous. And he really was. He spread his arms like this, and he looked like a giant. The week was awful outside of his birth obviously, and we were elated. Christina was fairly out of it in the first few moments of Miles’s life. But this all could not have been done virtually, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

So I’m getting close to wrapping things up here. But as I said, it’s important that we’re not replacing doctors with webcams. It’s important that we’re not replacing doctors with webcams.

I see a lot of situations where the government likes to say, we created 100 positions; we just hired 100 doctors; we just hired 400 nurses. How many did you lose? So when you look at your plus-minus, for those of us like the Minister of Advanced Education, when you look at plus-minus in hockey, how many times are you on the ice for a goal and how many times are you on the ice for your own goal?

Our math suggests that we’re struggling to retain health care professionals and we need to do more than just say how many jobs are created or hired for. We also need to point out how many are not being replaced.

So in closing I’d like to just again reiterate that these webcams can be helpful in the North, where we are 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours from care. As long as we still have health care professionals that they deserve and need, then we can supplement with webcams. But we cannot say this webcam is going to replace someone, that this is good enough for the people of our province. It wasn’t good enough for my wife, and it’s not good enough for the people of the province. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Vicki Mowat: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure to enter into debate on this motion today as I wasn’t around when we brought it forward. So it’s a pleasure to be able to provide some remarks on it.

I’ve been the shadow minister of Health, what we used to call the Health critic, for about seven years, I believe, at this point. I’m not exactly sure when it happened — sometime in 2018. So at this point — and under the best of circumstances I have sometimes a fluid concept of time — it’s safe to say I have lost track of the amount of health tours I’ve done and the amount of health outreach I’ve done across this province. I’d love to be able to provide some kind of list of communities that I’ve engaged with. And maybe by feature of having a small opposition and a small but mighty team, keeping track of such things has just never really been on the table.

But what I’ll say is that I’ve had extensive experience and I’ve been privileged to travel this great province a great many times and to interact with people from communities across the province. Certainly not every community, but when we look at the amount of correspondence that comes in to the Health critic’s office, you know, it’s possible we’ve heard from most of them at this point.

[15:15]

And I know often people don’t reach out to the opposition when they think everything is just going stellar, and that’s why I feel like I need to tell them what’s going on. Often we talk to people on some of the worst days of their lives, when they’re going through some of the most heartbreaking experiences, and often when they have sought out recourse in different ways already, have interacted with the system in so many different ways, have looked at who is in their court, who can advocate for them.

You know, in many cases people have had already extensive experience with the patient care coordinators in health care. You know, sometimes people have experienced deaths of family members. It can be quite traumatic for them to relive these experiences as they recount their stories to politicians, hoping that someone’s listening, hoping that someone is in their corner and will help to fight for them.

And it’s always been something that I have felt a tremendous amount of privilege in, currently living in Saskatoon as a larger urban centre and some of the peace of mind that comes with having some access to health care when it’s required and when I’ve had family members in emergency situations.

Had a friend that gave birth about a week ago now. Whether she would be able to give birth in Saskatoon was not one of the concerns that we had. And I consider myself quite privileged to know that.

And I come from a rural upbringing. My father’s side are ranchers in southwest Alberta. I was born in the bustling metropolis of Pincher Creek, Alberta, and we lived in Cowley for a number of years, which was a village in Alberta.

This very easily could have been my life as well. You know, you take a few different turns and you don’t know where you’re going to end up and where your circumstances are going to bring you. And I can’t stress enough that your postal code should not determine your ability to receive health care. And instead that’s what we see across this province every day.

And some of the calls that we’ve made over the years, having met with community members . . . You know, often we’re speaking with city and town councils. You know, we’re speaking with representatives from the community who have been tasked to bring forward concerns on behalf of their citizens. And some of this happens at SUMA [Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association] and SARM [Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities], and some of this happens when we go out to the communities and we ask them to meet and we sit down with council.

And that is some of the most rewarding work that I’ve had the pleasure of being part of. And just hearing from, you know, good people — who stepped up because there was no one else taking on the role, or many people pressured them to — who care about their communities, who care about their neighbours, who care about their family members. And in these specific circumstances is when we hear from these municipal representatives how important access to health care is.

