CONTENTS
READING
AND RECEIVING PETITIONS
SECOND SESSION — THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE
of the
Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan
VOTES AND
PROCEEDINGS
No. 61
Thursday, May 7, 2026
10:00 a.m.
PRAYERS
Presenting Petitions
Petitions of citizens of the province of Saskatchewan were presented and laid upon the Table by the following members: Brittney Senger, Noor Burki, Kim Breckner, Don McBean, and Jordan McPhail.
Reading
and Receiving Petitions
According to order and pursuant to rule 16(7), petitions from residents of the province of Saskatchewan, requesting the following action, were read and received:
To immediately enact an Advocate for Persons with Disabilities Act.
(Sessional
paper no. 220)
To immediately address the short staffing crisis in health care.
(Addendum
to sessional paper no. 5)
To adopt fair and effective rent control legislation that limits annual rent increases.
(Addendum
to sessional paper no. 13)
To proclaim October of each year as Islamic Heritage Month.
(Addendum
to sessional paper no. 218)
Introduction
of Bills
The following bill was introduced, read the first time, and ordered to be read a second time at the next sitting:
|
Bill No. 624
— |
|
|
|
(Trent Wotherspoon) |
Seventy-five
Minute Debate
The order of the day being called for the following motion for a seventy-five minute debate, it was moved by April ChiefCalf:
That the Assembly calls upon all members to quickly pass the legislation brought forward by members of the official opposition this session.
A debate arising and the period of seventy-five
minutes having expired, pursuant to rule 25(5) the Deputy Speaker interrupted proceedings.
Private Members’ Motions
The Assembly resumed the adjourned debate on the proposed motion no. 2, moved by Terri Bromm:
That this Assembly supports the Government of Saskatchewan’s recovery-oriented system of care and the Patients First Healthcare Plan to protect our most vulnerable residents.
The debate continuing, it was on motion of David
Chan adjourned.
On motion of the Hon. Tim McLeod:
Ordered, That this Assembly do now adjourn.
The Assembly adjourned at 12:28 p.m. until Monday at 1:30 p.m.
Hon. Todd Goudy
Speaker
APPENDIX
On Tuesday:
Hon. Jeremy Cockrill to move the following motion:
That this House endorses and supports the Government of Saskatchewan’s Patients First Healthcare Plan, including the more than 50 action items to put patients first, which include:
·
expands scope of practice for health
care professionals;
·
expands virtual care to connect
as many people as possible with a primary care provider;
·
uses privately delivered,
publicly funded surgeries to achieve 450,000 surgeries over four years; and
· increases nurse practitioner training capacity by 45 per cent.
The following
questions were given notice on day no. 59 and are to be answered by day no. 64:
Question no. 32 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) what is the total number of income assistance workers per region, (b) what is the total number of active income assistance cases per region, and (c) what is the number of income assistance worker vacancies per region, for each of the past four fiscal years?
Question no. 33 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, what is the total number of vacancies currently in the Ministry of Social Services, broken down by department?
Question no. 34 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) what data, if any, were collected from Food Banks of Saskatchewan in exchange for the two-year, $2 million grant; and (b) what funding will replace the food bank grant, given continued increases in usage province-wide and the absence of any new allocation in the 2026–27 budget?
Question no. 35 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, what data does the ministry use to support its claim that Saskatchewan’s income assistance benefits are among the strongest in the country?
Question no. 36 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, what evidence does the ministry rely on when calculating the rates for benefits for clients to ensure they are sufficient for current food costs?
Question no. 37 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, what is the average length of
time a recipient remains on SIS, broken down by service level screening
category (SLS 1–4)?
Question no. 38 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) what are the specific performance targets and response-time standards for the mobile income assistance outreach team, and (b) what measures are being used to measure success?
Question no. 39 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) what methods does the ministry employ to systematically track housing stability for social assistance clients; (b) how many social assistance clients are experiencing housing stability, and (i) how many SIS clients, (ii) how many SAID clients, (iii) how many TEA clients, and (iv) how many Child and Family Services clients; and (c) what correlation has been observed between benefit levels and clients’ ability to afford and maintain housing?
