Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise today and, to you and through you, introduce many members of three of our health care union partners — SEIU-West [Service Employees International Union-West], CUPE [Canadian Union of Public Employees], and SGEU [Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union]. These three unions represent all of our licensed practical nurses, our continuing care assistants, environmental service workers, and many other professions that serve the patients of Saskatchewan each and every single day.

I know I’ll be meeting with representatives from these three union partners later today after question period, but I want to welcome them to their legislature and thank them for being here today.

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

Nathaniel Teed: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I request an extended introduction.

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

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Nathaniel Teed: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, I’m pleased to join with the minister opposite in welcoming a number of health care workers to their Legislative Assembly. Today we are joined by CUPE leadership, Bashir Jalloh, president of CUPE 5430. He is joined by Mark Hancock, president of CUPE national; and Kent Peterson, president of CUPE Saskatchewan.

From SEIU-West we are joined by Lisa Zunti and Jason Monteith. Lisa Zunti serves as the president, and Jason as vice-president of SEIU-West. And representing and leading SGEU today, we are joined by President Tracey Sauer and First Vice-President Diane Ralph. They are joined in solidarity today by Lori Johb, president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour.

To all the health care workers from these three unions who are joining us today, I want to extend a very warm welcome. The legislature looks really good with health care workers filling our galleries today. Together these three unions represent 28,000 health care workers from across Saskatchewan.

And one of the main take-aways from our meeting with these health care workers today that I think needs to be repeated is that health care is not just doctors and nurses. It’s continuing care aides. It’s licensed practical nurses. It’s caretakers. It’s food service staff. The list goes on. These unions represent the people who make our health care system work and care for our family members directly or indirectly every single day.

So I would ask all members here today to give a very warm welcome to all these health care workers who have gathered in their Legislative Assembly.

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

Blaine McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s been said many times in this Chamber that none of us as MLAs [Member of the Legislative Assembly] do this job alone. And that is so true, that we need those behind us supporting us, none more than the spouses that are behind us in love and care and attention to what we do.

And so I’d like to introduce to the House my wife, Marlie McLeod. Mr. Speaker, we’ve just recently celebrated 44 years in our marriage — thank you — and I will say that life gets sweeter each day. Thank you so much, love.

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

Betty Nippi-Albright: — Request leave for an extended introduction.

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

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Betty Nippi-Albright: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, I want to introduce staff from the Regina Street Team: Elizabeth Zwack, Jason Knudsen, Jada Ste Marie, Muhammed Talha Qureshi. Please wave. Oh, there they are. There they are. I have bad eyes, so sometimes it’s hard to see with all these big lights with us, Mr. Speaker

Well first of all, it’s wonderful to see you. And I’ll be sharing their work in a member’s statement. But with that I ask everyone in here to join me in welcoming the Regina Street Team to their legislature.

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

Bhajan Brar: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to you and through you, I would like to welcome three Regina Pasqua constituents sitting in your gallery: Shiza Hirani and her family members, Dr. Shela Hirani and Karim Ali. Shiza’s a remarkable youth advocate and founder of Youth MentorNet Café. And I will have more to say about her accomplishment in my member’s statement.

I will ask all members to join me and welcome Shiza and her family to their Legislative Assembly.

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

Matt Love: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is my great honour to welcome some of Saskatoon Eastview’s youngest and finest citizens and residents, a class from Hugh Cairns school in the heart of my constituency. Now I understand we’ve got 28 5/6 students, but when I looked at them I would have thought 6/7.

I want to thank all of these young folks for coming to their Assembly today and joining with us. A special thank you to their teachers, Deighan Remoundos and Lindsey French. We know how much extra work it takes when teachers take their students outside of the school, and this is a big trip. So thank you for coming all this way to be here in your Assembly today. I look forward to sharing some Halloween treats, some candy afterwards, answering your difficult questions.

I also want to thank the parents who have joined us here. I understand that a number of the parents who are helping to chaperone drove the students here today. Thank you for taking time out of your day to bring your children here.

I had a special shout-out to my long-time friend Fred Khonje, who actually served here in this Assembly as a Page in 2002. So Fred, welcome back. And to all of our young guests here today from Hugh Cairns school, I ask all members to give you a warm welcome to your Assembly.

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

Don McBean: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, I am pleased to introduce Tracey Giroux sitting in your gallery. A little wave.

Tracey’s visiting us today from Sherwood Park, Alberta. A long-time volunteer and supporter of the Alberta NDP [New Democratic Party], she joined us a year and a week ago helping with the get out the vote in both the ridings of Saskatoon Meewasin and Chief Mistawasis.

Tracey for 17 years has been a peace officer on the campus of the University of Alberta, was instrumental four years ago in spearheading the Community Assistance Team, which has proven to be a very successful effort of outreach for marginalized and homeless persons within the campus, connecting them with local supports.

Tracey recently put her name forward in the municipal elections in Sherwood Park. And unfortunately for them, she was not successful, but to our benefit, took the long drive down to Regina to visit some friends and the MLA from Meewasin and myself.

I ask all the members to join me in welcoming Tracey to the Saskatchewan legislature today.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Coronation Park.

Noor Burki: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you, through you, I have an incredible guest in your gallery, Ghulam Hassan. I’m very proud of him. He and his children were really actively involved in my campaign and election.

And I’m very proud of this family, that their eight children they have given a very good education. His older son is in Harvard University, graduate in law. Second one is in McGill; he is doing politics. The third one is over here in Regina. But he raised his children in a very good way. His wife is working education; he’s working with the health care. Thank you for all the hard work that you do for our community.

And with that, I will say all members to join me to welcome him to their Legislative Assembly.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Cumberland.

Jordan McPhail: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s an incredible honour today to rise and recognize the many northerners in our galleries here today, but very specifically to a few members in your gallery, Mr. Speaker.

We’re joined again today by members from Denare Beach: Dustin, who I understand goes by the term from his fiancée, Hollywood, these days; Rhonda Werbicki, a resident of Denare Beach, and husband a good contractor in the area doing good work up in the North; and Joanne, Hollywood’s soon-to-be wife.

I want to extend a warm welcome to them today and ask all members to join me in welcoming them to this, their provincial legislature.

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

Aleana Young: — Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you to all members, it’s my distinct pleasure to rise today and welcome 21 grade 12 students from Campbell Collegiate seated in east gallery along with their teacher, Mr. Lorne Neithercut.

It’s just an absolute pleasure, as all members know, to have school groups come visit us in the Assembly. I was not organized. I did not bring candy; I’m so sorry. But the member from Saskatoon Eastview, like a good New Democrat, has brought more than enough to share with everyone. But I look forward to visiting with you after proceedings here and answering any and all of the questions that you have for us.

I’d ask all members to join me in welcoming these students and their teacher to this, their Legislative Assembly.

Speaker Goudy: — And today I’ve got some friends here as well. Five years ago I had my first Taste of the Philippines in Saskatoon and got to know some people, made some friends: Bella Torres, Roger Jurado, Adele Perez Lumanog, Marshia Tingot, Rusell Cailan, and Victor Baranda from the Saskatchewan Filipino Music & Food Festival.

I’m sure a number of us have been here and I know — I was going to use your name, better not — the member from Saskatoon Fairview, good friends, we were there this year. It was a rainy festival, but it was a good time. What was dampened by the rain was made up for by the food and the fellowship and the music.

So just appreciate you so much coming down today to visit and have lunch together, and all the good work that you do. They’re also a part of the Bridging Filipino Advocacy Corporation. So thanks for all that you do, and the people that you serve, and the joy that you bring to our communities.

Behind them, we have some very special people in my life. You know, your parents, they’ll choose the people that are sort of your second parents, and these are those in my life. So Mr. and Mrs. Nelson, sitting up in the Speaker’s Gallery, looked after me, raised me like their child at times when mom and dad were away, and their daughter Janis was like a sister.

So they came down today, and I just wanted to say thank you very much for all you’ve been for me in my life. We become the values, and the people who raise us establish who we are moving forwards. And those are two very important people in my life personally, so I thank them. They also — just a little connection to the building — Elias Nelson is their grandson. And they’re awfully proud of him, and so are we. So please join me in welcoming them to their Legislative Assembly.

Oh, one more introduction. I recognize the member from Saskatoon University-Sutherland.

Tajinder Grewal: — Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, I am going to introduce and welcome Harjinder Singh Monty. Monty’s no stranger to this House. He’s extremely active in politics, and he also has a legal practice here in Regina. And he’s helping Saskatchewan to bring more people to Saskatchewan. Thank you very much. We’ll start with Monty.

And while I’m on my feet, I also want to welcome Filipino bridging advocacy group. They’re doing lots in Saskatoon. It’s a very active group, and they do lots of events. Thank you very much. And I ask all the members to join me to welcome Monty and Filipino bridging advocacy group. Thank you.

[13:45]

PRESENTING PETITIONS

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

Betty Nippi-Albright: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to rise to present this petition calling on the government to address the mental health and addictions crisis.

The folks who signed this petition wish to bring to your attention the following: Saskatchewan has the highest rates among the provinces at 18.1 per 100,000 people dying by suicide; that Indigenous people die by suicide at a rate 4.3 times higher than non-Indigenous people in Saskatchewan; Saskatchewan continues to break its own records in overdose deaths; one in four youth in Saskatchewan have reported having engaged in self-harm at some point; one in four youth reported having considered suicide in the past year, with 9.7 having attempted; and that the child and youth advocate in her 2022 report noted that long wait times and inadequate mental health and addictions services are leaving many children and youth without access to care when they need it.

I’ll read the prayer:

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request that the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan call on the Government of Saskatchewan to work with experts and community leaders on evidence-based solutions to the mental health and addictions crisis in Saskatchewan.

The folks who signed this petition reside in Prince Albert and Wakaw. 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 calling for the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan to adequately fund post-secondary institutions.

Since 2018 tuition has increased by 34.2 per cent in Saskatchewan, and Saskatchewan has the second-highest tuition amongst all provinces. Also like to note that Saskatchewan has the lowest graduate retention rate amongst the Western provinces, and that in order for Saskatchewan to lead in innovation and economic success, Saskatchewan must prioritize its success of post-secondary students, and that includes properly funding post-secondary institutions.

I’ll read the prayer:

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan call on the Government of Saskatchewan to immediately provide adequate funding to post-secondary institutions to ensure that costs are not passed on to tuition fees.

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

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

Erika Ritchie: — Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan to permit the use of tax-reduced dyed diesel in refrigerated trucks immediately.

The undersigned residents of the province of Saskatchewan wish to bring to your attention the following: that the price of food rose almost 4 per cent last year as the province continued to tax food registration units on truck trailers; that each refrigeration unit on a truck costs an extra $24,000 to fuel each year with the 12 cents per litre road tax continuing to be charged on them; that other industries in the province, including agriculture and forestry, are eligible to use dyed diesel on equipment that does not touch the highway, but the trucking industry is not; and that the Government of Saskatchewan has refused to allow refrigerated trucks to use dyed diesel fuel.

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan call on the Government of Saskatchewan to immediately permit refrigerated trucks in Saskatchewan to use dyed diesel fuel.

This petition is signed by the residents of Saskatoon. I do so present.

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

Jacqueline Roy: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to present a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan to fix the funding crisis in the disability service sector and for CBOs [community-based organization].

The undersigned residents wish to bring to your attention, Mr. Speaker: that the Ministry of Social Services funds CBOs for benefits at approximately 16 per cent of salary funding and this rate has remained relatively unchanged for two decades now; and that direct support professionals working for CBOs in the disability service sector make significantly less, and far, far fewer benefits for doing similar work in health care and within homes for people experiencing disabilities that are directly operated by the Government of Saskatchewan.

With that, I will read the prayer:

We, in the prayer reads as follows, call on the Government of Saskatchewan to commit to a three-year funding plan that strengthens CBO capacity and stabilizes the sector while simultaneously collaborating with CBOs on a job analysis for the disability service sector, as well as a full review of the operational funding standards to ensure adequate funding for areas including, but not limited to, transportation, maintenance, tech, food insurance, and audit.

The residents are from Weyburn. I do so present.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Douglas Park.

Nicole Sarauer: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to present a petition calling on the government to implement rent control.

Those who have signed this petition wish to bring to our attention the following: that Saskatchewan leads the nation in average rent increases, and Saskatchewan’s average rents continue to increase, rising by 4 per cent in the last year. Mr. Speaker, BC [British Columbia], Manitoba, Ontario, and PEI [Prince Edward Island] have all implemented rent control, and rent control would protect tenants from excessive and unreasonable rent increases.

I’d like to read the prayer:

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan call on the Government of Saskatchewan to immediately protect tenants and implement rent control.

Those who signed the petition today come from Regina. I do so submit.

STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

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

Celebrating Women’s History Month

Hon. Jamie Martens: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. October is Women’s History Month in Saskatchewan, a time to celebrate the women who helped build our country, our province, and our communities. Women’s History Month is an opportunity to reflect on historic accomplishments of women here in Saskatchewan and to celebrate the continued advancements women are making today to create a stronger, safer, and more secure province.

We celebrate the month in October to coincide with Persons Day, which celebrates and recognizes in 1929 the Persons Case, when women were legally recognized as persons and won the right to vote. I will add that Saskatchewan was a leader and ahead of most provinces on this. It was more than a decade earlier, in 1916, that Saskatchewan women had the right to vote. Since then, more than 70 women have served their communities as MLAs in this House.

The women of Saskatchewan have been shaping lives of all those around them for generations. Mr. Speaker, I encourage everyone to take time in October to remember the women that made a difference in their lives, as well as all those women who are making history today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Youth Advocate Inspires with Her Outstanding Achievements

Bhajan Brar: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to speak about a remarkable Regina Pasqua resident, Shiza Hirani. I am honoured to have Shiza and her family join us in the Legislative Assembly today.

Shiza Hirani is a 20‑year-old youth advocate and student at the University of Regina Hill School of Business. She is the founder of Youth MentorNet Café, which empowers young people by providing mentorship and guidance on post-secondary admissions, career pathways, and financial planning. Through workshops and over 100 e-learning resources, Youth MentorNet Café has hosted over 5,000 high school students across Canada and beyond in their transition to post-secondary education.

Beyond her organization, Shiza serves on multiple national and international youth advisory councils. In 2025 Shiza was appointed as a youth advisor to Senator McPhedran at the Canadian Council of Young Feminists. She is also a feminist. She is also a global youth ambassador with Theirworld and recently became the first youth from Saskatchewan to have been appointed as an advisory board member for the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations.

In recognition of her impact, Shiza has received over 25 awards, including the RCE [Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development] Saskatchewan Education for Sustainable Development Recognition Award that was presented to her by the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members to join me in congratulating Shiza Hirani on her outstanding achievements.

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

Physician Innovation Fund Strengthens Health Care

Terri Bromm: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to provide an update on the $10 million annual Physician Innovation Fund, which is a partnership with the Saskatchewan Medical Association. This fund represents a major step forward in building stronger team-based care models that will improve patient outcomes and support physicians in their practices.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to report to date approximately 70 per cent of the 2025 Innovation Fund has been allocated to 28 approved projects in communities across this province. The funding has supported the creation of more than 56 full-time positions, including nurse practitioners, nurses, licensed practical nurses, social workers, pharmacists, psychologists, Elders, and other clinical staff.

Funding also recognizes the leadership role of physicians by supporting training and development opportunities, as well as time to lead quality improvement initiatives and collaborate with team members. Part of this funding has been used to cover one-time expenses, including medical equipment, clinic renovations, computer systems, and training for team members.

An implementation support team at the SMA [Saskatchewan Medical Association], funded through this fund, is working closely with clinics to advance their projects and offer learning and leadership developments to deliver better access to primary care. Thank you.

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

Regina Street Team Opens Doors to Healing

Betty Nippi-Albright: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize the Regina Street Team, a grassroots non-profit that is transforming lives in the city. With limited year-to-year funding, they have helped many citizens access mental health supports, substance use recovery services, and offered critical care in moments of crisis.

In close partnership with Social Detox, Pine Lodge treatment centre, and other community organizations they bridge gaps in mental health substance use, harm reduction, and front-line response. Their work is guided by urgency, compassion, and deep respect. They operate through a trauma-informed, culturally grounded lens, and they meet people where they are.

What makes this team so effective is their strength of both lived experience and academic training. Many members have walked the same path as those they now serve, and they bring professional expertise into every interaction. That combination builds trust, and that trust opens doors to safety, belonging, and healing. That is what community care looks like, Mr. Speaker. That is what collaboration can achieve. Stable funding is not just helpful, it is essential.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members to join me in thanking the Regina Street Team for the great work that they do in this province. Miigwech.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Kelvington-Wadena.

Recognizing the Dedication of Health Care Providers

Chris Beaudry: — Mr. Speaker, from October 26 to November 1st it’s Health Care Provider Week here in Saskatchewan, a time to recognize the incredible dedication of those who care for us every single day. Earlier this week we also recognized World Occupational Therapy Day, a moment to celebrate the professionals who help people regain their strength, independence, and confidence after life-changing challenges.

Every day, health care providers across Saskatchewan give so much more than medical care. They give comfort, compassion, and courage. They hold hands in difficult moments, and they help us stand tall again when we’re ready.

That’s why our government continues to invest in them through the health human resources action plan, with more than $460 million committed since 2022 to strengthen staffing, expand training, and support care teams across the province. Because when our health care providers are supported, our health care system stays strong, safe, and secure for everyone everywhere in Saskatchewan.