And some of this work has led to folks coming to the legislature. You know, often we have people who come to the legislature who ask us to advocate on their behalf, and that’s because we’ve met them along the way. We’ve met them while we’ve been out in their communities; we’ve met them at community events. And they have placed their trust in us to bring forward these issues when otherwise they might kind of feel like they’re at the end of the road. They don’t know what else to do. And often that’s when the opposition comes into play, and that’s when we start to have these interactions with them.

These are very delicate times for people going through some very personal issues. And they sort of bare their soul on the line for us, trust in us to advocate for them in a professional and respectful way, to be constructive in our advocacy so we’re not getting in the way and making it political, you know. We all have the same goals in mind of getting access to health care for people. So this is the setting within which I view access to health care around the province, is with keeping some of these principles in mind and some of these ideas in mind.

In these conversations there are some really common themes that come up. Some of them have been so common that we have, you know, brought them in and made them planks to previous platform commitments. Some of them we have raised in this Assembly time and time again. And I would submit that nearly all of them revolve around access to health care — either the availability of a service; whether a service is closed; whether it’s available in their community; whether they have the provider in their community; how far they have to travel, that sort of thing — and the quality of that service.

And we all know that sometimes things happen, and people experience terrible episodes of care. Some of those have come forward to this legislature as well. And I think it behooves all of us to figure out what happened, how to prevent it from happening in the future, and to make sure that it’s not going to happen again. And often when people come forward and speak to us as advocates, that’s one of the things that they are looking for. You know, I lost my family member; I don’t imagine that this is going to go anywhere, but my main impetus for contacting you is that I think it’s senseless and it shouldn’t have happened, and it shouldn’t happen again to someone else’s family member.

So some really good folks asking for some really, really reasonable things. Asking to have family doctors in their communities and nurse practitioners in their communities, something that many of us take for granted if we have that access. And I know the minister . . . In the past we’ve heard previous ministers also talk about how, well there are walk-in clinics available and this sort of thing. The evidence simply does not support that a walk-in clinic is going to have the same effect on somebody’s care journey as having a dedicated primary care provider, nurse practitioner, or family doctor.

And this is the reason we bring forward concerns about the number of family doctors that exist, about the availability of those family doctors, and who’s accepting new patients. It’s the reason why we asked specifically for that list of family doctors accepting new patients to be published online when this government took that away, is we need to make sure that people have the knowledge to be able to access those doctors.

And I keep a close eye on other communities. I know there’s a big struggle in communities across this province and that many people are in danger of losing their family doctors or don’t have them or have to travel for them or have to wait weeks and weeks to see their family doctor, which we know simply is not reasonable. You can’t plan when you’re going to need to go to see the doctor. Some people can — you know, if you have a chronic illness, you need updates. For the most part I can’t decide when I’m going to have a bladder infection. It just happens, right? That’s the human body. You don’t know. You don’t know when you’re going to need to go to your doctor.

There are so many issues with access to family doctors. This is one of the refrains we hear constantly. Another refrain that we hear is access to long-term care facilities. You know, is there a place for my loved one to age with dignity? Is there a space where I’m not going to bankrupt my family to look after my family member? A lot of these issues, Mr. Speaker, come from staffing shortages. A lot of these issues come from this government’s failure to retain health care workers in these jobs.

And that kind of goes across the spectrum. We’ve repeatedly raised issues around service closures. And often we’ll talk about the number of service closures that have existed, and we know that they are in the thousands. And what that means — which my colleague from Saskatoon Eastview was so eloquently describing — is that someone might drive to their health centre, drive to their hospital and find a sign on the door that says “go to the community next door,” and are getting bounced around in that way because this government has also not prioritized or really in any way been transparent about when those closures exist.

So instead we have Facebook groups and we have citizens posting pictures that show the service disruptions. They get shared around in the community and citizens are entirely left to their own devices with this information. That is how this government is treating people across this province. That is their response to hard-working folks, well-meaning folks who are just trying to get access to health care for their loved ones and their friends and family, are just trying to fight for their communities. This government’s response is to put a sign on the door and tell them to go next door.