Question no. 40 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) who conducted the recent audit of Social Services clients and (i) what was the scope; (b) under what specific policy grounds was wide-scale file review/audit initiated; (c) what were the criteria used to identify files for review; (d) who was responsible for conducting the province-wide SIS and SAID file review; (e) was the eligibility review unit responsible for conducting the province-wide SIS and SAID file review and (i) if so, did that unit have sufficient capacity to conduct a review of this scale and what was the timeline over which it was carried out; (f) what was the justification offered for prioritizing a province-wide audit focused on clawing back benefits from this population; (g) how many clients had benefits reduced or discontinued as a result of that audit and (i) how many lost travel benefits specifically; (h) how many clients are now required to repay overpayments as a result of the audit and (i) what is the total dollar amount of those overpayments; and (i) what was the total amount saved by the ministry as a result of the audit?
Question no. 41 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) what is the approval rate for SIS applications; (b) how many SIS applications were approved and denied for each month of the past four fiscal years; (c) what was the process for developing the Order in Council changes to the SIS program manual that took effect April 1st, 2026, and (i) is there any written record of the policy development process, including any internal analysis or stakeholder input; and (d) what specific inflation rate or index figure was used to determine the two per cent benefit rate increase for 2026–27?
Question no. 42 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) for SAID clients living in cities, is medical travel now expected to be covered entirely through the general living allowance; (b) what formula was used to calculate a $70 disability mobility allowance to adequately cover the cost of medical transportation; and (c) what criteria must now be met to access medical travel benefits?
Question no. 43 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) what was the rationale offered for the ministry changing its approach to supplemental diet benefits so that clients must now either pay upfront and seek reimbursement or arrange direct billing through a pharmacy, and (b) how many clients have been affected by this change?
Question no. 44 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) how many clients residing in private care homes have been assessed overpayments related to the phone benefit and what is the total dollar value of those overpayments, and (b) on what basis has the ministry determined that residents of private care homes with a public phone are ineligible for the $30 basic phone benefit?
Question no. 45 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) how many SAID clients is the ministry currently requiring to draw down locked-in retirement accounts (LIRAs) as a condition of eligibility, using the federal post-COVID hardship clause as the basis for doing so; and (b) how many clients required to draw down a LIRA have subsequently had the remaining balance as an asset in future eligibility reviews?
Question no. 46 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) what is the confirmed end date for the Saskatchewan Rental Housing Supplement; (b) what alternate programs will existing SRHS clients be redirected to when the program ends, broken down by number redirected to each program; and (c) to which programs will the funding allocated to the SRHS in the budget be redirected?
Question no. 47 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services,
(a) how many trusteeships are currently active province-wide and (i) how many of those are involuntary; (b) what is the total
funding flowing to CBO trustees in 2026–27 compared to 2025–26; and (c) how
many trustee spaces were added in each of the last five years?
Question no. 48 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, (a) what is the breakdown of
child deaths in ministry care in 2023–24, by (i)
legal status, (ii) placement type, and (iii) location of death; and (b) what is
the scope and timeline of the planned review of the Person of Significant Interest program based on
the recommendations of the Child and Youth Advocate?
Question no. 49 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services,
(a) what were hotel expenditures in (i) 2024–25 and
(ii) 2025–26; and (b) what is the written hotel use
policy in the policy use manual, and (i) when was
this policy updated?
Question no. 50 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services,
(a) how many SIS and SAID recipients who were
previously receiving travel benefits are now expected to use Access Transit or
similar services for medical appointments, and (b) what assessments were
carried out to assess the capacity of these transit services to absorb these
new clients?
Question no. 51 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services,
what metrics were used to track the improvement in consistently recording and
recovering SIS overpayments since the targeted case review and staff training
referenced in the 2025–26 estimates, and (a) by how much did recording and
recovery improve?
Question no. 52 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services,
for each of the last four fiscal years, what is the total number of income
assistance workers, broken down by (a) region, (b) total number of active cases
per region, and (c) number of vacancies per region?
Question no. 53 (Erika Ritchie):
To the Minister of Social Services, how many vacancies are currently open at the ministry, broken down by department?