So this week take a moment to say thank you to the nurses, the doctors, the therapists, and the care teams who keep our province healthy. Saskatchewan is stronger because of them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Conference Showcases Saskatchewan’s Nuclear Potential

Sally Housser: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to congratulate the organizers on the recent Canadian Nuclear Association West Conference in Saskatoon.

[14:00]

Hosting this conference in Saskatchewan confirms the incredibly important role our province plays in the national and international nuclear conversation. Over the course of three days, the CNA [Canadian Nuclear Association] and Cameco showcased the best this province has to offer.

Just before this fall sitting began, myself and several of my colleagues had the opportunity to attend the Canadian premiere of The Nuclear Frontier documentary, which prominently featured Cameco’s CEO [chief executive officer] Tim Gitzel. We also received a presentation from the Canadian Nuclear Association leadership, met with industry and labour leaders, and attended forward-looking and innovative sessions.

From the founding of the Saskatchewan Mining Development Corporation in the 1970s under Premier Allan Blakeney, the NDP has long recognized the importance of our province’s rich uranium deposits for creating good jobs in the North and growing our economy.

Congratulations to the Canadian Nuclear Association and Saskatchewan’s own great international success story, Cameco, for bringing national and world leaders here and showcasing our tremendous nuclear potential.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Batoche.

Opposition Position on Energy

Darlene Rowden: — We need reliable and affordable power in Saskatchewan. That is why our government introduced a realistic energy security strategy that uses Saskatchewan resources to generate electricity. We have the uranium, we have the coal, and we have the natural gas. This is a true all-of-the-above approach to ensure reliable, affordable power for Saskatchewan people.

In contrast, the reckless and lost NDP want to shut down coal and oppose nuclear power. In fact the member from Saskatoon Nutana is part of a group buying anti-nuclear billboards across the province right now. The member for Athabasca reposted on Facebook, and I quote, “Nuclear is being proposed for Saskatchewan. We say no.”

Mr. Speaker, this aligns perfectly with the reckless NDP policies. The NDP put forward a resolution at their convention last month to oppose nuclear and shut down coal. This is the NDP’s none-of-the-above approach. This approach would double power rates, cut 1,100 jobs, and leave us without reliable energy.

As our minister said at the CNA, “You can’t build a power grid on pixie dust and your own endless supply of self-righteousness.” Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, that’s all the NDP . . .

Speaker Goudy: — I stood up a little early there, sorry. So just was going to make a statement before question period. Yesterday I made a judgment on one of the members saying about the statement of another that it was untrue, and there was maybe some confusion on that.

I just wanted to quickly read before question period starts to clarify just from Beauchesne’s edition here in the rules of debate on unparliamentary language, acceptance of the word of a member. It says:

It’s been formally ruled by Speakers that statements by members respecting themselves and particularly within their own knowledge must be accepted. It is not unparliamentary temperately to criticize statements made by members as being contrary to the facts; but no imputation of intentional falsehood is permissible.

So we’re debating. We’re going to think that one person’s perspective, what they saw, what they experienced, what they believed to be true is untrue according to our experience and our testimony of the same thing.

So earlier on in the book, it talks about words that are acceptable that are parliamentary, and the ones that aren’t parliamentary have been judged. They’re the same words, just it’s the intent of how they’re used. And so I would ask for my benefit, as the referee at times, that we remember it’s not about the words that we’re debating, it’s about the policies to serve the good people. So as we debate, please keep that in mind. So with that, question period.

QUESTION PERIOD

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Leader of the Opposition.

Cost of Living, Affordability, and Contract Negotiations with Health Care Workers

Carla Beck: — Well, Mr. Speaker, I’m happy to get to the facts today. The fact is that after 18 years under the Sask Party, Saskatchewan people are facing a cost-of-living crisis whether that government understands it or not.

Financial anxiety in this province is higher than any other province, with people being forced to choose between groceries and gas, and with working people turning up to food banks at alarming numbers just to get by, Mr. Speaker.

The cost-of-living crisis is impacting everyone in this province, including those health care workers who have joined us here today. I want to know what the Premier has to say to those health care workers who’ve gone through three and a half years without a raise while their costs have gone through the roof.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Premier.

Hon. Scott Moe: — Let me say, not only to the health care workers that have joined us here today but to health care workers across this province, thank you for what you do each and every day in putting patients first in serving and providing health care services in facility after facility, community after community across this province, Mr. Speaker, in fairness, health care services that virtually every family has had to access at some point in time. And so I say thank you to the very compassionate way that you provide care across Saskatchewan.

With respect to cost of living, inflationary increases that all families across Canada, and certainly in Saskatchewan, are facing, Mr. Speaker, I would yet again say that this province continues to be ranked as the most affordable province in the nation of Canada to live, Mr. Speaker. It is a focus of this government. We ran an entire campaign on ensuring that Saskatchewan remained the most affordable place in the nation of Canada to live.

And I would point again today to the fact that a family of four having a combined income of about $100,000, Mr. Speaker, today continues to pay $3,000 less in provincial tax of all kinds relative to what they did in 2007. And our commitment is to bring that to 4,000.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Leader of the Opposition.

Carla Beck: — Mr. Speaker, I have another fact for the Premier and members opposite. Here it is: their thanks and their platitudes aren’t helping these health care workers pay their bills. We hear from people every day who are struggling more than ever. Many of them are health care workers.

Now it wasn’t that long ago in this province, what it meant to have a job in health care meant that you not only had a job providing important care to your loved ones and your community members, Mr. Speaker, it also meant that you could pay your bills, that you could feed your families. Unfortunately those days are long gone. Many health care workers, and we heard from them today, are barely getting by.

When will the Sask Party finally deliver a real deal for health care workers in this province — one they’ve been waiting for, for far too long — that helps them pay their bills and, importantly, shows them the respect that they deserve?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Premier.

Hon. Scott Moe: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the question, I believe that it is very important care that is provided across this province by all of our health care workers of various designations.

It’s my understanding that there has been some bargaining meetings as recently as this past week, a number of planned meetings between now and the end of the year, Mr. Speaker. And we look forward to those meetings, through those meetings coming to an agreement. That will be the goal of the government, most certainly, again for not just health care workers, Mr. Speaker, but the entirety of families that live across this province.

We remain the most affordable place in the nation of Canada to live, Mr. Speaker. We’re paying less tax today, Mr. Speaker, than we did 18 years ago. We ran a campaign — of which Saskatchewan people voted on just about a year ago yesterday actually, Mr. Speaker — almost entirely on affordability.

And we’re going to continue, Mr. Speaker, to allocate those reoccurring affordability measures totalling a little over two and a half billion dollars in each and every budget, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that Saskatchewan families that continue to live in this province remain living in one of the most affordable, if not the most affordable province, in the nation of Canada.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Leader of the Opposition.

Carla Beck: — Mr. Speaker, I continue to be amazed by that government, by that Premier who looks at health care workers who have gone three and a half years without a raise, who are struggling to pay their bills, and tells them how good they have it, Mr. Speaker. Talk about out of touch.

But you know what? This is not only impacting those health care workers who are burning out and leaving in droves. It is impacting patient care in this province. When health care workers cannot pay their bills, it drives them out of the health care system, making the short-staffing crisis even worse in this province. That means longer waits for tests, for surgeries. It means more closed rural ERs [emergency room], and it means that patients in this province go without the care that they desperately need.

Does the Premier not understand that his failure to negotiate a fair wage in a cost-of-living crisis is making the health care crisis in this province even worse?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Premier and myself have both said, you know, since being re-elected last year, Mr. Speaker, it is this government’s priority to put patients first. And a big part of that is ensuring that we have a good negotiated agreement between the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations and all of our health care partner unions, Mr. Speaker.

I understand that we had time at the bargaining table last week with all three provider unions coming to a common table. It’s great to see that as we work to reduce the boundaries for patients, Mr. Speaker. We’ve got 20 bargaining dates set up with the three provider unions before the end of the calendar year, Mr. Speaker. It is this government’s intention to get to an agreement with all three of those provider unions that keeps compensation competitive across Western Canada. And we look forward to returning to the bargaining table over the next couple of months, in those 20 days, to get closer to that agreement. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Elphinstone-Centre.

Implementation of Administrative Information Management System

Meara Conway: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many of the health care workers that have joined us here today have felt the effects of the disastrous AIMS [administrative information management system] program in very direct ways: unable to schedule shifts; unable to access critical medical equipment; and worst of all, they’re not getting paid, Mr. Speaker.

And today — just moments ago in fact — that Minister of Health has announced yet another delay in the rollout of this disastrous program. He announced his government is now going to go back to the drawing board. They’re going back to the original systems, Mr. Speaker. $250 million later with nothing to show for it. This government is not delivering on its promises around health care, and that system is not delivering on its promises either.

How much more money is that minister willing to spend on this disastrous program?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleague the Minister of Rural and Remote Health and I have been around the province this summer touring health care facilities, talking to front-line health care workers, hearing their feedback, Mr. Speaker.

And based on that feedback, Mr. Speaker, this government is not willing to spend any more money on a time validation and scheduling part of the AIMS project that is not meeting the needs of health care workers in this province. That’s why we made the announcement today that we’re pulling back from that part of the AIMS project.

I need to be clear, Mr. Speaker. That is not a cancellation of the entire AIMS project. The AIMS project seeks to replace 80 legacy systems. Seventy-four of those systems have already been replaced, Mr. Speaker, but we have not been happy with the results of the time validation and scheduling piece of that system.

Heard directly from health care workers in the former Kelsey Trail area, the former Cypress area, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been working closely with the AIMS team over the last several months to rectify some of these issues. These issues are not being rectified fast enough, Mr. Speaker.

I want to make sure that our valuable health care workers in this province get paid, get paid on time, get paid correctly, Mr. Speaker. That’s why we’re going back to our legacy systems for the short term, to find a better solution in the long term. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Elphinstone-Centre.

Meara Conway: — Well something doesn’t add up, Mr. Speaker. Because that minister is saying that they’re not cancelling the program, but the program doesn’t work. So how is he not intending to spend a single additional dollar on this program? People are not able to schedule shifts. People are not able to access critical equipment. People are not getting paid.

These health care workers spoke today about their colleagues having to rely on the food bank, not just because of wages that haven’t increased in three and a half years but because of this disastrous program. Mr. Speaker, $250 million with nothing to show for it.

So again to the Minister of Health: how many more dollars is he willing to flush down the toilet? And tell me, who is going to be accountable for this mess?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — As I said, Mr. Speaker, in my previous answer, for the benefit of the member opposite, we won’t be spending any more dollars on the time validation and scheduling part of the AIMS project that doesn’t work for health care workers in this province. Mr. Speaker, we’re going back to the legacy systems for those 7,000 employees in the northeast and southwest areas of our province.

We want to make sure, Mr. Speaker. These folks do incredibly important work for the patients in those parts of the province. We want to make sure that they get paid correctly, they get paid on time, Mr. Speaker.

I had the opportunity last week to speak directly with Lisa and Jason from SEIU-West, Mr. Speaker, to speak more with them about how we’re going to address the issues that are out there now. Rolling back on this part of the AIMS project is important to address those issues. We’ll continue working with our union partners to make sure their members are looked after. Thank you.

[14:15]

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

Health Care Staffing and Rural Emergency Departments

Jared Clarke: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let’s step away from the AIMS fiasco and take a look at rural Saskatchewan. But don’t worry, Mr. Speaker, this Sask Party is failing just as badly there too.

Last month the Outlook ER closed due to short-staffing and told patients to drive an hour down the highway to Davidson. There’s just one problem, Mr. Speaker: the ER at Davidson was also closed because of short-staffing. And yet the minister is going to tell us that his human health resource plan is working. We know it’s not. Mistakes like these cost lives. What is the minister doing to keep this from ever happening again?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this summer I did have the opportunity to visit with municipal leadership in Outlook, in Davidson, in Craik, as well as many other communities right across the province.

You know, Mr. Speaker, it’s interesting to hear the members opposite say the health human resources action plan isn’t working. The numbers show differently. Nearly 500 full-time positions filled through the rural and remote recruitment incentive. Mr. Speaker, yes, directing the SHA [Saskatchewan Health Authority] to save money on administration and direct those to more front-line positions, that has happened over the last several months, Mr. Speaker . . . If the members opposite want to hear the answer to their question, I was just getting to that.

The member opposite asked a question about emergency room disruptions, Mr. Speaker. It is absolutely essential that the people of Saskatchewan can trust the information coming from the Saskatchewan Health Authority. I have not been happy myself, Mr. Speaker, with some of the situations that . . .

[Interjections]

Speaker Goudy: — I’m just going to remind us that we need to be listening when the answers are being given and listening when the questions are coming out. So again, please.

I recognize the member from Regina Walsh Acres.

Jared Clarke: — Now it wasn’t just Davidson and Outlook ERs that closed. The list goes on and on and on. This month the Kipling ER closed due to short-staffing and told patients to drive an hour down the highway to Arcola. But the Arcola ER was closed due to lack of staffing. Sound familiar? It happened twice, Mr. Speaker, in two months.

To the minister: can we expect this to happen next month and the month after that and the month after that, or will he take action to fix the crisis in our rural hospitals today?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — Mr. Speaker, I’ll assure the members opposite and I’ll assure folks in rural Saskatchewan that action is being taken to address emergency service disruptions that we’ve had in rural Saskatchewan and ensure that those services are available to people as close to home as possible, Mr. Speaker.

With some of the actions in the health human resources action plan, Mr. Speaker, as well as changes to the SIPPA [Saskatchewan international physician practice assessment] program to make sure that we can have consistent physician coverage in many rural sites, Mr. Speaker, that work is under way.

I’ve also been working closely with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, been asking them and tasking them with coming up with a new process to make sure that residents of this province can be properly informed about what services may or may not be available to them close to home, Mr. Speaker. The Saskatchewan Health Authority is going to have more to say on that in the coming days and weeks. We look forward to that coming out. Thank you.

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

Jared Clarke: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last month we raised the alarm about the Herbert ER having been closed since August. In response, instead of fixing the problem, the SHA flat out denied Herbert’s ER was closed, which in fact, it was closed.

Now these are not silly little mix-ups, Mr. Speaker. When the SHA says statements that are untrue to the public, people can die. Do people in this province have to die from preventable deaths before the minister acknowledges there’s a crisis in rural hospitals?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, Mr. Speaker, we have addressed the issues at the Herbert emergency department working closely with Dr. Kassett, a long-time doctor in the community of Herbert; Ron Mathies, the mayor. Both the local MLA and myself have had several conversations with Mayor Mathies over the last couple of months.

We’ve added the point-of-care testing capabilities at that facility to make sure that they can manage their services if they have a staffing disruption in that category. Again, Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in my last answer, I’ve tasked the Saskatchewan Health Authority with coming up with a new process to make sure that residents in this province can be properly informed about any service disruptions in their areas of the province, Mr. Speaker. We look forward to the Saskatchewan Health Authority making further comments on this in the coming days and weeks. Thank you.

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

Provision of Care at Royal University Hospital

Nathaniel Teed: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. You know, you’re only as good as your last hit, and it’s been a while since this government has had one. Today we’ve heard about failures on AIMS. We’ve heard about failures on rural health care. Let’s go to our urban centres.

The hallways at Royal University Hospital look like a war zone — patients lying in hospital beds for days, even weeks; some receiving devastating health news in public areas; invasive procedures being done without any privacy. Mr. Speaker, this is horrific. On the weekend a nurse at the hospital said there were as many as 32 beds in the hallways. There were more beds in hallways than there were in rooms.

How did the Health minister let this get so bad at Royal University Hospital?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I’ll emphasize again Royal University Hospital is really the key health care facility in our province. So much care is provided there, and high-level care, innovative care. And I want to thank all the providers, physicians, nurses, all the staff that make up our incredible care teams at Royal University Hospital, Mr. Speaker.

The challenges that we’ve seen recently at Royal University Hospital, Mr. Speaker, they are real. And I understand. I received that letter from 450 health care workers a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Speaker.

This is exactly why this government is taking action by expanding access to acute care in Saskatoon with the renovation that’s happening and the service realignment happening at Saskatoon City Hospital, Mr. Speaker. Converting 109 beds from lower levels of care to more acute care and ensuring we’re taking those transitional care units, putting them out in the community, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I hear the members opposite say that this is years away. Well no, Mr. Speaker, we now actually have 40 of those 109 acute care beds open right now helping to ease the pressure in Saskatoon. Again once this project is finished, our acute care capacity in Saskatoon will be up by 14 per cent. We’re also building urgent care. I’d be happy to talk about that. Thank you.

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

Nathaniel Teed: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, the patients at Royal University Hospital are being failed so badly, but so are the workers. That’s why they showed up at their Legislative Assembly here today.

After 18 years of Sask Party failures, health care ranks dead last in Canada, and it’s gotten so bad that 450 health care workers signed a letter to this Health minister demanding change. He doesn’t seem to want to do the job, Mr. Speaker, so I’m turning to the Minister of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety.

Will the Minister of Workplace Safety commit today to a formal workplace safety investigation and immediate changes at Royal University Hospital before someone gets hurt?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Jeremy Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I’ll pick up from my last answer in terms of the actions that this government and the Saskatchewan Health Authority are taking to add additional acute care capacity in the city of Saskatoon, not only, again, for Saskatoon residents but really Saskatchewan residents that live all across say the northern half of our province that may end up going to Saskatoon for care. I already talked about the Saskatoon City Hospital service realignment adding 109 acute care beds, Mr. Speaker.