So, Mr. Speaker, this is the climate that we’re operating within right now, a climate where you call for an ambulance and one’s not available. You have volunteer first responders on the front lines of a crisis, waiting for nine hours with someone after they’ve called for an ambulance because no one’s available to be there. And it’s getting to the point where those volunteers are saying, “I can’t do this anymore because I have to go carry on with my job, my day to day, you know. Like I volunteered to be a first responder for a short period of time until help could get there.” So another way that this is all on the backs of the people of this province when the responsibility falls at the feet of that government.

In response to community members calling for the resumption of the community health advisory network, something we’ve been pushing for, really which was to give voice to local communities. Something that was promised under this government when they amalgamated the Saskatchewan Health Authority, that CHANs [community health advisory network] would be continued and strengthened so that that local voice could continue to exist, so that the local health committee has somewhere to go with that information.

Instead many of us know the local health committee might get a representative come by and come to some of their meetings. Often it’s a rotating revolving door. It’s a new person that comes every once in a while. “Oh yeah, I hear you, I hear you, I hear you,” and then nothing ever happens. And then we’ve seen people get fed up and come to this Assembly asking for meetings after they’ve been ignored by that government. It’s a fact, Mr. Speaker. This is how this government has been approaching their responsibility in rural Saskatchewan.

So to say that it’s concerning now to see this motion before us, Mr. Speaker, that hasn’t been agreed to by this government, that was amended to take away anything remotely on topic from what we were talking about, Mr. Speaker, and instead pat themselves on the back, to say that this is concerning is a severe understatement. It’s alarming to see the way this government treats people when they claim that these are the folks that support them the most. It’s alarming, Mr. Speaker.

So let’s talk about what this motion is, this motion that was put forward. And I’m glad we’re talking about it, albeit unscheduled today, Mr. Speaker. It would have been nice to be able to prepare a speech, but I’ll take the opportunity to speak about it. The motion that was put forward by my colleague from Regina Elphinstone-Centre, simply put: ask the government to say that they weren’t going to use virtual doctors, virtual physicians, virtual care when someone’s needing obstetrics, child birth, or emergency. That’s what the motion essentially says.

[15:30]

How on earth is that something you can disagree with, Mr. Speaker? How on earth is that something you can disagree with? I don’t understand. And maybe it’s just playing politics, and we couldn’t possibly go for a motion that the NDP put forward. I don’t know, Mr. Speaker. But to leave those options on the table is alarming.

As many of my colleagues have canvassed, it’s completely inappropriate to think that you’re going to be able to deliver your baby with some coaching on an iPad. And then if there’s any complications, it’s going to work out, right? That’s completely inappropriate.

If that were the case, like that’s how we would deliver babies across the province. But that’s not how it works, Mr. Speaker. Only in really tight emergency situations is someone getting coached over the phone on how to deliver the baby. And usually, you know, that’s not the first option, and it shouldn’t be.

It also shouldn’t be the first option when we’re talking about emergency care. I don’t take lightly that this is the birthplace of medicare in North America. I don’t take that lightly, and the people of the province don’t take that lightly either. And this government needs to remember that, that there’s a tremendous amount of pride for how we’ve paved the way in access to health care. And we know that these things are up for conversation. And like that’s what we’re here to do, is to have conversations about how to move forward, how to best provide health care across the province.

This government seems to think that undermining that public care system is the way forward. And, Mr. Speaker, you see this in terms of the number of contracts that are doled out to private companies. And we’ve talked about this a number of times in this Assembly. This is no surprise to anyone here. Easier to hand a contract over to someone else than to provide the health care that you are responsible for providing across this province. Is it costing a little more? Oh yeah, don’t worry about that. Are some people benefiting off of it? Oh of course, because if it’s a private corporation, someone’s making a buck. Don’t worry about that, Mr. Speaker.

At the end of the day, I take this role very, very seriously. And it’s just not how we would do business. It’s not how we should be doing business. Shouldn’t be a business at all, Mr. Speaker. It’s a service. It’s a service we’re responsible for providing.

And that might be inconvenient for this government, but that is the truth. They have a responsibility to the people of this province, and holding up an iPad to someone who’s giving birth is not them following that responsibility. Mr. Speaker, their amendment is laughable. They’re patting themselves on the back for doing a great job. You almost wonder why they bother.

So, Mr. Speaker, I could probably talk about this for several hours. But I think that’s where I’ll conclude my remarks and just say I’m happy to have engaged in this conversation. I’m incredibly disappointed in this government and the direction that they’re moving in and disappointed in the fact that they can’t just agree with something that is so, so very straightforward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood.