Question no. 54 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and
Addictions, for each of Regina and Saskatoon’s complex-needs facilities, from
July 1, 2024 to August 1, 2024, what is: (a) the total number of
unique clients served; (b) the number of clients connected to mental-health and
addictions supports in that time, and (i) what
specific supports/programs were utilized; (c) the number of clients connected
to housing in the community, and (i) what types of
housing placements and (ii) what were the locations of these housing
placements; (d) the number of clients connected to physical-health services,
and (i) what were the specific supports utilized; and
(e) the number of clients who could not be connected to required services due
to service unavailability, broken down by service type?
Question no. 55 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and
Addictions, for each of Regina and Saskatoon’s complex-needs facilities, from
July 1, 2024 to August 1, 2024, what is (a) the
nightly occupancy, broken down by date; (b) the breakdown of unique versus
repeat clients; and (c) the average length of stay for the top 50 repeat users?
Question no. 56 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and
Addictions, for each of Regina and Saskatoon’s complex-needs facilities, from
July 1, 2024 to August 1, 2024, what is: (a) the total operational
expenditure; (b) the cost per client per night for the same period; and (c) the
description of the funding model, including (i)
whether funding is per bed (capacity-based) or a fixed contract amount, and
(ii) any performance-based funding components tied to outcomes?
Question no. 57 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, for each of Regina
and Saskatoon’s complex-needs facilities, from July 1, 2024 to August 1,
2024, what is: (a) all outcome indicators, metrics, evaluation frameworks, and
success measures used to assess (i) client outcomes, (ii) program
effectiveness, and (iii) value for taxpayer investment; and (b) any internal or
external evaluations, audits, or performance reports since the applicable start
date?
Question no. 58 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and
Addictions, for the Willowview Stabilization Program
(province-wide), from January 1, 2025 to present, what is: (a) the nightly
occupancy, broken down by date; (b) the type of bed (in-patient, out, virtual);
(c) the total number of unique clients served; (d) the number of clients who
completed treatment; (e) the program’s definition of “completion”; (f) the
average length of stay for clients who completed treatment; and (g) the number
of clients who did not complete treatment, including: (i)
recorded reasons for non-completion, (ii) whether follow-up was attempted,
(iii) who attempted follow-up, and (iv) what follow-up actions were taken?
Question no. 59 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and
Addictions, for the Willowview Stabilization Program
(province-wide), from January 1, 2025 to present, what is: (a) the number
of clients who accessed drop-in treatment services, (b) the number of clients
who completed drop-in programming, (c) the number of clients who registered for
virtual treatment, and (d) the number of clients who completed virtual
treatment?
Question no. 60 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and
Addictions, for the Willowview Stabilization Program
(province-wide), from January 1, 2025 to present, what is: (a) Willowview or SHA’s post-program process to track clients
who complete treatment, including (i) all outcome
indicators, success metrics, and evaluation tools used to determine whether
clients remain substance-free, (ii) number of clients contacted, (iii) number
successfully reached, (iv) length of follow-up period, and (v) reported
outcomes (abstinence, relapse, housing stability, service engagement)?
Question no. 61 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and
Addictions, for the Willowview Stabilization Program
(province-wide), from January 1, 2025 to present, what is: (a) Willowview’s documentation describing how they provide
culturally appropriate programming, including (i)
program descriptions, (ii) staff cultural competencies or qualifications, and
(iii) partnerships with Indigenous-led organizations or Elders; and (b) Willowview’s documentation describing how they implement
trauma-practiced care (not trauma-informed), including (i)
operational policies, (ii) staff training materials, (iii) clinical practice
guidelines, and (iv) any internal evaluations or audits of trauma-practiced
care delivery?
Question no. 62 (Meara Conway):
To the Minister of Mental Health and
Addictions, for the Willowview Stabilization Program
(province-wide), from January 1, 2025 to present, what is: (a) the total
operational expenditure; (b) the cost per client per night; (c) the cost per
treatment completion; (d) the description of the funding model, including
whether funding is per bed (capacity-based) or a fixed contract amount; and (e)
any performance-based funding components tied to outcomes?
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