We have an urgent care centre, Mr. Speaker, on the west side of Saskatoon. We’re nearly a third complete on that construction project. That will help to alleviate some of the emergency department challenges that we see in Saskatoon, similar to how the urgent care centre up the street here in Regina has alleviated pressures in emergency departments here in Regina, Mr. Speaker. And I know the Saskatchewan Health Authority is working closely with those employees to address those challenges on the floor. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Cumberland.

Government Response to Wildfires in the North

Jordan McPhail: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The North deserves transparency, Mr. Speaker, just as they deserve accountability.

This week the Premier finally apologized to the people of the North. When asked to apologize, the Minister of Justice didn’t only refuse to apologize, he decided to beat his chest on the floor. This is what Saskatchewan can expect after 18 years of this Sask Party government. This hurt my constituents, who have already been through enough.

Will the minister finally be accountable and join the Premier and apologize for the disastrous wildfire response today?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Justice.

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me just start by saying, of course we are all sorry for what the people of the North have gone through this summer. It was a devastating and unprecedented fire season this year, and of course the people of Saskatchewan are sorry for what they have experienced in the North. The families in the North didn’t just lose their buildings. They lost their homes. They lost their memories, things that can’t be replaced. None of us can undo that, Mr. Speaker, and for that we all feel terrible.

But this government, Mr. Speaker, is going to stand alongside those families. We were there with evacuation supports at unprecedented levels. We are there for the cleanup effort. We’ve been meeting with the community leaders in those communities. Minister of Environment, Minister of Government Relations, myself, the Premier, we will continue to meet with these communities as we work alongside them to rebuild what was lost in the most devastating fire year in history. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Cumberland.

Jordan McPhail: — Mr. Speaker, the North wants to know why they lost so much this year. They want accountability from that minister.

And my constituents witnessed this minister not being transparent and not being accountable to the people of the North. They watched as this Sask Party government blocked a motion just yesterday to open an independent public inquiry. Yesterday my constituents called for the Minister of Justice to resign for his actions. If the Minister of Justice won’t rise today and formally apologize and agree to launch a truly independent public inquiry, then I think he should resign, along with members from northern Saskatchewan.

If the minister won’t open that public inquiry, will he resign today?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Premier.

Hon. Scott Moe: — I’ll just inform the member there’s going to be no resigning, Mr. Speaker, on this side of the House from any of the current positions that we have . . .

[Interjections]

Speaker Goudy: — I’m going to ask for quiet . . . [inaudible] . . . the answer.

Hon. Scott Moe: — Mr. Speaker, what we experienced in northern Saskatchewan and many other parts of Canada this spring was an unprecedented wildfire situation. And unfortunately in this province and in other provinces we saw more loss than we have seen in any other year, Mr. Speaker.

The wildfire efforts that were put forward in Saskatchewan are going to be reviewed as per the minister has put forward, Mr. Speaker. What this minister has done for the people of Denare Beach, what this minister has done for the entirety of the people of Saskatchewan is repeatedly come to cabinet asking — and as per the request and the lead of the community — for funds so that we can help with the cleanup. Asking the cabinet of the Government of Saskatchewan to support the community in funds for transitional housing. Tens of millions of dollars in both of those cases has been provided, Mr. Speaker.

He continues to come to the cabinet and write to the federal ministers, the federal government as well requesting that we can bring together a cost-sharing program to ensure that we can provide confidence to those that live in northern Saskatchewan that we’re going to work together — taking the lead from the local community — on FireSmarting those communities so that this doesn’t happen again, Mr. Speaker.

This minister will continue to work alongside those in northern Saskatchewan, Mr. Speaker, and continue to work alongside those within the Government of Saskatchewan.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Leader of the Opposition.

Carla Beck: — Mr. Speaker, the Premier just stated, “what we experienced.” Let’s be clear who experienced the loss. Some of those folks are sitting right up here in this gallery today.

Mr. Speaker, the lack of accountability, the lack of humility, the lack of an apology — and let’s be clear, that was not an apology from that minister — is truly, truly something. He can’t get his facts straight. He refuses to launch the public inquiry that those folks who have lost everything have been asking for. Mr. Speaker, it is so clear that that is not a minister who is willing or able to do his job.

The question to the Premier: is he willing to do his? Will he fire that minister today?

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Premier.

Hon. Scott Moe: — If there isn’t going to be any resignations, there’s likely not going to be a firing either, Mr. Speaker. There’s going to be the support of this government provided to that minister so that we can move forward with northern communities.

[14:30]

Not just the communities that yes, suffered such great loss this last year — as we said, not just buildings but their homes, Mr. Speaker — but so that we can move forward with the entirety of those that live in northern Saskatchewan. So that we can work alongside and support those northern communities, alongside the federal government is the hope, in truly FireSmarting those communities so that what we saw happen this last year, Mr. Speaker, in too many Saskatchewan communities and other Canadian communities doesn’t happen again.

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

Bill No. 605 — The Free Trade within Canada (Mutual Recognition) Act

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

Kim Breckner: — Mr. Speaker, I move that Bill No. 605, The Free Trade within Canada (Mutual Recognition) Act be now introduced and read a first time.

Speaker Goudy: — It has been moved by the member from Saskatoon Riversdale that Bill No. 605, The Free Trade within Canada (Mutual Recognition) Act be now introduced and read a first time. Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Speaker Goudy: — Carried.

Principal Clerk: — First reading of this bill.

Speaker Goudy: — When shall this bill be read a second . . . Oh sorry. Why is the member on his feet?

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Point of order, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — And what was your point of order?

POINT OF ORDER

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Mr. Speaker, now that this bill has received first reading and is officially before the House, I raise a point of order. And I ask that you find the point of order that this bill is out of order because it is a substantial duplication of The Saskatchewan Internal Trade Promotion Act, which was introduced by the Minister of Trade and Export Development just yesterday.

Mr. Speaker, the primary focus of both bills that are now before the House is mutual recognition, and The Saskatchewan Internal Trade Promotion Act is already on the floor of this Assembly and has passed first reading. Mr. Speaker, it is decided that that bill will proceed. If the opposition wishes to propose amendments to that bill they certainly have the opportunity and the right to do that through the debate and the committee process.

Mr. Speaker, rule 59(e) of the rules, also known as the “same question rule,” of this Assembly, states as follows:

A motion may not be moved if it is substantially the same question as one that has been decided in the same session.

Mr. Speaker, this is aligned with the Canadian House of Commons standing order 18 also known as the “rule of relevance.” That rule prohibits repetitive debate and duplication of matters that are already before the Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, the clear purpose of these rules is to protect the efficient use of the Assembly’s time and to prohibit the debating of the same matter, risking that different results could arise.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that you find the bill before the House as presented by the private member out of order as it is substantially the same as a motion and a bill already before this House.

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

Kim Breckner: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I ask that you review the point of order. There is a substantial difference between these two bills, mainly the exclusion of workplace health and safety services. This is an important distinction to avoid a race to the bottom and is very meaningful to the workers of Saskatchewan. So I’d ask that you review the point of order.

Speaker Goudy: — I would like to see both of these bills and review them, and I withhold my judgment till tomorrow. Thank you.

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

Bill No. 26 — The Miscellaneous Statutes Repeal Act, 2025

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Justice.

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move that Bill No. 26, The Miscellaneous Statutes Repeal Act, 2025 be now introduced and read a first time.

Speaker Goudy: — It’s been moved by the Minister of Justice that Bill No. 26, The Miscellaneous Statutes Repeal Act, 2025 be now introduced and read for the first time. Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Speaker Goudy: — Carried.

Principal Clerk: — First reading of this bill.

Speaker Goudy: — When shall this bill be read a second time? I recognize the Minister of Justice.

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Next sitting of the Assembly, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — Next sitting.

Bill No. 27 — The Statute Law Amendment Act, 2025/Loi de 2025 modifiant le droit législatif

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Justice.

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move that Bill No. 27, The Statute Law Amendment Act, 2025, bilingual, be now introduced and read a first time.

Speaker Goudy: — It’s been moved by the Minister of Justice that Bill No. 27, The Statute Law Amendment Act, 2025 be now read and introduced the first time. Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

Speaker Goudy: — Carried.

Principal Clerk: — First reading of this bill.

Speaker Goudy: — When shall this bill be read a second time? I recognize the Minister of Justice.

Hon. Tim McLeod: — Next sitting of the Assembly, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — Next sitting.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

SPECIAL ORDER

ADJOURNED DEBATES

ADDRESS IN REPLY

[The Assembly resumed the adjourned debate on the address in reply which was moved by Michael Weger, seconded by Terri Bromm, and the proposed amendment to the main motion moved by Jordan McPhail.]

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

Joan Pratchler: — Well thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s an honour today to give my response to the Throne Speech as we stand on Treaty 4 territory in the homeland of the Cree here and representing Regina Rochdale in Lakeridge, Lakewood, Garden Ridge, Maple Ridge, Hawkstone, and the soon-to-be new subdivision of Coopertown.

I thank the good people of Rochdale for putting their faith in me and trusting that I could bring their concerns for their community and this province to the House in hope of making this province better for its people and for the economy.

I’d also like to extend thank yous and gratitude to my colleagues, my constituency association, and this caucus and the caucus staff for this great team we have, and of course for our leader as we work to build a better future for those we serve.

But I want to especially thank the people of the North and my colleagues from Cumberland and Athabasca, for in spite of all the tragedy and the pain that they went through and the difficult path that waits ahead, they stand strong. If we could show even a glimpse of that much resilience in the face of some of those heart-wrenching decisions they had to make, the courage they needed to persevere not only during those terrible months gone by and for what lies ahead, well if we could do that we’d certainly be richer of heart for it. And yet they will still need to dig deeper to continue the long road to reconstruction, not only of their homes and their communities but piecing together back their spirits to be able to carry on.

I admire you. I thank you for giving us moments to pause, to think, and to think of what true heroism really is in the seen and the unseen ways you did what needed to be done, to ponder in awe on what courage is to continue in the face of such difficulties, and what compassion looks like and sounds like and feels like. Your courageous spirits brought the best out in so many people across this province. Thank you. You made us rise in our thinking about what moments in life matter.

I want to thank the stakeholders that I was able to meet and listen to over the past few months. Thanks to the child care providers and young families across this province. They all had so many different stories to tell. I met with people in education from across the province — teachers, administrators, school division personnel — along with families and students who shared their challenges and hopes for the future.

I’d also like to thank my family and friends and those who support and who encourage to keep the home fires burning so that I can continue to advocate for the building of the best future for our province.

I know that the committee members opposite and from our side would join me in thanking our Public Accounts Committee team, the Clerks, the auditor and all her teams for all their work, not only supporting the great work done through this committee and outside the sitting of the House but also the great work that our Saskatchewan team, many of them who are here in the Chamber right now, for the countless hours and work in planning and delivering and hosting a simply superb national Canadian Council of Public Accounts Committees conference right here in Regina this September.

We learned much from the various practices in each province and regions of Canada. And I am so proud to say that we found that Saskatchewan is leading the pack in Canada in the work and processes we have here, and that is credit due to our Saskatchewan team. Hats off to you, and thank you very much.

Well a lot has happened since that last Throne Speech. I’ve been asked to accept additional duties as associate shadow minister of Education, along with my colleague here from Saskatoon Eastview, in addition to my duties as shadow minister of early learning and child care.

And you know, I was thinking. It’s 42 years ago almost to the day that I received my teaching pin. And I want you to know I’ve held that licence ever since. And after 42 years you’ve seen a few things; you’ve heard a few things. And as a nurse, yes, we’ve seen a few things in our day. So I look forward to leaning on all those years of experiences and those connections to advocate for the best education that this province can offer and get us out of last place and leaping into first place for once in education.

Well this summer, not just me but our entire team has been out door knocking, meeting with stakeholders, listening to challenges and celebrations, especially in child care and education. And when I’m knocking on the doors, here’s what I heard from bewildered constituents and stakeholders. These are some of the questions they asked me: “What? Haven’t they signed the deal?” “What? They haven’t signed it? Well what are they waiting for? Don’t they know we need it now?” “That $10‑a-day child care thing, that’s a game changer. What’s the holdup?”

Well I looked at them and I said, I have no answers. It’s sort of like that age-old question, where do mosquitoes go in winter? Who knows? It’s like ants. What do ants do? They’re busy around digging all those little holes, making those hills. And you level them off every now and then and you ask, what are they digging for? Do they ever get digging down to what the bottom of the whole problem is? No. Who knows? Ants, one of nature’s mysteries.

So let’s talk Throne Speech now. What did this Throne Speech offer child care providers or families? Well certainly nothing new. The Throne Speech talks about reaching 90 per cent of our 28,000 spaces. Well where are they? Are they operational? Are they on paper? Families are still looking for child care as waiting lists get longer and longer. And the questions remain.

What does this government say to those legacy providers in Moose Jaw and those across this province who are hearing from their accountants every day that their fees aren’t covering the cost of inflation or the resources they need and they’re going to have to make some very difficult decisions in the next few months.

Well there was no mention of a wage grid that recognizes educational level and experience for our early childhood workers. No talk of pension or benefit program. No recognition for the need of urgent funding required to address the gap because they had to cap their fees when they entered in 2021. And now they’re in financial straits because they weren’t allowed to raise their fees.

Well and what does this government have to say to the new centre providers and communities who are unable to negotiate their mortgages or loans to get their new much needed facilities up and running because the deal and the confirmation of the funding is simply not there?

And what does this government have to say to those families and those children who are on a horrendously long waiting list, not just in our urban centres but in our rural locations like Prince Albert? You know, you’re going to be building a new hospital there and you’re going to have 850 plus new workers and they’re all going to need child care. And you know what the waiting lists are in Prince Albert? Average 450 at each location.

And you know what those wait-lists do? I’ll tell you what they do. They hamper the ability of communities to recruit the workers — workers for mines, workers for health care, workers for education, hospitality, retail, the ag industry, post-secondary students, for moms who want to re-enter the workforce.

[14:45]

There’s an affordability crisis here in Saskatchewan, and not signing that deal is making that affordability crisis even worse for young families in this province. Without $10‑a-day daycare, many families with young children will not be able to make ends meet, let alone be able to get into or re-enter the workforce or even try to make a good life for their children and advance their careers.

And to tout in the Throne Speech that Saskatchewan was the third province to reduce fees to $10 a day is hardly helpful to all those communities, families, centres, providers, workers, communities who trusted this government to support the economy by getting child care right.

Here’s a news flash: Saskatchewan is one of the last holdouts to getting the deal extended, if even they can. Anybody who’s been listening to the news knows that there’s some fiscal challenges at the federal level.

Help me understand how this government can say it’s putting families first when they keep telling families they’re going to sign the deal for the last seven months but haven’t even given the courtesy of a single update on negotiations, making families and providers and workers feel like their financial lives are dangled at the end of a thread.

Strong, safe, secure. That’s the theme of the Throne Speech. Well that should be a given. In a prosperous province like ours, it’s not a new idea or a brazen new initiative. What has happened over the past 18 years that needs us to have a Throne Speech that says that we’re strong, safe, and secure? We should have been that all along. Mind you, when I look at the dates, that happened. We had a good government prior to 18 years ago.

Yet there is not a single mention about preparing our children for the future. And after 42 years that matters to me, and it matters to a lot of other people out there. There was not a single mention about what the emergent competencies students will need to master and explore and be successful in the next 5 to 10 years, as the world is changing at lightning speeds now.

But we have a building schools faster Act. Well there’s an idea. Did we just figure that out now? This government knew full well the province had record enrolments all the way along. They realized after the children have been packed like sardines into makeshift classrooms in libraries and crumbling schools. And so after 18 years you’re going to build schools faster now? Well that’s not leadership; that’s trying to catch the bus after you missed it. And you know what? I have heard better stories from grade 4 boys and why their homework is taking so long to get done.

And this government wants to fund 500 more teachers. Well heavens to Betsy, where’s one going to find 500 more teachers? From underfunded universities I suppose. Well what with this government making the profession of teaching so attractive, and with the enhanced working environments of schools, not to mention the retention of the staff so delightful that potential would-be teachers are thronging to enter our faculties and colleges of education. Because the teaching profession is so highly revered and respected by this government. No, no, no, there is no mention of that in the Throne Speech either.

The chronic underfunding of education over the years has left our school divisions making hard choices about cutting programs and increasing class sizes. And it has left professional teachers feeling undervalued and exhausted. And it’s only the beginning of the school year.

The Throne Speech also speaks to the signing of a historic teachers’ agreement. Well it was historic for the grief it caused, for the bruised relationships it caused for so many and so long. However, did that debacle assist in preparing students’ education for the future? Well I think not. This government is out of touch with what it takes to build and support an excellent, leading-edge education sector for our province to thrive and for the betterment of our future, our children, and for our province.

Yes. Yes, there is funding for improving outcomes from kindergarten to grade 3 reading. Well that should be a given as well. As educators we’ve known about the research, about the grade 3‑level reading attainment as an indicator for literacy success for over 20 years. How out of touch does one have to be to think it’s novel to support this 20 years later?

So I ask, what has been done to address those children who were in K to 3 [kindergarten to grade 3] during COVID, who are struggling now in grades 4, 5, 6, and 7, who need reading and math remediation? Nothing. Not a peep about those students and the intense supports they need and needed all the while along. And those teachers require extra resources to help them get caught up in those learning gaps, if they can.

Not doing anything meaningful, no recognition for this critical group of children speaks volumes about the lack of understanding of the needs of our students in order to prepare them for the future. And it’s not like we didn’t have time during COVID to figure that out. These students missed out on the window of reading opportunity in those critical years. With no backfill of resources and of extra teaching support, it saddens educators and, worse yet, it hinders the potential of so many students in our province.