Keith Jorgenson: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to be on my feet again in the people’s legislature. So I guess I would start from the perspective of asking, how do we know things are going well, or in this case not going well, in our province in terms of our public health care system? And we see the signs that things aren’t going well everywhere, Mr. Speaker.

I want to provide a couple of examples that I’ve encountered recently, as well as I have a couple of personal examples of my own. First of all, I’ll maybe start talking as the member from Stonebridge, a good friend of mine, recounted the story of the birth of his son, I’d maybe start there talking about my son.

So my son was my third child, and sometimes third children come more quickly than you anticipate them. And we don’t live in a major centre. We live on a farm and my son arrived very quickly. And my son, unfortunately, you know, he was born with a number of challenges. He was autistic and he was also born blind. He had cataracts in both his eyes. He had to have major eye surgery to restore his vision.

And you know, I’m so thankful that I had my son 16 years ago and I didn’t have him now, because I shudder to think what would have happened if we would have not made it to the hospital in time. Or if we had been presented with having to have a rather complicated situation with my son’s birth handled with an iPad; instead of having a trained midwife and a doctor there to assist, we were merely passed an electronic device. It’s not acceptable, Mr. Speaker.

And so in my duties as critic for Seniors and long-term care, I’ve travelled fairly extensively through this province. I’ve even had the pleasure of accompanying you to visit a lovely facility in your riding, Mr. Speaker. And one of the things that has struck me is how our system is failing people.

And the idea of providing people with virtual care is an addition to our existing health care system. It is not a replacement for basic care, whether it be a woman who is giving birth or a person who maybe has Alzheimer’s and is confused. These are situations where we need actual real human beings who are there to help, who can see the person who is in distress, and is there to care for them, Mr. Speaker, not merely handed an electronic device. At potentially the weakest and most fraught time in their life, there isn’t a human there to comfort them, as teachers or doctors or nurses or ministers would help somebody in those times of weakness, Mr. Speaker.

And I’d like to highlight a couple of those remarkable stories of people that I’ve met along the way as well as who’ve come into this legislature.

First of all we had two sisters who came here, whose father had gotten a urinary tract infection and had passed away before his time had ended on this earth, Mr. Speaker. And handing them an iPad is not a reasonable solution to that problem. We’ve also had Fred, who I witnessed being evicted from his care facility in Weyburn. And again that is not a place where we swoop in with virtual care. That is where real human beings are required to help other human beings.

We’ve talked about virtual care around the birth of children. I want to touch on something I’ve heard probably mentioned a half a dozen, a dozen times: virtual addictions care, which is . . . I’m going to try and struggle for a word that’s parliamentary and maybe I’ll settle on the word “odd,” Mr. Speaker, because I don’t want to run foul of the rules.

But the notion that you would have somebody who is struggling with the inner demons and addictions, and you would pass them an iPad and say, “Please tell me over FaceTime your personal struggles, why you want to do drugs, the trauma that has led you to this point in life,” and that is somehow a replacement for a care bed in a facility surrounded not only by people that care, but removed from the source of their trauma and their addictions, is odd, Mr. Speaker.

You know, I’m going to share a couple stories. I’ve mentioned a number of times the number has now grown since I last mentioned this: 41 former students that are deceased. And I want to briefly talk about two of them and how the idea that merely had we passed them an iPad, that these young people would still be with us, is odd, Mr. Speaker.

First of them was a young man named Connor who, you know, I taught for a number of years. He was bright and affable, a likeable, smart, young man. If he had been born in any other circumstance that he was born in, had he been born where I was born, he would be a university graduate now, Mr. Speaker. But because he had the misfortune of being born in horrible circumstances, he was surrounded by gangs and all kinds of trauma and went down a path of drugs, Mr. Speaker. He did not have the people there to help him the way that I did when I was young, and you likely did, Mr. Speaker. And the end result was that he overdosed and died a number of years ago.

And I think of him often. I have a picture of him hanging up in my legislative office to remind me of why I am here. And, Mr. Speaker, the idea that the minister would suggest that merely had he been able to FaceTime somebody in his darkest hour, that that would have been a replacement for actual real care with real people in an actual real facility, is odd, Mr. Speaker.