Do you want to have a vibrant province? Do you want to have a vibrant economy? Well you’re going to need a population that not only has a good education, but has an excellent education. And if we want to be poised to power our province’s economy into the next 20 years, well we better get moving.

Do we know the skills and competencies that are needed in an AI [artificial intelligence]-powered world and how to get there, to be and to have a competitive edge? To not only survive in the next years, but to thrive and be a leader in our fast-paced, changing world? No, no evidence of that. Well we had better get on that, and we had better be acting on that sooner than later. Lead or be led. Was that in the Throne Speech? Nary a word of it.

Our children and our future depend on having a leading-edge education sector, and that can only happen with a well-funded and resourced leading-edge education sector. In education you cannot afford to be short-sighted. This is a pay-it-forward investment; truly it is. Because not only do our children’s future depend on it, our future depends on it as well. Believe me, we will all appreciate that our caregivers can sound out the names of our medications when we’re in senior care, and that our workers and professionals can critically think and have the technology and the people skills to fashion solutions and innovations to be industry leaders for years to come.

Education must ensure that all students, regardless of where they live or the challenges they encounter, have the same access to leading-edge outcomes. Our children now — now — must be on the path equipped with the best research and tools to be prepared for what this world will have waiting for them upon graduation. Must be nothing less.

Teachers and universities that train teachers and school divisions need the funding to provide leading-edge strategies, resources, and supports for our Indigenous children to succeed, for our newcomers to succeed, and indeed for all students to succeed and take on the roles of being first in Canada in education once again.

There was no mention of innovation and education for our children for the future years in the Throne Speech. Nope, nothing. No mention of progress, if any, in child care talks with the federal government to give peace of mind to families, child care providers. No certainty for them. No, these things weren’t mentioned in the Throne Speech. Sad, really. Disheartening, actually.

And that’s why I will not supporting the Throne Speech, but I will be supporting the amendment made by my colleague, MLA from Cumberland. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Agriculture.

Hon. Daryl Harrison: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to start by saying a few thank yous today. First and foremost I’d like to thank the people, the constituents of Cannington, to allow me to serve in this House on behalf of the constituency of Cannington. It’s a huge honour and a responsibility that I take very serious.

Thank you to my wife, Cheryl, and my family, my children, grandchildren, and my mom for their love and support. Speaking of my wife, Cheryl, since I’ve been an MLA she’s taken on the leading role with our ranching operation and I can honestly say she’s doing a bang-up job. I may be repeating this, but Ryder Lee had probably the best quote ever. He says, “You just can’t have more cows than your wife can feed.” Well I’m going to say, Mr. Speaker, Cheryl’s going out Friday, I believe, to look at some more bred Herefords, and I love her eye. She’s got a keen eye for good quality cattle and she’ll make a sound decision, I have no doubt.

And I also want to thank my constituency assistants Trisha, April, and Merilyn. They do a bang-up job. And I’m not around the constituency office as much as I used to be, but I thank them for carrying that forward. They do fabulous work. I’d also like to thank my constituency association for their commitment and their support in the election a year ago — couldn’t do it without them.

I want to thank my colleagues in the Legislative Assembly here. As a minister I rely on my colleagues for their representation around this province. And they provide that local perspective of what’s going on, and I truly appreciate that. I thank them.

I want to thank especially the member from Cut Knife-Turtleford, being a Legislative Secretary for Agriculture here in the province. I appreciate his support and hard work in this effort. Agriculture is the primary industry here in the province and very important to the province and all people here in Saskatchewan.

Thank you to my staff here in my office here in Regina: my chief of staff, Jean-Michel; Shelby, Jacob, Chandra, and Nicole. And thank you to my deputy minister, Bill Greuel, and all the entire team at the Ministry of Ag.

I also want to say thanks to you, Mr. Speaker. I also want to say thanks to the Clerks, the Sergeant-at-Arms, the security, and all legislature staff here in the building, as well as the Pages. They’re just on top of it all the time. Thank you.

I also want to thank probably somebody who spends as much time as any MLA in this building, and that’s Fred Hill. Fred Hill, I want to thank you for your friendship and the spiritual care you provide to all MLAs in this building. He is a huge support to all of us. So thank you, Fred.

Mr. Speaker, this Throne Speech set out our agenda for a strong, safe, and secure Saskatchewan, a Saskatchewan with a strong economy, safe communities, and a secure future. It will ensure their students are getting their best possible start in their schools, and that our health care system is delivering everyone the care they need. Saskatchewan already has the strongest economy in Canada, and this session our government will work to ensure it remains strong and growing.

We all recognize it’s a volatile time for our country, our province, and of course, our agricultural producers. This Throne Speech addresses challenges facing our province due to tariffs from our largest trading partners.

Mr. Speaker, our producers have been hit hard by tariffs from China, our second-largest trading partner, on our canola, peas, and pork. We know this is because of our federal government’s choosing to put tariffs on Chinese EV [electric vehicle] vehicles over a year ago. When that was announced by the federal government, our government responded. Our Premier immediately spoke out, and our former ministers of Agriculture and ministers of Trade and Export Development wrote to the federal government, asking them to consider the disproportionate impact retaliation could have on the West.

Premier Moe has been clear from day one on this issue, calling for the removal of tariffs on Chinese EVs and engagement with China at the highest levels. I am proud to serve with that Premier, the first premier in six years to lead a trade mission to China and advocate on behalf of our producers.

[15:00]

Those members opposite, on the other hand, have been less than clear on their position. It took the Leader of the Opposition seven months, seven months to make her first post on social media about the canola tariffs. And when she did, she didn’t even mention Canada’s tariffs on Chinese EVs.

Right around the same time, the Trade critic for the opposition . . . And she’s not sure that we should even be working with China on trade. Mr. Speaker, does that member realize that China is our second-largest trading partner? Last year our province’s exports reached $4.4 billion. It’s more lost and reckless rhetoric from that opposition member.

And of course, Mr. Speaker, we saw those members opposite vote against calling on the federal government to remove those EV tariffs just last week. That was shocking, Mr. Speaker. Those members opposite chose to vote against this, knowing how hard our producers were hit by Chinese tariffs. That was a vote against our producers and a vote against Saskatchewan.

Mr. Speaker, this government continues our work around the world to diversify and strengthen our global markets through our network of international trade offices and trade missions to key markets. Since being appointed Minister of Agriculture last year, I’ve had the opportunity to lead missions in the United States, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Mexico. I work closely with the staff in our trade offices in these countries and see first-hand the work they do on the ground. Their advocacy is so valuable to our province as we grow our export markets around the globe.

In February I travelled to India and the United Arab Emirates to meet with key business groups, buyers, and investors. I also had the opportunity to attend the Pulse Conclave in Delhi and the Gulfood exhibition in Dubai. Both nations are important export markets for Saskatchewan, especially in the pulse sector.

Last year Saskatchewan was both India and the UAE’s [United Arab Emirates] largest supplier of lentils and peas. Overall, India is our third-largest agri-food export market with UAE ranking ninth. This mission was a chance to promote Saskatchewan as a reliable supplier of high-quality agri-food products. Two of our international trade offices are in India and UAE, Mr. Speaker. And it was an honour to work with them and see all the work they do working with exporters. And they’re on the ground in those countries, and they work with those businesses daily.

After the mission in India and UAE, I led a trade mission to Washington, DC [District of Columbia], Mr. Speaker, for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, or otherwise known as NASDA, for their winter policy meetings. At that time we were unsure how significant the impact of US [United States] tariffs would be on our agricultural sector. So it was a great opportunity to meet with secretaries, directors, and commissioners of agriculture from across the US. I had the opportunity to speak with them about the highly integrated agriculture sector on both sides of the border and how detrimental tariffs would be to both sides.

The engagement with the United States has continued. Over the summer I drove down to North Dakota for the midwest association of state department of agriculture’s conference as well, where I had the chance to engage with leaders from some of the key states that we trade with.

Earlier this month I was in Morelia, Mexico for the Tri-National Agricultural Accord. Mexico is the province’s sixth-largest export destination with $592 million worth of agri-food exports. This was an opportunity to engage with Mexico and the United States to discuss preparations for the Canada-US-Mexico agreement review which will happen next year. There was a shared understanding of the importance of this trade agreement and support across the board for continuation of this trade agreement past 2026.

Mr. Speaker, we know those members opposite don’t think we need to have those trade offices. At every opportunity over the last 18 years, they’ve tried to run down our government’s efforts to grow our international markets. They’ve called our trade missions junkets. They insist that we don’t need to engage with our trading partners, and just a year ago they campaigned on closing our trade offices.

They seemed to have a change of heart since the conversation around tariffs began, Mr. Speaker, but we know the truth. An NDP government in this province would shutter our international trade offices, refuse to engage with international markets, and in turn, watch our exports to the world decline. As a province with an export-based economy, we can’t let that happen, Mr. Speaker. We can’t ever afford to go back to the days when the NDP ran this province.

Mr. Speaker, we know this year was challenging for many of our producers across the province as dry conditions affected some regions, particularly in the Southwest. Myself and the member from Cypress met some municipal leaders and some producers there, and they were hit hard by lack of moisture. And it was great to have that engagement, and I support them on their trials, Mr. Speaker.

Our government has been very responsive making enhancements to the business risk management programs. Changes were made to the AgriStability program, including extending the enrolment deadline, increasing the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent, and doubling the payment cap from $3 million to $6 million.

Starting in 2026 AgriStability will see further enhancements, including adjusting the feed inventory valuation method for inventories to be used on farm and not sold. Allowable expenses are also under consideration for next program year, including considering feed expenses from grazing on rented pastures as an eligible expense.

Mr. Speaker, this year we also implemented the double low yield appraisal, allowing acres of low-yielding crops to be diverted to feed without negatively impacting future coverages. This encouraged livestock producers to work with neighbouring crop producers to access additional feed for their herds. In 2021 and 2023 the same program was implemented, resulting in over half a million acres of low-yield crop being diverted into feed.

In addition we provided support to Crown land grazing lessees by implementing the Crown grazing lease reduction program for this year. This provided a rent reduction for producers who reduced the number of animals grazing on their leased land by 20 per cent or more due to the dry conditions.

We are always working alongside the federal government at the FPT [federal-provincial-territorial] table to further enhance these business risk management programs, ensuring they work for our producers.

I’m looking forward to bringing some changes to legislation this fall, changes that will strengthen our agriculture sector and secure the future for our producers. Mr. Speaker, we know producers and pet owners alike care deeply about the welfare of their animals. I will be bringing forward amendments to The Animal Protection Act, which will strengthen the protection of animals by creating a new animal welfare inspector position and establishing a code of conduct for animal protection officers.

Mr. Speaker, we know foreign farm landownership is a concern for our producers across the province. That’s why this fall our government passed amendments to the Saskatchewan farm land security regulations to strengthen and clarify the Farm Land Security Board’s powers to enforce regulatory compliance. This includes ensuring that the Canada Pension Plan board and other pension funds can’t own farm land in Saskatchewan, and clarifies situations where monetary penalties can be applied to farm landowners in contravention of the Act.

We also recently announced the formation of a farm landownership advisory committee, which is working to consult with industry stakeholders and provide that feedback to government on strengthening the province’s farm landownership framework. We believe it’s important that farm land stays in the hands of Canadian owners and supports the needs of our Saskatchewan producers. These amendments will help secure the future of our producers across this province.

Mr. Speaker, since I’ve had the honour of holding this position of Minister of Agriculture, I’ve had the opportunity to travel across the province meeting with producers, industry groups, and trading partners. The agriculture sector is critical in this province’s economy, touching every community across our province. It’s truly an honour to serve this province’s producers as their minister, Mr. Speaker.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I believe I will be supporting the Throne Speech moved by the member from Weyburn-Bengough and seconded by the member from Carrot River Valley, which will make our province strong, safe, and secure. And I will not be supporting the amendment moved by the members opposite.

God bless Saskatchewan. God bless Canada. God save the King. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Jacqueline Roy: — Merci, monsieur le Président. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This year I tried to go towards the end so I could steal the good ideas from both sides of the House. Unfortunately they only seem to be coming from over here.

Time flies, and it’s been a year yesterday that I was myself elected. It is an honour to rise in this House, and that honour is never, ever lost on me. For as long as I have the privilege of serving the people of Regina Northeast, I will carry that trust with humility and with gratitude. Whether they voted for me or whether they did not — or chose not to vote because they felt disconnected and had lost faith in the political process — it remains my solemn duty to represent them. And you will hear that reflected in my remarks today, what I heard canvassing two-thirds of my riding and touring all areas of the province.

Tout d’abord à mon mari, à mes parents, à ma mère et mon père qui regardent à la maison, à mon frère, à mes belles-sœurs, et à ma précieuse nièce Gabi et à mon neveu Cédric: je vous aime de tout mon cœur. Merci de comprendre que la vie d’une politicienne c’est pas facile, et merci de me pousser à faire plus et me dire d’être plus. Mais surtout merci à mon père. Je t’aime énormément. Je sais que tu regards à la maison.

Et à la communauté fransaskoise, je vais continuer de travailler fort pour que notre langue et culture soient reflétées ici dans la gallérie et encourager les autres de le faire des deux cotés. Notre culture, notre langue, notre vérité ne sera pas perdues. Les jeunes — je l’espère — auront meilleur accès aux écoles fransaskoises que moi je l’avais. Je vais y mettre tout mon effort, je promets. Je sais qu’on compte sur moi, non seulement en Saskatchewan, mais parfois ailleurs aux Canada et même parfois aux États-Unis.

[Translation: First and foremost to my husband, to my parents, to my mom and dad who are watching at home, to my brother, to my sisters-in-law, and to my precious niece Gabi and my nephew Cédric: I love you with all my heart. Thank you for understanding that the life of a politician is not easy, and thank you for pushing me to do more and telling me to be more. But most of all, thank you to my dad. I love you so very much. I know you are watching at home.

And to the Fransaskois community, I will continue to work hard so that our language and our culture is represented here in this Chamber, and to encourage others to do so on both sides. Our culture, our language, our truth will not be lost. Young people — I hope — will have better access to Fransaskois schools than I did. I will put all my effort into it, I promise. I know you’re counting on me, not only in Saskatchewan, but at times elsewhere in Canada and sometimes even in the United States.]

To my constituency assistant Alex, seated up in the gallery, who is always so thoughtful and engaged and who shares her own resources with me when it comes to the Status of Women. And to all our staff, such valued members of our team — et un merci toute spéciale à chère Zoé [Translation: and a very special thank you to dear Zoé] — thanks for helping me stay on track and filling in when I am elsewhere.

To everyone in this building, from the Clerk’s office to the best club sandwich makers on the planet in our cafeteria, thanks for all that you do so that we can do our job as well. You matter and you are seen.

Last but not least, thank you to my colleagues, my new friends, my new home as so eloquently put by my Saskatoon University-Sutherland colleague this afternoon. It’s nice to know that you have my back and thanks for being there.

I represent a diverse constituency, Mr. Speaker, from Glen Elm to Glencairn, Parkridge, Eastside Estates, Glencairn Village to Creekside, communities filled with families, communities filled with workers, industry builders. A common theme emerges when you look at them.

Let’s be clear, even though the Throne Speech begins with the word “strong,” real strength can only exist when people feel safe and secure in the first place. Those are the foundation blocks of strength, and too many people in my community don’t feel them right now. But my riding also includes the huge, huge Ross Industrial area, home to local businesses but also many large provincial, national, and multinational employers. For them the economy is not a slogan. It is survival.

So yes, I am going to be offended when people say that they’re collecting the carbon tax and then they’re not, and my constituents don’t understand. When you say that we are closing trade offices over here, when that is completely false and untrue; when you don’t stand up to Trump; and when you refuse to acknowledge our bill to remove EV tariffs, you’re talking to people in the Ross Industrial area of my riding. Please remember that.

Glen Elm, tremendous rent control issues there. And I don’t mean mom-and-pop basement bungalows but places like Boardwalk. Many have faced real challenges to their financial security, and that stress has taken a toll on mental health. Small businesses are closing because families simply don’t have enough income to shop locally. Growth has stalled because wages have stalled.

Larger companies, where progress in Saskatchewan lags behind other areas of the country, that’s noted in my riding.

[15:15]

These are companies that rely on post-secondary institutions in this province to grow their workforce, whether it be trades, accounting, or engineering, and they tell me that they can’t find the experts at home anymore. How, how is closing or defunding post-secondary institutions helping our kids feel safe? How is this a grown-in-Saskatchewan economy when we can’t hire local workers?

Because believe me, Mr. Speaker, a whole heck of a lot of individuals and large companies as well — many, I might add, cited by the MLAs yesterday in many of their speeches — have donated piles of their own money to keep these very institutions alive. So when the government comes after those institutions, yes, yes, my colleague from Saskatoon University-Sutherland has the right to be upset.

My mom, I’m proud to say, is a professor emeritus from the U of R [University of Regina]. For those who don’t know what that is, it is someone who has made a significant contribution over multiple years before retiring, to ensure its growth, that it meets community needs, and that it stays there and lasts. They essentially left the place better than they found it in very significant ways. So yes, I am rightfully very, very angry that now her contributions are being cut down.

Likewise for women in trades and engineering programs that other friends created and funded. Mr. Speaker, if the government thinks it can touch these places people put their blood, their sweat, and their tears into without us noticing and bringing a pile of the people here to the legislature to complain, you have been warned in advance.

The government throws out 3 out of 100 flattering numbers from Statistics Canada or other institutes while ignoring the rest of a report, but my constituents live the reality. The rest of those numbers they so conveniently ignored in reports and updates come out. Those little inconvenient truths about our economy. And no, they are not happy. These are serious concerns. I echo the sentiment of the member from Regina South Albert yesterday: stop creating wedge issues and get to work for our businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I know the member from Prince Albert Carlton said the government sees the glass as half full and that we just see it as half empty — pardon me, Kindersley — that they just need to think more positively. But that thinking is flawed, and unfortunately I’ve heard that think-more-positively rhetoric from several side government MLAs. It doesn’t ring true for families in Prince Albert affected by the northern wildfires, by houselessness, or for francophone families still waiting for the school they were promised months and months and months ago. How can people feel safe and strong and just think positively?

As the shadow minister for the Status of Women, I find this just-stay-positive narrative deeply flawed. Women make up just over half of Saskatchewan’s population, yet are left out of many, many conversations in this Throne Speech. Nearly every woman I meet has shared a time, often recently, when she has felt very unsafe and anxious. This is often due to a lack of consultation, of policy, and understaffing, and a lack of understanding of her situation.

You can’t tell a woman without timely access to breast or gynecological cancer . . . to just think positively. There’s a long way to go after the creation of the new breast health centre, so let’s get on with it and address other issues like better transitions in aftercare and advertising for the self-referral program for women over the age of 45.

You can’t tell a woman that she feel safe when intimate partner violence in Saskatchewan is double the national average, or when the Minister of Justice insists things are improving while the data shows the exact opposite.

You can’t tell people to feel safe when kids don’t even know what “safe” means anymore because they’re not learning about healthy relationships in their own classrooms.

You cannot tell a mom earning 83 per cent of a man’s wage here in Saskatchewan for the same job to stay positive when she feels ashamed she can’t afford quality time and fresh fruits and veggies for her kids.

You can’t tell a mom entrepreneur who lost $10‑a-day daycare and now feels trapped and isolated at home with three kids — because it’s usually the woman that stays home in the end when there’s no affordable daycare due to that pay gap — to just think positively, to not worry about her mental health.

You can’t tell families in Denare Beach or Creighton to feel safe when they’re moving to Flin Flon, Manitoba for better maternal access and health care, which was shared with me when I visited the North this summer.

I’ve heard too many stories of women with no access to menopause or maternal mental health supports, no specialists for PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] and aftercare of childbirth, and no real help. You can’t tell these women or their families to just think positively when that is the mental health situation that is their reality.

Ten per cent of women deal with endometriosis, a very painful situation when it comes to access and diagnostic tools and surgeons being missing. These women are in major pain, and quite frankly it’s painful for me to watch. And no, it’s not the same throughout the country.

Mr. Speaker, when the women of this province are left behind, the province as a whole suffers. We fail families. We fail communities. We fail industries. We fail innovation. And yes, yes, we do fail the economy.

Mr. Speaker, when it comes to human rights, shame on the government for telling people to feel safe and secure and strong and think positive when the notwithstanding clause is used to override basic human rights. I thought diversity was considered strength. I thought that’s what strength was. I could go on and on with multiple examples, but I will leave that as a simple statement for reflection about the state of human rights in this province right now.

How ill-suited of a title is it to choose “Safe, Secure, and Strong” when talking about these people. Please do better. Now the government has denied a public inquiry, silencing the voices of people — another basic human rights problem.

And, Mr. Speaker, we have to tread very carefully with our words in this Assembly, and I simply don’t understand some of the contradictions I heard late last afternoon and late last night. Statements that the Premier was the bringer of rain and that we know that eventually the rain will come and the crops will grow if we just have faith.

When I visited the RM [rural municipality] of Big Stick alongside my colleague from Regina Mount Royal, a place where a state of emergency was declared and reasonable solutions were proposed that still haven’t been heard by that government, it seems rather insulting to say “trust that the rain will come for your crops” after seven years of drought and soil flying away and financial devastation and extreme anxiety.

And if the member from Humboldt’s analogy was to remind us, the opposition, that, in her own words, we need to prepare for difficult days, and then that worrying too much — I’m ad libbing now — was silly, this doesn’t really work given the wildfire situation, does it? Does it? I don’t know the last time I have seen the Provincial Ombudsman in the middle of a crisis intervene instead of doing a follow-up analysis. So you don’t have to take it from this side; you can just look to what the Ombudsman did.

In all corners of this province, people are worried about the disaster response. I hear it on the doorstep. Why? Because it shows a lack of ability to plan. People don’t want you to tell them to stay positive, people want you to be prepared.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve been canvassing and visiting with guests in my constituency since the early 2000s with then-MLA Ron Harper. Took a little break, then started again in 2018. And one thing is clear: people’s mental health and the quality of life are steadily declining. Many don’t feel safe, they don’t feel secure, and they don’t feel strong.

I have sent numerous letters to ministries outlining real, practical, often cost-neutral solutions for my shadow ministries, from survivors of intimate partner violence to breast cancer, for example, only to be told that everything is under control using the current methodology and plan. That is not good enough. That’s not progressive. That’s not working together. So you will forgive me if yes, I’m starting to get a little discouraged over here.

Coles Notes: the Sask Party government dare not tell me, our leader, or our team that we haven’t proposed numerous solutions and that we just complain on this side of the House.

Safe, secure, strong? No. No. When a government starts using those words as shields it tells me that they have lost control. It tells me that if they shout “safe” loud enough, they hope people won’t detect their very fear. That if they shout “strong,” they hope people won’t see the weakness underneath.

I’m losing my family physician at the end of the year. I’m lucky that he stayed around as long as he did. The family physicians I do know personally are highly stressed. Their pay gap is large compared to other specialties, and they don’t want to stay in an education and health care system that doesn’t meet their family needs. Is it any wonder they’re leaving?

Don’t tell kids that are paying triple the rent, double the post-secondary costs, and that can’t access mental health and that are working three jobs and that can’t find work, to think positively, to feel secure. Fund post-secondary education, full stop. Sask Polytech helps small and large urban municipalities, both of them, and meets their needs. I don’t even understand from an election perspective why the Sask Party government would take this line.

So, with that, Mr. Speaker, I have run out of time. I did have more to say. I won’t be supporting the motion put forward by the government; I will proudly stand with my colleague and friend from Cumberland and support his amendment. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Everett Hindley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it’s an honour to take to my feet here this afternoon and be able to participate in the Throne Speech here today. We don’t always get afforded this opportunity depending on the timing, of course. But I am grateful that I have a few moments here this afternoon on behalf of the Government of Saskatchewan as the MLA for Swift Current and, as you had indicated, the Minister of Education to bring some remarks here with respect to the Speech from the Throne.

Mr. Speaker, as many members have done already, I want to begin by providing some thanks and expressing some gratitude to a number of people who are important to me in my life and what I do personally and professionally. And I’ll once again start with that.

First of all, of course, as many of us begin thanking our families, and I’ll start with mine. My mom and dad and the family back home in the Melfort-St. Brieux area, back in a familiar part of the world for you, Mr. Speaker. Tom and Pat Hindley, who actually just celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary earlier this week. And I had a chance just to connect with them.

And they came down to visit a little bit earlier this summer. For some obvious reasons they made a trip down to Swift Current, not so much to see me I think, but another man of the house that they came to see. But just grateful for my mom and dad and all of their love and support over the years. And the rest of my siblings back home, all my relatives back in northeast Saskatchewan.

My grandson Axel, who’s now eight years old. And I actually got a chance to run into him at his school a couple weeks ago. I was there for a CPR [cardiopulmonary resuscitation] event with the grade 8s, and he happened to be just coming in from recess. And I caught his voice and was able to track him down for a few minutes there. He’s growing like a weed and doing very, very well.

To my partner, Erin. I just can’t possibly thank her enough for her love, her support, everything she does for us and our family on the home front back home in Swift Current. And she is a remarkably smart and bright individual. I lean on her for a lot of advice and more support than I think . . . than perhaps she will ever realize.

And I just can’t thank Erin enough for what she has brought into my life. She was here for Throne Speech. She was here last year for Throne Speech and I think budget day as well. And this is a new world for her. She’s getting herself kind of absorbed into it, learning more about what it is that I do not only as an MLA but as a minister here at the legislature. And I just thank her so much for everything that she does for us.

To her kids as well, Darren and Anna and Audrey. They are growing up fast as well and keep us very busy with a number of activities and work and everything else that they are busy with as well, and keep our house hopping.

And finally to the little man who was mentioned here by yourself, I think, Mr. Speaker. I’m pretty sure that he was the youngest guest on the floor of the Assembly on Throne Speech day, and he put in quite the performance. I’d like to say he was paying attention, but I think he was just kind of taking it all in. To little John, not to be confused with the Robin Hood character, but John Ronald Thomas Hindley, who came about three weeks early but we were pretty much ready for the most part. But he arrived into our lives on Sunday, July 13th at the Cypress Regional Hospital in Swift Current.

Thanks, by the way, to the doctors and the nurses and all the staff who made sure that went well and according to plan, and also the medical staff we were seeing in Regina last spring for some medical appointments as well.

[15:30]

But John came in at about 6 pounds, 7 ounces. And those days are long gone. He’s a little bit heavier, a little bit longer. He’s starting to smile. He’s starting to talk a little bit. And when I’m here this week in particular, he’s the man of the house and helping to run things there. But you know, I had a chance to FaceTime with him earlier this morning. We try to connect every night as well before it’s bedtime for him, and it just brings a light to the day no matter what’s going on. And I’m just so very grateful that John is part of our lives, and he’s just the absolute highlight of my day. And at three and a half months old, time goes by quickly, Mr. Speaker, but he is just absolutely wonderful.

Mr. Speaker, to my constituents of course back home in Swift Current. I’ve got a great community that I’m fortunate to be able to represent. I can’t thank them enough for the trust they put in me as their MLA. My local volunteer constituency association executive, we’ve all got those that help keep things going on the political front. Back home I’ve got a great team there, some new folks that are part of the executive and help run things politically for the Saskatchewan Party back home.

My constituency assistant, Nola Smith, who has been in that role, as I’ve said before, prior to my time as the MLA dating back to 2009. And she really and truly has her fingers on the pulse of the community, particularly when I’m not there. And Nola and her husband, Dave, and their family have been very, very supportive. But she is one of the longer serving, I would say, CAs [constituency assistant] in the province, and I’m very fortunate to have her in my MLA office and keeping track of things there, particularly when I’m not around.

To my staff here at the office in Regina, we’ve had some changes too. I’ve managed to apparently drive away a few staff who’ve been there for a number of times and managed to last through a few Education ministers. Apparently I was the last straw. But thanks to Caelan, to Haben, Zoe, McKenzie, and Alexis who help run things up in my office here in Regina.

Of course the officials in the Ministry of Education, and you know, at the risk of naming names — and there’s some really amazing people — but led by Deputy Minister Clint, Sameema, Jason, Charlotte and all the folks and staff that work around them, bringing me up to speed on this file, providing me with key advice, and helping us to make the decisions we need to make at the Ministry of Education.

Finally and last but not least, Mr. Speaker, my legislative colleagues here from the government caucus who are here today. What a team to serve with here. Just some amazing MLAs that particularly . . . You know, we’ve had some that’ve been around for a while and some who are newer and, as I think we heard the member for Lumsden-Morse say in his remarks yesterday, can no longer use the “new guy” term anymore. No longer the newbie. Not the rookie anymore.

But in particular to the new MLAs who I’m so very fortunate to serve with. And I tell you, they’re a lot of sharp MLAs so I’m going to pick on a couple right now. The member for Dakota-Arm River who serves as my Legislative Secretary for Education, a keen eye and mind in a number of areas but particularly in the area of AI and what that does for the education sector. So thank you to him for his passion.

And also to the member for — and again I could name a number of colleagues here but I’m thinking of those that I hear from very frequently — the member for Kelvington-Wadena. And he is a solid representative for that constituency and extremely, extremely passionate about education. And I know that something is on his mind when I get a text on perhaps Saturday morning while I’m sitting there having a coffee and some toast. There’s something that’s on his mind, and he’s always one of the first ones to reach out. And we’ve had some really good conversations.

But to all of my colleagues, thank you so much for the work that you do serving as part of this government team. And of course to my cabinet colleagues and the Premier. Couldn’t be prouder to be serving alongside this gentleman that serves as the longest serving premier right now in this country, the member for Rosthern-Shellbrook. What a leader, Mr. Speaker. We’re fortunate to have him as leader and captain of this team.

Mr. Speaker, we’re here to talk about the Throne Speech now that we got kind of through the thank yous. And we’ve heard both sides talk about it. Strong, safe, and secure — members on this side of the House, of course they understand the slogan. They’re supportive of it. The members on the other side not so much, Mr. Speaker, and that’s what we’ll debate here today.

If I could, there has been a lot of debate and discussion and comments from both sides with respect to . . . and we’ve often led off about the wildfires in northern Saskatchewan. And I think on both sides we’re in agreement about the tragic circumstances, what has happened up in northern Saskatchewan, and what needs to be done to support and what has been done to support those families who have lost their homes, lost their livelihoods and are committed, as they should be, to rebuilding.

Mr. Speaker, I did have an opportunity, throughout the summer season, to connect on the education front with education leaders up there about what was happening and what the impacts were on the school system up in northern Saskatchewan, and also to travel up there a little bit earlier this fall with the Minister of Government Relations, the Premier, and Minister of Public Safety and to sit down and chat with the community leaders and have that discussion about what had been done and what still needed to be done.

Mr. Speaker, from my perspective, I did take the opportunity as the Minister of Education to say, how are your students doing? How are your teachers and EAs [educational assistant] doing? How are the staff doing? What else can we do to help provide some supports? And I can say that out of that conversation, this government, based on the feedback we had from leaders up in Creighton and Denare Beach area, very quickly moved to expand the mental health capacity building in schools program up there.

That is a program that we’re continuing to roll out across the province. We will get it into every single school division in Saskatchewan. But I asked a question about if we were able to quickly implement that, would that school division have the ability to roll that out fairly quickly? And they had done their homework. They were ready to go, Mr. Speaker. So this government moved quickly, I would say, to be able to implement that.

We put out a press release and a media release just last week indicating that. And we typically don’t do this this time of the year, Mr. Speaker. These are typically budget decisions that are made at budget time and are announced on budget day. But given the circumstances, we felt that it was important to act very quickly in the Ministry of Education to mobilize some funding to get the mental health capacity building program off the ground for that particular school division as quickly as possible, Mr. Speaker.

And I’m grateful to the community leaders up there in northern Saskatchewan for their dedication and their commitment on behalf of the people that they serve and for carrying that message to us in government, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll touch on a few items here in the Throne Speech, and a lot of it has been canvassed already by members from both sides of the House, but you know, from the government side. And I’m grateful for some fantastic speeches that have really focused on some very key initiatives in the Throne Speech to make sure that this province is strong, that it is safe, and that it is secure. And these are all guiding principles for us in government to make sure that all the decisions we make as a caucus, as cabinet ministers, that we’re doing these things to make sure that we continue to build a strong, safe, and secure province, Mr. Speaker.

There are steps being taken to continue to build upon affordability. Saskatchewan remains the most affordable province and jurisdiction in Canada, Mr. Speaker. And you need to know that, folks need to know that when you compare to other provinces — and not saying that there aren’t challenges out there; we acknowledge that, Mr. Speaker — but in comparison to other jurisdictions, we are the most affordable province and most affordable place to live in Canada.

This is a government that’s delivering on its promise to lower the cost of living for seniors, for families, for everyone in this province. We’ll continue in this session to deliver on the second step of a four-year plan through implementing the largest personal income tax cut that this province has seen since 2008. And that is a significant initiative, a significant component of the election that we ran on just a little over a year ago today, Mr. Speaker.

There is other things that we have done in the government here that have been mentioned in the Throne Speech towards affordability. The increase in the personal care home benefit, the member for Lumsden-Morse mentioned that in his remarks last night. Making life more affordable for low-income residents by raising the low-income tax credit. Making life more affordable for young people buying their first house by raising the first-time homebuyers tax credit as well, Mr. Speaker. And there’s more initiatives on top of that.

These are things that are built on year after year as we strive as a government to make sure that we are balancing continued growth in this province, but also making sure that Saskatchewan is affordable, that when people choose to raise their families in Saskatchewan, to establish their career in Saskatchewan, to build their business in Saskatchewan, that they know that they’re supported by a government, that we do that through affordability measures to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to support people in this province.

Mr. Speaker, we have a strong and growing economy. Not to say that there aren’t headwinds, as we have heard from members on this side. You know, the Minister Responsible for Trade and Export Development, he has his hands full these days dealing with the tariff situation. But we are in very good shape, I would say, in terms of the steps that this government has taken to ensure that we are establishing and leveraging our trade offices across the world to tell Saskatchewan’s story day in and day out, 365 days a year in addition to the trade missions that are led by the Premier, that are led by the Minister of Trade and Export Development and the Minister of Agriculture as well, Mr. Speaker.

It’s important to note that there are sectors right across this province that they’re growing. And we’ve talked about agriculture being the backbone of this economy, Mr. Speaker. You know, I want to speak about something that has a bit of a closer impact — closer to home, I would say, for my community. And having had the conversations . . . And thank you to the Minister for Energy and Resources, the member for Lloydminster, on her work on this particular file. But there’s increasing focus and, I would say, strength and support and a promise around the helium sector in this province, Mr. Speaker.