There was another young man. He went by the name of L.J. And he was one of the more likeable young men that I’ve met. He had sort of a laughter and personality that would fill a room, Mr. Speaker. And he likewise had some serious addictions issues. And when he was going from a party on-reserve to his house, he lost his way when he was intoxicated and got caught in a fence and froze to death.

And again, Mr. Speaker, the idea that somebody who doesn’t have a stable place to live and does not have parents caring for them and does not have a drug-free house and does not have the supports that I grew up with, the idea that we’re just going to merely pass them an iPad and say, “Talk to this person about your feelings,” and that somehow is a replacement for actual real care in a real facility, is odd, Mr. Speaker.

And again, I come back to how I started this with saying, how do we know that things aren’t going well in this province? So we see long lineups, whether it be in our emergency rooms, for long-term care. And now as not an addition of services saying, “Oh, these awesome programs that we are going to add to the array of services that we provide to the people of Saskatchewan where you now have this virtual option,” we’re using that as a stopgap to replace providing people with access to actual real human beings that can care for their needs.

And again when we are in a position, whether it be, you know . . . I’m finished having kids now but I hope one day to be a grandpa. And if one of my daughters or my son becomes a parent, I don’t want to think that my grandchild is going to, you know, be born through an iPad, or when I get older and I have a health crisis or my wife, that we’re going to be presented with virtual care instead of actual, real care.

So with that I’d like to wrap up my remarks here by saying that the government needs to focus on fixing the problems that we have with the health care system by treating their employees properly so that we’re not constantly recruiting people, that we’re actually retaining them.

I’ve often used the analogy of a bucket with a hole in it, Mr. Speaker. I think the government is madly trying to fill the bucket, which is how many health care providers we need, and they keep trying to recruit, recruit. Meanwhile we’ve got a big hole in the bottom because the working conditions in our hospitals and long-term care facilities are not adequate, and people leave and end up moving on somewhere else, Mr. Speaker. And we end up being shorter and shorter on health care providers, particularly in rural Saskatchewan.

And so with that I would conclude my remarks, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — It is my duty pursuant to rule 54(3) to warn the Assembly that the member is about to exercise her right to close the debate, and afterwards all members will be precluded from speaking to this question. Therefore if any member wishes to speak, let him or her do so now. I recognize the member from Regina Elphinstone-Centre.

Meara Conway: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to get up on this debate now for a second time to close out debate. And I just wanted to briefly summarize what we’ve been talking about both with this motion and now with the amendment moved by the government.

[15:45]

As you know, Mr. Speaker, the original motion was a motion that would preclude the government from relying on virtual physicians in situations of a life-threatening situation and childbirth, Mr. Speaker, two scenarios where we’ve been very clear we don’t think that virtual care is appropriate.

And I had an opportunity to talk about the Canadian Institute for Health Information, CIHI, which has said that about 10 per cent of ER visits are appropriate for a virtual setting. That’s likely a product of our primary care crisis, the fact that we do see a lot of primary care items show up in our emergency rooms because people don’t have access to primary care. And then there are probably other things that show up in our emergency room that can appropriately be dealt with through virtual care. But according to the experts in health, 10 per cent of those visits are safe to be dealt with, with virtual care.

And the reason we originally addressed this topic, Mr. Speaker, you’ll recall, is that our side embarked on a rural health care tour. We came into some data through freedom of information that spoke to escalating health care disruptions mainly in rural Saskatchewan. And we have travelled . . . Well I have travelled about 2500 kilometres in the last two weeks in addition to being present here except for, I think . . . Or I can’t actually comment on my own absence or any other members. Sorry, Mr. Speaker. But we’ve visited a number of communities to shine a light on these disruptions.

A five-year period saw 72 days of disruptions in Yorkton; 341 days in Kindersley-Biggar area, Mr. Speaker; 303 days in Moose Jaw, the constituency of the Government House Leader. And I’m not sure if he’s aware, but the ER in Moose Jaw experienced another bypass at their ER just this past weekend, because of course these issues are escalating.

You wouldn’t find that bypass listed on the SHA [Saskatchewan Health Authority] website, Mr. Speaker — something I’ve spoken about at length in this House — which I feel is dangerous and irresponsible. People should know when their local ER is closed so that they can get to the next available ER as quickly as possible. But they’re not posting that information because, I think, it makes them looks bad. It’s certainly not the best thing for patients.