Saskatchewan is very much well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity to develop a large-scale helium export sector as helium export markets continue to grow. We know that we have world-class technology when it comes to helium right here in Saskatchewan. We are already seeing significant growth in the sector, is what the minister reports to us all — almost 1,500 active helium leases and permits for exploration and production, currently 32 active helium wells producing in the province in 2025, with nine purification facilities operating. That’s the largest in Canada.

Mr. Speaker, why am I speaking about that? Well a lot of it is located down in southwest Saskatchewan in my constituency and also in the member for Cypress Hills, in his constituency. And we believe that southwest Saskatchewan, and I would argue Swift Current, really can be the capital when it comes to helium development, not just in this province but in Canada, and make a name for itself across the world. So that is a significant sector for people in my community, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, there were comments in the Throne Speech about community safety measures. I won’t touch on those but I thank the Minister of Justice, of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, for his efforts and the work that he has put into those sections of the Throne Speech. Because we hear that. We hear that from the people that we represent that they do expect and they anticipate that the communities that they live in, that they raise their families in, should be safe and they should be secure, that they shouldn’t be afraid to be able to go out at night, take their kids for a walk in the park.

And so I am thankful for the immense effort that has been put into some of the measures taken to make sure that this province, that we do have some community safety measures to make sure that Saskatchewan remains a place that people want to raise their families can do so safely, Mr. Speaker.

Education, Mr. Speaker. I’m mindful of the time here. It seems to go by quicker than a person realizes. Grateful and thankful to all those in the education sector and for the collaboration that I’ve been able to experience thus far with teachers, with educational assistants, with speech language paths — everybody that works in our school system. And thank you to the school divisions and the school boards for the work that they do.

Early childhood educators. We’ve talked about child care, Mr. Speaker. You know, we’ve made some significant investments into the education system over the past couple of years, significant investments into capital, significant investments — 8.8 and 8.4 per cent increases — in operating funding, more specialized support classrooms, an increased focus and more dollars toward K to 3 literacy to make sure that by the time kids are exiting grade 3, they’re reading at that grade 3 level.

And it’s been canvassed many times that when kids are reading at the level that they should be reading at, their chances of success and being able to succeed not just in their future elementary and junior high and high school academics but post-secondary as well, and frankly their chances to succeed at life and whatever future career path they may choose, those grow as well.

More teachers as per the complexity. Teachers in the classroom, Mr. Speaker, 500 more teachers that are going to be hired to address those positions, to fill those positions. And I can report to the Chamber, Mr. Speaker, that the vast majority of those teachers, they’ve been hired, Mr. Speaker.

Now we of course need more teachers, so just the other day, as a matter of fact, the Minister of Advanced Education and myself had not our first meeting but a subsequent meeting with the university deans — this time from the University of Regina, but we’ve also met with the University of Saskatchewan deans — about the number of teachers that are trained in this province and that we need to get recruited, hired out right across this province, not just in Regina and Saskatoon but we know we face some shortages in other parts of the province. And I’m very encouraged by, you know, the number of prospective teachers that are enrolling in our post-secondary institutions.

And just again, so very grateful for their work and what they do in a changing workforce, a changing sector when it comes to education. And the education sector would not be what it is today without the dedication and commitments of our teachers, and so thank you to all of them for the work that they’re doing, Mr. Speaker.

[15:45]

Mr. Speaker, I’m sure I’m going to be missing things here. I’ve talked about the specialized support classrooms, 50 more of those being implemented this year on our way to 200 over the next four years. More investments to address growing student enrolment. The new schools that we’re opening in this province, Mr. Speaker.

But I would be remiss, Mr. Speaker, if I didn’t make some comments about some of the comments we’ve heard from across the way and, you know, the constant, constant negativity that comes from the members opposite, Mr. Speaker.

And they groan because, you know, we’ve called them out on it, Mr. Speaker, you know. And it’s a target-rich environment I would say over there, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know where to begin, you know. For example we heard yesterday for the member for Saskatoon Silverspring who said there’s no mention of the child care deal. None whatsoever, Mr. Speaker. And I think the member for — where’s he from? — Meewasin is saying he’s agreeing with that. He says, no.

Throne Speech, right here, let’s see where it is. Page 10, page . . . There it is. Page 12, Mr. Speaker. There’s a whole section on child care. So perhaps there’s some literacy work we need to do for the members opposite, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the member for Regina Rochdale had a number of comments in her speech, and she’s very passionate, Mr. Speaker. And she’s spent a lot of time in the sector, and I’m grateful for that. She’s had a lot of time and service and experience in the sector for education.

But I do take some issues with some of her comments just moments ago, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, she has made comments multiple times about the child care deal. Sign the deal. Sign the deal, as if it’s sitting on my desk, Mr. Speaker. They think that the deal is sitting here on my desk or somewhere up in my office, collecting dust, fading in the sun, Mr. Speaker. They have no clue. They have no clue how negotiations work. You actually have to have a partner at the table.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve been advocating regularly. I’ve been reaching out to the federal minister and I’m very confident, Mr. Speaker, that we are going to have a deal signed here very soon, Mr. Speaker. So we’re going to get that deal done on behalf of families, on behalf of the early childhood education sector in this province, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the member for Regina Rochdale says she was busy. She toured the province. I’m just kind of paraphrasing because this was just moments ago she said this, but she said she toured the province and doesn’t know where the child care spaces are. Doesn’t have a clue, Mr. Speaker. Doesn’t know where they are.

Mr. Speaker, I think it was August we were at the Sask Poly announcing 500 new child care spaces in the post-secondary education sector, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are other spaces as well. In ’24‑25, 49 communities benefited from new child care regulated spaces — 49 new communities, including six communities that previously didn’t have access to regulated child care, places like Eston, Glentworth, Lashburn, Lipton, Maidstone, and White Fox, Mr. Speaker. These spaces are right across the province. I don’t know why the member opposite hasn’t been able to find them, Mr. Speaker. They’re everywhere.

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite, the member for Rochdale made comments about AI and whether this government is prepared or is even thinking about AI. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned a bit earlier, the member for Dakota-Arm River is very passionate about this topic. He and I have had multiple conversations about this. He’s very invested in it, Mr. Speaker, and I can tell you he’s doing a lot of work to help to prepare some work for the Government of Saskatchewan to help us get into a leadership position, Mr. Speaker.

In addition to that I would also say, having met with the Youth Advisory Council earlier this year, this is a key topic for our students in Saskatchewan, our grade 11 and 12 students that serve on the Youth Advisory Council. And we had an excellent conversation about how we can help build that up and make sure that Saskatchewan is a leader when it comes to curriculum and supporting students and teachers when it comes to artificial intelligence in the school system, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the member for . . . Sorry, I’m going to keep going back to the member for Regina Rochdale, talked about how are we preparing students for the future, Mr. Speaker. Like honestly, Mr. Speaker, I can’t believe it. Has the member opposite, have any of them heard of the DLC, the Distance Learning Corporation and the . . . Well the member for Meewasin, he knows a lot, Mr. Speaker. You know, he finally got a chance to get to his feet in question period today, Mr. Speaker.

But the DLC provides all sorts of opportunities for students to access new and emerging courses so they can prepare for not just the economy of today but the economy of tomorrow. Partnership with the Saskatchewan Automobile Dealer’s Association for students taking automotive and autobody courses. Tourism Saskatchewan, partnership there, Mr. Speaker, to give them future career opportunities, training, and future career opportunities in the tourism sector. SaskPower providing access to their mobile steam lab for students taking the fifth year power engineering program, Mr. Speaker. Sask Poly hosting a learning camp for students taking agriculture equipment technician and parts technician programs.

These are all valuable parts of our economy, Mr. Speaker, where we need people working and trained and employed in that economy to be able to build this province, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the DLC for the work they’re doing in addition to all the work being done in our schools, helping that sector’s economy.

Mr. Speaker, I should probably wrap up. I think I’ve already gone beyond what I was allotted, Mr. Speaker. But I have one more piece here to mention.

Yesterday the member for, the member for . . . Not Douglas Park. No, no, no. Member for Regina South Albert, Mr. Speaker. Here’s what she said. Here’s what she said, Mr. Speaker, and I quote: “But the people of Saskatchewan aren’t stupid, Mr. Speaker. They see through this.” She couldn’t be more accurate, Mr. Speaker. Here’s why.

Because earlier this fall there was an email sent. It was sent September 9th to the NDP caucus, Mr. Speaker. We had a copy of it as well because this individual who wrote, who happens to be from your constituency, Mr. Speaker, from Melfort, said, “Subject” . . . Here’s the subject line: “So over NDP critics.”

And I’m going to quote a number of things from this letter, Mr. Speaker, but here’s what she said. “Good morning, everyone.” . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . Yes, we do have her permission. We actually do, for the member for Meewasin. He keeps checking here, but we do. And we’ll make sure she gets a copy of this.

Good morning, everyone. [And I quote.] I’m expressing my disappointment in the NDP caucus. The other day I just happened to walk into the room while the news was on the TV. Guess what the topic was. NDP caucus expressing false assumptions.

These are quotes, Mr. Speaker.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself. In 2010, after 30 years of service in the health care field, I retired. Why, you ask? During my time in a job that I enjoyed, at one point during the NDP government I had to watch as my colleagues were handed their pink slip — for all you NDP members that means layoff notices — all because the NDP government cut long-term care beds along with beds in hospitals. I had to sit watching my co-workers cry because they had just lost a full-time job. I had to sit with long-term care patients as they cried, not knowing if they would be able to stay in their community — all because of the NDP making cuts to health care.

Mr. Speaker, a couple more quotes from this letter. And she says:

All of the NDP caucus stand up there in front of the media.

You might want to hear this:

They stand up in front of the media and they talk like the majority of Saskatchewan is stupid and that we’re not aware of what the NDP has done in the past years of control.

Mr. Speaker, here’s what she says:

To be honest, every time I see one of your members’ face on TV, I mute them. Give it a rest. You’re not fooling the individuals that have worked in the years of the NDP destroying Saskatchewan.

Mr. Speaker, and here’s what she says to finish this off. She says, “Please forward this email to each and every one of your caucus.” Mr. Speaker, I had a hard time believing that maybe they did that, so we have 27 copies of this letter if they all want to read the letter, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, with that, this is a good Throne Speech, a very good Throne Speech. I’ll be supporting this Throne Speech moved by the member for Weyburn-Bengough and seconded by the member for Carrot River Valley, Mr. Speaker.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the member from Regina Elphinstone-Centre.

Meara Conway: — Well, Mr. Speaker, I want to start by congratulating the Minister of Education. I want to start by congratulating him on two things. The first is the welcome of his new son, little John. I believe he arrived a month after my little Maeve who I’ll talk about in a minute. So I want to congratulate him on welcoming his baby boy.

I also want to congratulate the Minister of Education for tracking down the one email in existence from a health care worker that is saying good things about this government. Because in case the Minister of Education wasn’t paying attention earlier, we just hosted three health care unions that represent 28,000 health care workers across Saskatchewan, and they had nothing but negative things to say about this government. They feel disrespected. They feel unheard. And trust that Minister of Education to track down the one email from a pleased health care worker in Saskatchewan. I bet you he can’t find two.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I’m really happy to be here. I’m really happy to be here. It feels so good, you know, I’m hearing the Minister of Education trash talk me against the aisle, and this is where I love being, you know?

I . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . Sorry? Oh, the Minister of Rural and Remote Health has just said I’ve been demoted to a backbencher. No, I had a baby four months ago. Yeah. So I’m very pleased to see my colleague take over the role of Deputy House Leader. Maybe when she has a baby, I’ll move back into that role. Who knows? But for the Minister of Rural and Remote Health to somehow suggest I’ve been demoted, it’s a little low.

Four months, my baby’s four months old. I am going to be here from time to time to hold this government accountable. But I am also going to be here less often than I was before the baby was born to spend time with my little Maeve. She joined us on June 10th. She is humongous. She’s 17 pounds already, Mr. Speaker, 95th percentile for health and weight. She might be a little basketball player. I don’t know yet.

But her name is Maeve Siobhán Day-Conway, and I just want to say something about her middle name. It is spelled with the Gaelic — a challenging spelling, Mr. Speaker — and this is a name that means something to me. That is the Gaelic word for Joan or Joanna, which is the feminine of John. And of course I lost my dad in March. I can barely talk about it without kind of tearing up. But I continue to be very disoriented and heartbroken by that loss, but was so, so happy to be able to continue this piece of him through Maeve.

And we’re having such a good time with her. She’s a good sleeper. She’s a good eater. My two boys, Éamon and Lew, just adore her. You know, Éamon went through a phase of putting a dishtowel on his head and playing the baby killer game when she was born, but that phase has passed and he seems to be quite happy and content with her presence.

I also want to just take a moment to thank my partner and my siblings and my mom for all the support that they continue to give me. And my constituency assistant, Dagan. We’ve had a really busy time. He’s been holding down the fort while I’ve been off. I want to thank my colleagues who have been carrying a heavier burden while I’m off, especially to my colleague, the member from Walsh Acres, who’s been stepping in on all things health.

And we had a nice thing happen recently. My mom’s bike got stolen from her garage. And we put it out there on social media, and we got some reports that maybe it had been seen around my constituency office. And we put out a little message of just, “My mom, she had her bike stolen, if anyone knows anything.” And actually, the person returned it to our office. We got the bike back. It was just an incredible event. Like one of the constituents recognized it, approached the person, told her about it. The person who had it ended up texting me. So it was a nice little event that we had. So you know, it just goes to show we have a really neat community over there in North Central.

I want to thank the community association of North Central that hosted a town hall last night about the issues that continue to pose many challenges for the community.

I continue to feel like the priorities of this government are not serving the people of my constituency, and I will get into that perhaps more later. But I did also want to touch on one event that remains quite dear to me. And I want to just start by talking about a health care-related event that I did attend last week. This was an event hosted by Dr. Deirdre Noonan. She is an orthopedic surgeon from Saskatchewan. Her home base of practise here in Saskatchewan is Moose Jaw. She also does a lot of global health work.

And last week she held an event at Knox-Met. It was packed. I was joined by many of my colleagues. And she spoke about the harrowing realities that she has witnessed in Gaza first-hand. She’s been there three times in the last year.

As an orthopedic surgeon, she talked about the three categories of patients that she treats. The first are children, mainly, who have been injured in bombings of tents — limbs, shrapnel, removing shrapnel. The second category are individuals who have been shot trying to access GHF [Gaza Humanitarian Foundation], the US-Israeli-backed GHF aid. They’re told to access this aid, and then many of them get injured trying to do that. And then people who are trying to access flour on flour trucks either get shot or injured in the chaos.

[16:00]

She spoke about medical staff that she worked alongside, including her mentor, Dr. Mohammed Obeid. I am sorry if I’m mispronouncing that. But she describes him as the finest surgeon she has ever met, whose influence guided her through some of her most difficult moments as a surgeon. Dr. Obeid today sits in an Israeli prison along with 115 other medical workers without due process.

The other thing that Dr. Noonan touched on . . . You know, it was a very real account of what she’s seen, and one of the photos that she presented to her audience was a picture of shrapnel. And some of these pictures of shrapnel were uneven and random, but she pointed out one of the pieces of shrapnel and it was a perfect cube. These are pieces of shrapnel that she herself has removed from children — perfectly cubed shrapnel, so engineered to be cubes, engineered to effect maximum damage, to tear through flesh as efficiently as possible.

And it’s a reminder to us that here in Canada we have a federal government that participated in selling arms to the government that is employing this new weapon of war. I would add, Dr. Noonan has been working in conflict zones for years and she’s never seen anything like this. And also a reminder that this is the moment where our Saskatchewan government has chosen, just weeks before this Throne Speech, to meet with the ambassador of Israel and to decide to deepen trade relations with the Israeli government.

You know, back in September, Mr. Speaker, when the UN [United Nations] committee conducted an investigation into whether Israel was or was not committing genocide in Palestine, when that investigation was released in September I made a post on social media talking about how this investigation, the results of it had come out and that this committee had found that Israel had in fact committed the actus reus of genocide. They’d also shown the mens rea of genocide, the intent, and spoke about at least three Israeli politicians that have spoken with words that incite genocide.

And I talked about how upsetting it was that our Premier had remained silent on this issue since his earlier statements, now going on years before. He hadn’t redacted or added or said anything else about what was happening in Palestine. This is the most grave finding you can find under international law. We have a government that is in their Throne Speech talking about a tough-on-crime agenda, but they are not respecting findings of the highest order of international law in the global order. But then to see the Premier move on from that silence and actually announce that he wishes to deepen trade relations with Israel was shocking.

And what I wanted to do today before I move on from this topic is . . . You know, there have been atrocities in the past and ongoing atrocities that we have witnessed as a human community. Some of them have reached the point of genocide. But many of those atrocities happened, and when you go back and you talk to those communities that were involved, there was some plausible deniability. They didn’t necessarily know it was happening, and they didn’t know what their government was doing maybe. They continued to do trade with that government. Maybe there was some deniability around what was going on.

Because of people like Dr. Noonan who went, at extreme personal risk goes to these zones, speaks to us about her experience that she sees with her own two eyes, the work that she does with her own two hands, we know exactly what is happening. We have UN reports. We have the account of medical doctors here in Saskatchewan telling us what is happening.

And so one of the things I’m going to do today, Mr. Speaker, is table this UN report as well as 32 copies of the conclusions of that report so that none of these Sask Party MLAs who have stood by while the Premier has announced that he intends to expand trade with Israel, who’s been found guilty of genocide by this commission, can ever say that they did not know.

Moving on from that, Mr. Speaker, I will say that Dr. Noonan, in the midst of this unimaginable suffering, she talked about hope, the glimmers of hope everywhere. She talked about . . . And it was so touching, Mr. Speaker. This was around the time that students in Palestine, although many of them can’t go to school, are graduating from high school with, you know, 90 per cent averages. This is a people that value education very highly.

She talked about those posts celebrating graduating. Imagine that. Graduating from high school and studying to the sound of planes overhead. I can’t imagine. And she spoke about this. She talked about kids flying homemade kites above their tented communities. Signs of hope and resilience and joy amidst all this.

I will add that Dr. Noonan’s sort of call to this work came from her father. He was a family physician in Lanigan, Saskatchewan. He had an active practice there, but he also did global health work for many years. And so she felt compelled and called to this work as well. And I just want to honour Dr. Noonan for bearing witness in a very real way and then for also sharing all that she has seen, and demands of us that we cannot look away. And we will not, Mr. Speaker.

Moving on to the Throne Speech on health care. I was very disappointed at the tone that was taken there. I believe that the first line on health care in the Throne Speech was that every person in Saskatchewan is getting the health care that they deserve.

This is an auspicious day today, Mr. Speaker. I believe we’re one year out from the election, and I remember election night. I remember seeing that Premier quite late in the evening because we weren’t sure, we still weren’t sure which way it would go. You know, this is an election where this party doubled our seats. They seem to have forgotten that. I don’t see a lot of humility. I don’t see any of the humility I saw from the Premier on election night.

He said, we’ve heard the people of Saskatchewan. And especially on health care. “We’ve heard the people of Saskatchewan. We hear that we need to do better.” And one year out from the election, we have not seen things improve. We have not seen a government that is listening. If anything, these issues continue to fester; they continue to get worse.

And today, as I said, we were joined by the unions that represent 28,000 health care workers from across the country. Don’t take it from me, Mr. Speaker. They penned the letter to the Premier:

After the last general election [this letter says] voters sent a clear message that they were frustrated with the state of health care in Saskatchewan. You claim to have heard them and committed to doing better. Now nearly a year after that commitment, we have seen no improvements to either health care system or support for the hard-working health care providers who run it.

And may I remind you that many of these health care workers have not seen a raise in three and a half years. They are talking about their colleagues having to access the food bank. And that’s to say nothing of the AIMS program that has meant many of them aren’t getting paid for the work that they have done. I’ll continue on with this letter:

In case you have forgotten, here is the message. Health care workers are at a breaking point. Short-staffing is leading to facility closures in every corner of the province. Health care workers are leaving the profession and not coming back. Stalled bargaining, where your government is trying to strip away the rights of health care workers, is deepening the retention crisis and patients and residents are paying the price.

So when I hear comments from the other side about how hunky-dory everything is in health care, it rings empty for me, Mr. Speaker. Just in the last few months, we’ve seen nurses step forward saying that maternity wards in Saskatoon are not safe, that someone’s going to die.

Just in the last couple of months, we’ve seen a code orange declared at the Regina General Hospital, a categorization that is reserved for mass casualty events, Mr. Speaker. We’ve seen a “stop the line” at St. Paul’s Hospital. And we’ve seen worsening rural ER closures. We’ve seen people turned away at a locked door from one facility and sent down the highway to a facility that is not in fact open, Mr. Speaker.

And last week — I was in the room — I heard that Minister of Health say, “Well I’m very frustrated about the SHA’s communication around this issue.” Well, gee, Mr. Speaker, you know who runs communications at the SHA? The Premier’s former press secretary. So I’m sorry, but this Health minister cannot oversee the governance board of the SHA, half of it being made up of — these are confirmed facts in Hansard, Mr. Speaker — former campaign staff, donors, people loyal to the Sask Party. That is half the SHA board. The minister cannot on the one hand stand up and point at the SHA when things go wrong, and pretend like the SHA . . . sorry, and make it as though the SHA is independent from his own office. Because it simply isn’t.

Mr. Speaker, the member statement from the member for Kelvington-Wadena thanking health care workers, I don’t know if you all noticed but there was an audible groan from your balcony. Health care workers do not want your thanks. They want to get paid. They want to be respected. They want their many solutions to be heard and to be acted upon, Mr. Speaker. We don’t need more privatization schemes. We don’t need an AIMS program that we’re now pulling the plug on after two . . .

Speaker Goudy: — [Inaudible] . . . schemes. I don’t think we can be talking about it as if there were members working with the government that are now in ministry, that somehow that’s . . . We have to trust that the work that goes on by people in ministry-land, it’s not being more influenced by government members because they used to work with . . . I think we just need to be careful. There’s a lot of statements that are being made and schemes . . . You’re painting a picture that just seems along the whole lines of government wrongly influencing and scheming, and just please tone it down a bit.

Meara Conway: — We don’t need more plans to expand their privatization plans, Mr. Speaker. We don’t need more money flushed down the toilet on a $250 million AIMS program that is now being indefinitely postponed, Mr. Speaker. We don’t need a recruitment and retention plan that they call the most ambitious, and we hear from health care workers it’s fictitious. It’s not working, Mr. Speaker. We need this government to take a page out of the humility that that Premier showed on election night, to sit down with these health care workers, to explore their very real and good ideas, Mr. Speaker.

And to that end, just before I take my seat, I will just take an opportunity to say that we hear that people are hungry for those solutions. And that is why we have announced our YourCareYourSay website. That is why we are criss-crossing the province now and into the many months into the future, soliciting people’s ideas around health care and solutions, because we know that people know that health care is at a breaking point. They see the system collapse each and every day. And we are committed to painting an alternative picture, to bringing back some hope and some ideas around how to get this health care system going. But I don’t see any of those ideas reflected in the Throne Speech.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I see that I’ve been speaking for more than 15 minutes and I’m happy to take my place. But I certainly will not be supporting the motion moved by the government, and I will be supporting the amendment put forward by my impressive colleague, the member from Cumberland. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Trade and Export.

Hon. Warren Kaeding: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So many adjectives I would like to use in response. However I’m going to try and take the high road here, Mr. Speaker. Strong, safe, secure. This is certainly a mantra that I’d like to take as my responsibility in serving the many wonderful constituents of Melville-Saltcoats.

I’ve been just under a year in this position, Mr. Speaker. I’m very thankful that we don’t have recall legislation as I’m afraid that my constituents have not seen a lot of me in the last little while. But, Mr. Speaker, I am trying to make sure that we have developing markets, that, you know, we’ve got opportunities to continue to support the economy that makes this province work.

I’m thankful for many things. I’m thankful for the bountiful harvest that we’ve been blessed with in our province, Mr. Speaker. Certainly our constituency probably had some of the best yields ever, and that is certainly very, very supportive of our agriculture industry.

[16:15]

Mr. Speaker, we’ve had a very good potash run — heart of potash country. Two biggest flagship mines in the province right now, Mr. Speaker, operating in or just outside my constituency even despite a couple of earth-moving incidents that happened there, Mr. Speaker. We did have a couple of earthquakes in the Esterhazy area this year. And I again could go down a path of, you know, making the earth move, but I think that unfortunately is nothing in our control here.

Mr. Speaker, the railway, CN, plays a very important role in our constituency, had record grain movement this year, which again speaks very well of the infrastructure that’s in place and the export potential that we have within the province that our railways are certainly there to try and support, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had so much more productivity. Crop insurance, a huge employer in our constituency, they’ve had a very busy and a very productive year.

We’ve also had a number of new businesses opening in towns, in basements, garages, throughout the constituency, Mr. Speaker. And I know, very proud of the fact, a couple of them were recognized in our young entrepreneurs program that I had the privilege of announcing yesterday. And I know a number of us as members on both sides here have got some wonderful young people that are doing incredible work in some very diverse areas that is again helping support this Saskatchewan economy, Mr. Speaker.

Certainly appreciate my very understanding and patient and loving spouse. Forty-one years we’ve been married, Mr. Speaker, and unfortunately she’s told me she’s also all right with me not being home and on the road a lot. Now I’m not sure what that means. I know I come home and there’s new rooms painted in the house. I’ve come home a couple of times and there’s furniture out on the driveway. Apparently we’re having a yard sale, Mr. Speaker. So new crafts, you know, that are showing up in every room in the house. But she’s very, very supportive of the work that I do, and I am so thankful for that support. That certainly makes things a lot easier.

I also have a very supportive family, but I certainly want to mention my two grandkids, Brynn, Tessa. Brynn’s in grade 5, Tessa in grade 1 here, Mr. Speaker. I want to continue to work hard, you know. They’re doing a very good job of keeping my office full of artwork. They love coming for visits, they really enjoy coming to this building. They think it’s a big castle, Mr. Speaker.

And I know they’re so full of enthusiasm, full of hope. They have big dreams. I know our older one wants to be a vet. She also wants to be a barrel racer, so I’m hoping the two are copacetic somehow. Our youngest one, she tells me, “I’m just keeping my options open, Grandpa.” So, I thought for a grade 1, that’s pretty cool that she’s keeping her options open. And I know she will have so many options when she’s ready to take advantage of that.

But you know what, we’re doing this so that we can continue to give them hope and promise of living here, working here, and raising a family here, Mr. Speaker. That’s why we all do this here.

I certainly appreciate my CA. He’s put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into his job. Unfortunately he’s off work right now; he’s a little injured. It was a non-workplace injury — just want to get that on the record here.

He’s a huge community supporter, big promoter of business, he knows virtually everyone in the constituency. And his name, Tim Ziola. Tim is a great guy, very well respected throughout the constituency, and I know he represents us so well. I’m even finding now that constituents are starting to ask for Tim. They’re not asking for the MLA, they’re asking for Tim. So to me that’s a great reflection on the work that he’s doing there, Mr. Speaker.

And my retired CA, who continues to come in and help when we need him, is Rick McIntyre. You know, it’s interesting. I got Tim from a golf course, and Rick is now retired to go manage a golf course. So I have a golf theme working throughout the constituency. And we have great golf courses, a number of great golf courses in our constituency, so certainly want to get that on the record, Mr. Speaker.

I know the Minister of Education talked about the staff turnover in his office. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I have only been in this job for, I think, about 11 months now. I’ve gone through four chiefs of staff. We had a party one day, and in fact, I had to rent an extra room for all the staff that had been through our office here in the last 11 months. But you know what? They’ve all gone on to bigger and better things. I like to believe that they had a great start, and now we’ve let them go, free to, you know, do even better things in this building and beyond, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

But Max Waldman, started with Max. Great guy. He’s literally putting out fires at CPPS [Corrections, Policing and Public Safety] right now. So really appreciated the start that Max gave me. Got me on good footing.

Drew Lumbard was next up. New mom, she tells me she’s now cleaning up poop from a different source, right.

So Mitch Graw. Love Mitch. SRC [Saskatchewan Research Council], he’s moved on to SRC now. You know, he’s got the nuclear file, he’s working on rare earth elements there. And he’s also given me a baseball perspective from a different city, right? We had great baseball conversations in the office, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

And now I’ve got Michelle Lang, who comes from the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority. Had to get that right. She is awesome. I tell you, I just hope I have that much energy at the end of the day to keep up with her. But she is full of energy, she’s full of knowledge, and she is just fun to be around.

So in comms we had Christian Kainz, he’s moved on to Executive Council; Keenan Boutilier, he’s now gone to Finance; and I have Arlie Matisho, who comes over from CIC [Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan]. All incredible young men, Mr. Deputy Speaker, who are very exceptional in their skills and their work ethics. Skills and abilities are second to none, so I know they’re going to contribute very well in the places they’re gone to.

Senior admin assistants, starting with Emni Eltassi, who I know I had in other roles that I’ve played here, who is a remarkable, very gifted, organized, efficient young lady who is now over at Health. Zoe Duncan actually was an assistant in our office, comes from my constituency, comes from a construction family. Good salt-of-the-earth young lady who is destined for big things in her career. And now I have Selena Beahm from EC [Executive Council], and she is a beam of sunshine in our office, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

So even though we’ve gone through quite a few, we have a great team now. And I can’t be remiss, as I know a number of others have said. Deputy Minister Jodi Banks, known to everyone in the building here and exceptional in the trade file. Knows her stuff and is so hard-working. I think she even said that at one time her cats actually just absolutely gave up on her because she hadn’t been home in over 80 days, Mr. Deputy Speaker. That’s the commitment that our ministry has to making sure that this province is in good stead and has a good foot and certainly has a good presence in the province, across Canada, and around the world.

You know, I really can’t add a lot more to so many of the eloquent speeches that we’ve heard from cabinet ministers, from MLAs. You know, they have discussed, described how this government is continuing to work towards building that strong, safe, and secure Saskatchewan. However I probably would like to at some point in time correct the record on a couple of things that we’ve maybe heard from the opposition side. But you know, line 2 of the Throne Speech I thought really encapsulated where we’re at right now as a province. We meet at a time of great challenges and great opportunities for our province.

You know, really, what an accurate reflection I think of where we are in the state of the world. Tariffs, global repositioning, we hear about hesitancy, reluctancy, a little uncertainty, you know. We hear from a number of our constituents, our stakeholders.

But you know what I also hear, Mr. Deputy Speaker? I hear a lot about hope. I hear a lot about the opportunity, seizing the moment. I sometimes have even been on the record as saying, hey, let’s never waste a good crisis, right. There are opportunities out there.

I would say just in the last few days at a couple of the member receptions I’ve been at, at the Throne Speech, I’ve talked to five different businesses that have expanded their operations. Three of them, Saskatchewan-based, have expanded into the US. Now that tells me that they are preparing for the future. They are ready to take advantage of an opportunity when they see it. So you know, despite the doom and gloom that we hear in mainstream media, opposition benches, those that are perpetually negative, you know, that there are so many positive indications of things that we’ve got going on here.

And I’m going to say it over and over, and you’re going to hear it every time that I get up and I have the opportunity to speak: Saskatchewan has the strongest economy in Canada. If we want to have a strong and a safe and a secure Saskatchewan, it has to be supported by a growing and robust economy.

You know, we have headwinds. We absolutely admit that. I mean, we’ve even indicated that in the Throne Speech and we don’t pretend that they aren’t there. We know we have health care needs. We hear that throughout our constituencies. We have unfortunate people struggling with addictions, with mental health issues, and those that . . . probably likely resulting in homelessness, Mr. Deputy Speaker. No one is immune.

You know, we heard from so many members that have family members — and I would be included in that, Mr. Deputy Speaker — that unfortunately have some folks that have hit some very hard times and have been homeless. And so we know that we need to do better and that’s what we’re doing. We are building the strong and robust economy so that we have a great opportunity to make sure that we have the supports and services that we’ve identified all throughout the Throne Speech, so eloquently indicated by so many before me here as to what some of the great things that we’re doing.

You know, my role as the Minister of Trade and Export Development is really to help support, facilitate, you know, ways of ensuring that we remain . . . that we still are one of the best jurisdictions in the world to develop a mine, right. And let’s ask Mosaic. How about Nutrien, K+S, Foran, Cameco, Orano, Sask Mining and Minerals, Prairie Mines & Royalty?

You know, I actually looked it up on Wikipedia last night. Wikipedia says we have 25 mines currently operating in Saskatchewan. Some of those are actually currently in expansion mode. Some of those are brand new builds that aren’t even included on that list yet, Mr. Deputy Speaker. So in fact when you look at it, you analyze North America right now, most regions — not just states or provinces — not anywhere close to having 25 operating mines and five new ones that are planned and are in the process of opening up here, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

So that is the success that we are supporting and we’re continuing to build on in this province. And why is that? You know, we talk about policy. Policy matters. That’s what has attracted so much investment, record investment, capital investment into this province, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

What is that? What are some of those policies? Well we have a very robust suite of incentives. We have affordable utilities. We’ve talked about that day after day here. We have concierge service we offer through our ministry and a number of other ministries to make sure that we streamline that process so that these folks . . . only takes a year or two to get all the permits, regulatory issues out of the way and ready to start building and start bringing new money flowing into this province, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

And you know what the other thing that we’ve heard so often? It is so easy to meet with government and with ministers, that they are there. Wherever they want to meet, we are available to have that meeting with them. They don’t get that anywhere else in North America — in North America, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And that is what I think has been so attractive in getting so many different businesses interested in coming to this province.

Time for fun facts from Warren. Okay, a couple of fun facts here. Trade numbers: GDP [gross domestic product] is at an all-time high, $80.5 billion, second in the country. Private capital investment up 17.3 per cent, number one in the country. Wholesale trade up 9.6 per cent in month to month, first in the country, second in the country for year-over-year growth. Year-to-date urban housing starts, up an outstanding 48 per cent, second among provinces in the country, Mr. Deputy Speaker. You know what? These are all positive, positive numbers. And why? Because policy matters.

So yesterday I had the opportunity to introduce The Saskatchewan Internal Trade Promotion Act, which is going to make it easier to sell a good or service into Saskatchewan. Mr. Deputy Speaker, it’s going to actually reciprocate what many other provinces have introduced to facilitate really an increased trade in interprovincial trade. So you know, we’re going to be cutting red tape. We’re harmonizing rules. We’re removing outdated restrictions. We’re making it easier for Saskatchewan products from agriculture to energy, innovation, all of these products to be able to move more freely throughout the country, Mr. Deputy Speaker, because that as well is important to us.

Another fun fact. Last night SaskJobs — I checked — 7,837 jobs listed on SaskJobs last night, Mr. Deputy Speaker. We have tremendous opportunity for anyone to work in this province. Again, policy matters.