Ninety-two days of closures in Prince Albert; 216 days during that period in North Battleford; 239 days in Lloydminster, Mr. Speaker, mainly to diagnostics. And we’ve heard stories of people being turned away in Lloydminster due to a lack of CT [computerized tomography] scanner, not making it in time to North Battleford. And we also know that North Battleford is facing its own challenges in diagnostics, so sometimes we’ve heard of people being sent there not knowing that North Battleford also couldn’t offer that service, Mr. Speaker.

Shellbrook, 43 days. Now this is outdated information now. We’re not getting this in real time. We know that Shellbrook saw at least two disruptions just in the last month, Mr. Speaker. Qu’Appelle-White City, 160 days; Melville-Saltcoats area, 633 days; Swift Current, 204 days; Meadow Lake, 936 days, 275 days of which were to obstetrics.

So in the context of asking about these disruptions, about raising all of the things that we could be doing in health care to better recruit and retain health care workers, the Health minister’s response was to celebrate the extension, the expansion of the virtual physician program in the acute care context, Mr. Speaker.

And we’ve been very clear. We support virtual health care where appropriate. And it’s that last part that really matters. And truly I have spoken to this. My colleagues have spoken to this. We worded this motion in such a way we did not think it would be controversial. And so it was rather discomfiting to hear members opposite talk about how virtual birth can be “empowering for women, place knowledge in their hands.”

Mr. Speaker, I thought I’d heard it all. That is deeply disturbing, Mr. Speaker. These are not appropriate scenarios for a virtual physician — birthing and life-threatening situations. The thing about visits to the ER, Mr. Speaker, is things can go south very quickly. And when there isn’t a physician on hand, that can get very scary.

And they talk about how this model is being used elsewhere, and I’ve looked into that. BC [British Columbia] does use a virtual physician program. I’ve read about it, and it is a way to give rural health care workers a break, for example. But in BC, you know, what’s different, Mr. Speaker, is you have an on-call physician so that in a break-glass situation you will have a warm body. You will have a physician that is on call.

And right now this program . . . And I’ve spoken to physicians across the province about this program. I’ve spoken to people who had to rely on this program. We’re seeing this expanded to 30 communities. We’re still seeing a shortage of our virtual physicians actually. So virtual physicians are having to take on more and more communities on one shift. They cannot make it there in time. Actually that’s not part of the contract in a break-glass situation to be there in person.

And I’ll be the first to say it. You talk to people and they’re like, well I guess it’s better than nothing. I guess it’s better than nothing. The fact that we’re there, Mr. Speaker, the fact that we’re there is a conversation we have to be having. We should not be there.

And we should certainly not be propping this up as some kind of solution to our health care crisis. We shouldn’t be celebrating it. We shouldn’t be expanding it. We should be doing everything we can to phase it out.

And I will note that the Health minister, that the Minister for Rural and Remote Health just found themselves at the Saskatchewan Medical Association’s assembly. And there was a Global News report on this, Mr. Speaker. Doctors are not pleased. Doctors do not feel engaged by this government. Doctors took to the mike to raise their concerns. A lot of those concerns had to do with rural and remote health.

So I would note that there is not one single stakeholder group in health care right now — be it front-line health care workers, be it nurses, or be it physicians — that feel meaningfully engaged by this government. And that is extremely telling. And that is extremely disturbing. So don’t tell me that the best we can do is virtual health care in an emergency or during a birth. I don’t accept it.

And if those government members are comfortable with that, vote on the motion. Have the courage to vote on the motion. Vote yes or no. If you’re okay with that, vote on the motion. Don’t move an amendment that guts the motion because frankly, Mr. Speaker, we can all agree that we should commend the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

We can all agree that we should commend health care workers for continuously looking for new ways to expand health care services in all parts of Saskatchewan, including making virtual health services available to people in rural and northern areas of Saskatchewan. Yeah, we can all agree on that, Mr. Speaker. We’ll vote in favour of that message, Mr. Speaker. We can all agree on that.