Yesterday I had the privilege — and appreciate the support that we had from both sides of the House here — to introduce a couple of young entrepreneurs. We talked about, you know, this is a program that we’ve been able to introduce through Trade and Export Development. It was a campaign promise actually that this government had introduced. And it’s a three-year program and we’re going to be offering a $5,000 bursary to 57 different young entrepreneurs across the province. Why 57? We have 57 registered chambers here, each one who has the opportunity to be able to support a young entrepreneur. And we’re doing this for three years, three years in a row.

[16:30]

And it was fascinating talking to a couple of these entrepreneurs. What was it? Balloon Bar YQR. This is a young lady who just did this kind of out of her garage, I believe she said, and now has quit her job. I think her family has quit their jobs and they are now working in this sector, the balloon sector. Who would’ve thought that that is that big of a deal and, I think, is employing five people in this too? Phenomenal. Who would’ve thought that balloons would provide that kind of opportunity? And good for her for realizing that and taking a run with it. Great opportunity.

Boys Next Door Window Cleaning. I really tried to get them to come to my 12th floor of my condo because I’m having a lot of trouble cleaning the windows up on the 12th floor. I didn’t realize it but apparently there is restrictions. As you move from floor to floor, you’ve got to do more restrictions. But these young guys figured that out and they are ready to take the window-cleaning business by storm. That’s the great, fascinating young people that we’ve got here in this province that are ready to do business here. And why? Because policy matters, Mr. Speaker.

You know, another policy that really matters is how this Premier and how this government is dealing with our trade issues. Trade matters to this province, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Seventy per cent of what we produce here gets exported out of this province. You know, US, China, India, they’re our largest trading partners. Each one of them has some intricacies, a subtle way that we probably need to do business with each one of them, and sometimes a not-too-subtle way of doing business with them, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

But you know what, by taking our Premier . . . this government taking that very strong and diplomatic approach to trade negotiations is what we hear every day from our business sector, from those that are involved in our ag sector, those that are involved with our trading companies. That is the approach that they have asked us to take because that is putting Saskatchewan first with our trade partners, and that approach is winning.

Just the other day — what was it, yesterday? — we heard of an $80 billion deal with the US by a Saskatchewan-based company that is going to have serious, serious positive ramifications for this province. Just think what that’s going to do for the nuclear sector here, what that’s going to do for our uranium mines here.

We’re blessed. We’re blessed with 27 to 34 critical minerals. Some of them we haven’t even got out of the ground yet, and uranium is going to be one of those key minerals. And so a deal like this, a deal that was facilitated certainly by policy and by a direction that this government has taken is how something like that has come to success.

That approach is winning. It’s evident by the success, Mr. Deputy Premier. And really, that did not come about with an elbows-up approach, with an antagonistic approach, Mr. Deputy Speaker. You know, this province has really suffered far too long with that elbows up, with that virtue-signalling attitude by that former Liberal-NDP coalition government. It’s a federal government that unfortunately was propped up by an NDP opposition, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and that has not been successful. The approach that we have been taking has been the successful approach.

So you know, a government that went elbows up on China, on India, even Mexico did not fare well for Saskatchewan, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And that didn’t help our canola industry, didn’t help our pork industry, didn’t help our cattle industry, our lumber industry, our steel industry, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

But you know what did help? What did help improve trade in this province is our nine international trade offices. Offices that play such an important role in facilitating conversations between those that want to buy Saskatchewan products and those that want to sell Saskatchewan products. Trade offices, unfortunately, our opposition has called wasteful, vanity exercises, maybe even wanted to eliminate or reduce during the election, Mr. Speaker.

You know, the right response has been what our Premier has done here. The diplomatic response to issues, to concerns that . . . You know, I’ve gotten to have the privilege to sit in on phone calls, on Zoom calls that our Premier has made to ambassadors, to trade commissioners, to governors, to senators, to trade representatives, industry leaders across North America and really around the world.

And I can say unequivocally I am so proud, so proud of our Premier, and I admire, I admire his energy, the time, and the effort that he puts in daily, daily to ensure that he has provided the best possible business environment for our residents, for our constituents, and for those that are our ag producers, our manufacturers, those that are operating in our province, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

So again, the reactionary policies have not been effective from other jurisdictions we’ve seen around the world here, that we’ve seen across Canada. So we need to continue on this path. This is what our stakeholders are asking us, Mr. Deputy Speaker

However I can’t end on a negative note. I’m also Minister Responsible for Innovation, and I know so many in this room have talked about the incredible innovation that we’ve seen in this province. Again small business is a driver to business, the economy.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet with groups like Opus, our universities, our colleges, Sask Poly, centres such as GIFS [Global Institute for Food Security]. I know a number of us went and met with GIFS, the food centre, ag-bio. I’ve had the privilege of going through VIDO [Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization]. I know so many others have gone through VIDO.

Sylvia Fedoruk centre, the Canadian Light Source, quanTA [Centre for Quantum Topology and Its Applications], our Innovation Saskatchewan research and technology centres, Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence, Crop Development Centre, PTRC [Petroleum Technology Research Centre], ICII [Indigenous Community Infrastructure Initiative], CETRI [Clean Energy Technologies Research Institute], SuperDARN [Super Dual Auroral Radar Network of Canada] — these are just a few of the so many valuable research and development centres that we have operating here in this province, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

And they have developed so many synergies. They’ve got relationships with each other that are second to none. Fact is, I travel internationally and I talk about the research sector that we’ve got operating in this province here, Mr. Deputy Speaker. No one can understand how co‑operative, how they work so well together, the synergies that they have, and how they’re able to support industry. Because again, policy matters, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

So you know, again I appreciate every day what this government does, what this caucus does, what these people do every day to ensure that we are working towards that strong, safe, and secure Saskatchewan.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, I’m certainly going to be supporting the Throne Speech that was presented by the member from Weyburn-Bengough, seconded by the member from Carrot River Valley. I will not be supporting the amendment provided by the opposition.

And all I can say, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is God bless Saskatchewan, God bless Canada. Let’s go, Jays, Riders. Let’s carry on. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Deputy Speaker B. McLeod: — I recognize the member from Regina Coronation Park.

Noor Burki: — Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. It’s my privilege to be on my feet once again on the floor of this Assembly. Before I make formal comments on government’s Throne Speech, I would like to reflect a little bit on last year and offer some well-deserved thank yous, especially to my family, my CA, all caucus staff, my constituents, our leader, and of course my colleagues.

Mr. Speaker, on both sides of this House we often say that none of us can do this job alone. And this is something that I hold as a major truth for myself each and every day. Without the incredible support of my family, our family, it wouldn’t be possible to do this job, whatever we’re doing in this House.

To my wife, my best friend, my life partner, my rock, Shamim Mahnoor, thank you for taking good care of me, of my daughters, and a beautiful life that we have built together. Thank you for your endless support and all encouragement.

To my seven daughters, Saadia, Bushra, Lubna, Nimra, Sara, Sana, and Safa — I’m mixing them — thank you for your support at each and every step of the way. I’m so incredibly proud of each of you.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, my daughter Lubna, she is in Purdue, Lafayette. She is pursuing a Ph.D. [Doctor of Philosophy] in biomedical physics. Yesterday she was telling me over the phone and she said, “Dad, when you stand up for your speech, I will be watching you.” So just a quick note to Lubna: I’m very proud of you, keep the hard work, and Saskatchewan needs you.

Mr. Speaker, some in this House may not know this yet, but I had the extreme privilege of becoming a grandpa for the first time over the summer. My daughter Saadia blessed our family with a baby boy, Daniel, on August 7th. So I have been spending a lot of time on grandpa’s duty, exactly like you.

I would also like to formally thank each and every one of our caucus staff for their encouragement, assistance that you offer me daily. A huge thank you to my CA, Bre Litzenberger. Bre is well organized, hard-working, and an excellent communicator, and kind to those that are around them. They get me where I need to go and keep me on track, and I genuinely would not be able to do the work without them.

And of course the Leader of the Opposition, the member of Regina Lakeview, thank you for your steadfast leadership. The incredible work you do and the attitude and great efforts that you bring to this work is a true testament to your commitment both for the people and the future of this province. It is one of the honours of my life to stand alongside you every day fighting for a better Saskatchewan. A big thank you to my colleagues on this side of the House for all the support, all the guidance, and the encouragement at each and every step.

And I will say thank you to the Speaker and Deputy Speaker and deputy deputy speaker for your role. It is not an easy job. It is an incredible role so it has sometimes become really challenging as well. And whatever you do at that role, thank you for that.

Finally and most importantly to the people of Regina Coronation Park, it has been a true privilege to serve you for two years. Words cannot express my gratitude I have for your supports. I am honoured to represent and fight for you every single day. Thank you for sharing your hardship with me and trusting me to be a strong advocate for you. Thank you for telling me and our whole caucus on this side of the House what you need to see from us. Thank you for your kindness on the doorsteps and when we see each other in public. Your current struggle and your hopes for the better future remind us why I and all of us are here: to build a better Saskatchewan that works for everyone.

The Throne Speech delivered by the government is meant to lay out a vision, a clear plan for the future of our province. Mr. Speaker, just last fall we have heard on the Throne Speech from the Sask Party government, willing to admit that it needs to do better to address the concerns of Saskatchewan, people from health care to education to rising everyday expenses making it hard for people to live. This fall the government seems to have changed its tone, and the words we heard felt disconnected from the realities that families in Saskatchewan are living every day.

[16:45]

Despite the fact that we have emergency rooms shutting their doors in rural Saskatchewan and our largest hospitals in our cities bursting at the seams, we heard that Sask Party government saying that everything is fine; the people are getting the health care that they need.

Mr. Speaker, this is simply not the case. People are waiting for hours in emergency rooms. If they can’t find one in their communities that is open, they drive hundreds of kilometres outside of their communities to find care for their children, for their elders, and for their loved ones. People cannot find a family doctor. Nurses are exhausted and burnt-out and are forced to take double or triple shifts because there are not enough hands to do the work.

These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a growing pattern of strain and neglect in our health care system. The Sask Party government talks about recruitment and retention, but the reality is that health care workers are leaving faster than they are arriving. We have heard repeatedly promises of improvement, yet the situation keeps getting worse.

Saskatchewan people deserve big, bold changes and an ambitious plan that supports front-line workers, rebuilds trust in our health care system, and ensures that every community has access to the quality health care when and where they need it. Health care should not be just a talking point for this government or for any government. People who rely on these services and the workers who provide it need bold solutions now.

As the shadow minister for Immigration and Career Training, this government mismanaged the SINP [Saskatchewan immigrant nominee program] program completely. After federal cuts, other provinces acted, and some extended their work permits for temporary foreign workers for two years with co-operation with federal; also got extra nominations for this year. Unfortunately our government did not extend the work permit and didn’t get extra nominations as per our population. The after-effect of this forced many temporary foreign workers and small businesses to move out of the province, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Affordability is the main concern of families in my constituency. That government has no plan for the people who are living paycheque to paycheque. The rent and other bills are up, groceries are up, everyday expenses are up, and all the government can do is say, everyone struggles but we have it best here.

Mr. Speaker, this is not the solution. People are making impossible choices between gas and grocery, or between paying for medication or keeping the lights on. They need targeted relief today, not just tax breaks. People need affordable housing and rent control. They need PST [provincial sales tax] removed on grocery. They need measures that address their everyday concerns.

Saskatchewan people deserve a government that measures success, and not just in dollars or exports, but in how people are actually living — whether they can see a doctor, whether they can afford to live in their homes. Whether or not their kids have an opportunity closer to their home, that’s another problem, Mr. Deputy Speaker. By not focusing on trying to fix Saskatchewan’s whole infrastructure like health care, education, or dealing with the rising cost of living, people are leaving our province at a record rate.

Recent graduates pack up their bags and head to Alberta and BC because they can’t find opportunity here. They have told me that not only for those higher wages, there are also better opportunities, not just for work but for leisure and fun.

These are our future doctors, nurses, engineers, teachers, business owners — all Saskatchewan’s next generation leaders. The list goes on and on, and they are leaving our province because from what they have seen, their government has given up on them.

But it is not just the young people leaving our province, Mr. Speaker. We have seen high professionals in health care, IT [information technology] professional engineers, and educators are moving out of province. In the last few months, three top-notch gynecologists left our province to BC, which is an alarming situation for our province.

Mr. Speaker, this is unacceptable. This Sask Party government needs to make Saskatchewan a place where people want to stay and put down their roots, where people can find affordable housing, where a post-secondary education is accessible, where the jobs are well paid and stable, and where health care and child care supports are there for the support of the family when they need it.

Mr. Speaker, the Sask Party government had an opportunity this fall to show the people of this province that their government not only understands what they are going through, but also has a plan to fix. Instead they got a list of recycled talk points and half measures. No plan to fix health care, no measure to make life more affordable, no plan to address homelessness, and no plan to keep people here in the province.

As we all know, Saskatchewan is a place of resilience. Our people are hard-working. They know how to pull together when times get tough. But, Mr. Speaker, Saskatchewan people need leadership that reflects this same spirit, that listens, genuinely cares, and takes action. I know that we on this side of the Assembly, we are fully committed to stand up for what Saskatchewan people need and deserve, and we will continue to make that fight. It’s a real shame that the government cannot seem to say the same. We all have this in mind.

Mr. Speaker, I will be not supporting the Throne Speech, but will be supporting the amendment moved by my brother, the incredible MLA from Cumberland and seconded by member from Saskatoon Chief Mistawasis. Thank you.

Speaker Goudy: — I recognize the Minister of Remote and Rural Health.

Hon. Lori Carr: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Strong, safe, and secure — that is the theme of the Throne Speech this year. There are so many items I could talk about in this year’s speech that support our theme, but this time I’m going to focus on one part, and that’s my portfolio and the position of Mental Health and Addictions, Mr. Speaker.

But just before I get to that, I’d like to give a few thank yous. To my constituents for sending me back here again, it’s a true honour to be able to stand here.

To my family, my partner, Bart, as always thank you for being there for me and taking care of everything back home when I’m out of town. And of all the years I’ve been elected — nine in total — this year, hands down, is the busiest yet. So I’ve been away from home a lot, so Bart’s had to put in a lot of overtime. And for that I say thank you.

To my kids, or I guess I should say my young adults, I would like to thank them for their patience. Between them we have five grandchildren, starting with Jordan who’s seven, Bowen six, Holly five, Miles four, and Luke three. How fun is it at my house when they all come over? Pretty darn fun.

And it’s because of my schedule I get very limited time with them. But when I call and say I do have time, they always ensure that they come over and spend some great time with Bad Grandma. And it is because of these little ones that I work as hard as I do. Now Bad Grandma is really synonymous for fun. I’m just going to make that clear.

These little ones, it’s the reason that I work as hard as I do. We live in a beautiful province full of so much potential for our little ones, our young ones. And I’m working to ensure, we are all working to ensure that we do have a strong, safe, and secure future for them.

To Rosalie and Susan working at my constituency office in Estevan. These two are at the front line. They are the first faces that my constituents see when they come into my office. And I have been so blessed to have these two ladies with me for the entire nine years that I have been elected, and so to them, I truly do say thank you.

My last thank you will extend to the staff that we have here in the building. In my office, we have Tanis, Savanna, Karter, Franz, Jodi, and Pooja. And in Minister Cockrill’s office we have Dave, Hillary, Kaylie, Emni, and Linoy. And I put both offices down because it really is a team effort. All hands on deck. And thank you for all of the support that they give both Minister Cockrill and myself. And of course to the Ministry of Health and SHA, thank you, because they do support our offices, and for all of the work that they do for the province of Saskatchewan.

Well maybe I actually do have a couple of more thank yous that I want to throw in here. Our health offices are well served by the member for Moosomin-Montmartre, as he is our Legislative Secretary. Yes, he does deserve a big thank you. He has travelled all over this province attending meetings, doing tours, doing events on our behalf.

And when he reports back to us, it is so hard to wipe the smile off of his face because he is so excited — he loves going out and engaging with stakeholders — that it makes my heart smile because he is having the time of his life doing this work for the people of the province of Saskatchewan, Mr. Speaker.

And lastly to my colleague from The Battlefords. It is a privilege to work side by side with an individual who truly works his hardest to ensure that we have a strong, safe, and secure Saskatchewan. His passion and dedication to trying to find big, bold solutions for our health care system is truly inspiring. And so I truly do say thank you to him. And I’m really blessed because at my age my memory’s not the best. I forget a lot of stuff. Well I’ve got a little encyclopedia in the member from The Battlefords. So I am really blessed to have him as a partner in the health portfolio. Thank you very much to him.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve got so much to talk about in the mental health and addictions field, but what I’m really going to focus on is a lot of what the member from Saskatoon Centre had the opportunity to speak about when she talked about the Throne Speech, Mr. Speaker, criticizing the work that the ministry has been doing on helping meet the goals of our mental health and addictions action plan. A plan that, I might add, has virtually all of the points that the member from Saskatoon Centre talked about in her plan the other day. I almost thought she was reading our plan for a while there, Mr. Speaker.

But there is one glaring difference, and that was that Saskatoon Centre wants to continue down the path of harm reduction, allowing individuals to have illicit drugs and providing the tools to be able to do these drugs, Mr. Speaker. Well our government will not be including that definition in our plan. On this side of House we believe in offering people hope through recovery, not handing out crack pipes.

Speaker Goudy: — It now being 5 o’clock, this Assembly will adjourn until tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Thank you.

[The Assembly adjourned at 17:00.]

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

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