It’s very telling that this government is not willing to stand behind their plan to force the people of Saskatchewan to rely on virtual care in a life-threatening situation or in childbirth. And you won’t see them vote on that today, Mr. Speaker, unfortunately. And I want to be very clear that if this side was asked to vote on that motion, we would vote against forcing the people of rural Saskatchewan to rely on virtual physicians in a life-threatening situation.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I don’t think I have much more to add. I do though want to make it very clear because there’s been some confusion, some claims being made on that side that we don’t support virtual health care. There are plenty of situations where virtual health care is appropriate, where the expansion of virtual care has been done to great effect, not only in Saskatchewan but across the world. Virtual physicians in a situation where someone is facing an emergency, a life-threatening situation, where a code blue — God forbid — is declared, and you don’t have a physical physician on hand? It’s sad that we’re at that point, Mr. Speaker.

And the reason that we moved this motion is to bring attention to the fact that relying on virtual physicians in life-threatening situations is not a solution to the crisis in our health care system. It is not a solution. It is not fair to ask that of the people of this province, Mr. Speaker.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I’m happy to conclude my remarks.

Speaker Goudy: — The question before the Assembly is the proposed amendment moved by the Minister of Remote and Rural Health:

That all words following “That the Assembly” be replaced with:

commends the Saskatchewan Health Authority and health care providers for continuously looking for new ways to expand health care services in all parts of Saskatchewan, including making virtual health care services available to people in rural and northern areas of Saskatchewan.

Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the amendment?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Some Hon. Members: — No.

Speaker Goudy: — Call in the members.

[The division bells rang from 15:55 until 15:59.]

Speaker Goudy: — The question before the Assembly is the amendment to the motion. All those in favour of the amendment to the motion please stand.

[16:00]

[Yeas — 32]

Moe

Harrison, D.

Marit

Cockrill

Reiter

Hindley

Harrison, J.

Jenson

Young, C.

Cheveldayoff

Keisig

Thorsteinson

Martens

Hilbert

Steele

Schmalz

Ross

McLeod, T.

Carr

Wilson

Weedmark

Beaudry

McLeod, B.

Crassweller

Kropf

Weger

Patterson

Bromm

Rowden

Chan

Gartner

Kasun

Speaker Goudy: — All those opposed to the amendment please stand.

[Nays — 14]

Ritchie

Mowat

Love

Young, A.

Clarke

Laliberte

McPhail

Conway

Jorgenson

Brar

Gordon

Warrington

Pratchler

Roy

Procedural Clerk: — Mr. Speaker, those in favour of the amendment, 32; those opposed to the amendment were 14.

Speaker Goudy: — I declare the amendment carried. The motion as amended now reads:

That the Assembly commends the Saskatchewan Health Authority and health care providers for continuously looking for new ways to expand health care services in all parts of Saskatchewan, including making virtual health services available to people in rural and northern areas of Saskatchewan.

Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the motion as amended?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Speaker Goudy: — Call in the members.

[The division bells rang from 16:03 until 16:04.]

Speaker Goudy: — The question before the Assembly is the motion as amended. All of those in favour of the motion as amended please stand.

[Yeas — 47]

Moe

Harrison, D.

Marit

Cockrill

Reiter

Hindley

Harrison, J.

Jenson

Young, C.

Cheveldayoff

Keisig

Thorsteinson

Martens

Hilbert

Steele

Schmalz

Ross

McLeod, T.

Carr

Wilson

Weedmark

Beaudry

McLeod, B.

Crassweller

Kropf

Weger

Patterson

Bromm

Rowden

Chan

Gartner

Kasun

Ritchie

Mowat

Love

Young, A.

Clarke

Laliberte

McPhail

Conway

Jorgenson

Brar

Gordon

Warrington

Pratchler

Roy

McBean

Speaker Goudy: — Those opposed to the motion as amended please stand.

[Nays — nil]

Procedural Clerk: — Mr. Speaker, those in favour of the motion, 47; those opposed, 0.

Speaker Goudy: — I declare the motion carried. I recognize the Government House Leader.

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To facilitate the work of committees, I move that this Assembly do now adjourn.

Speaker Goudy: — It has been moved that this Assembly do now adjourn. Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Speaker Goudy: — Carried. This Assembly now stands adjourned until tomorrow at 1:30 p.m.

[The Assembly adjourned at 16:07.]

Published under the authority of the Hon. Todd Goudy, Speaker

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