Petitions of citizens of the province of Saskatchewan were presented and laid upon the Table by the following members: Noor Burki, Keith Jorgenson, Meara Conway, and Brent Blakley.

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 address the short staffing crisis in health care.

(Addendum to sessional paper no. 5)

To stand up for Saskatchewan and advocate for the restoration of federal Jordan’s Principle funding to support Indigenous students in schools.

(Addendum to sessional paper no. 6)

To adopt fair and effective rent control legislation that limits annual rent increases.

(Addendum to sessional paper no. 13)

To immediately reverse the ban on third party sexual health educators in public schools.

(Addendum to sessional paper no. 34)

To proclaim October of each year as Islamic Heritage Month.

(Addendum to sessional paper no. 218)

Standing Committee Membership

On motion of the Hon. Tim McLeod, by leave of the Assembly:

Ordered, That the name of Tajinder Grewal be added to the membership of the Standing Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs and Justice.

Committee of Finance

The Assembly, according to order, resolved itself into the Committee of Finance.

Summary of resolutions adopted:

Main Estimates 2026–27 — General Revenue Fund

Resolved, That there be granted to His Majesty for the twelve months ending March 31, 2027 the following sums:

Executive Branch of Government — Budgetary Expenses

1.	For Advanced Education	$847,074,000
2.	For Agriculture	$660,784,000
3.	For Community Safety	$884,782,000
4.	For Education	$3,144,332,000
5.	For Energy and Resources	$52,412,000
6.	For Environment	$97,659,000
7.	For Executive Council	$13,170,000
8.	For Finance	$375,000,000
9.	For Firearms Secretariat	$8,466,000
10.	For Government Relations	$832,025,000
11.	For Health	$8,478,701,000
12.	For Highways	$763,647,000
13.	For Immigration and Career Training	$155,965,000
14.	For Innovation Saskatchewan	$32,242,000
15.	For Justice and Attorney General	$244,135,000
16.	For Labour Relations and Workplace Safety	$20,238,000
17.	For Parks, Culture and Sport	$116,634,000
18.	For Public Service Commission	$43,573,000
19.	For Saskatchewan Research Council	$45,229,000
20.	For SaskBuilds and Procurement	$190,361,000
21.	For Social Services	$1,690,684,000
22.	For Tourism Saskatchewan	$19,469,000
23.	For Trade and Export Development	$42,562,000
24.	For Water Security Agency	$85,778,000

Executive Branch of Government — Lending and Investing Activities

25.

For Advanced Education

$80,000,000

Legislative Assembly and the Officers of the Legislative Assembly — Budgetary Expenses

26.	For Advocate for Children and Youth	$2,966,000
27.	For Conflict of Interest Commissioner	$589,000
28.	For Information and Privacy Commissioner	$2,634,000
29.	For Legislative Assembly	$11,675,000
30.	For Ombudsman and Public Interest Disclosure Commissioner	$4,603,000
31.	For Provincial Auditor	$11,021,000

Supplementary Estimates (No. 2) 2025–26 — General Revenue Fund

Resolved, That there be granted to His Majesty for the twelve months ending March 31, 2026 the following sums:

Executive Branch of Government — Budgetary Expenses

1.	For Advanced Education	$2,152,000
2.	For Agriculture	$103,800,000
3.	For Community Safety	$43,922,000
4.	For Education	$36,400,000
5.	For Energy and Resources	$2,000,000
6.	For Finance	$16,185,000
7.	For Health	$338,000,000
8.	For Highways	$26,180,000
9.	For Immigration and Career Training	$1,864,000
10.	For Justice and Attorney General	$9,065,000
11.	For Parks, Culture and Sport	$310,000
12.	For Social Services	$75,000,000

On motion of the Hon. Jim Reiter:

Resolved, That towards making good the supply granted to His Majesty on account of certain charges and expenses of the public service for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, the sum of six hundred fifty-four million, eight hundred seventy-eight thousand dollars be granted out of the general revenue fund.

On motion of the Hon. Jim Reiter:

Resolved, That towards making good the supply granted to His Majesty on account of certain charges and expenses of the public service for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2027, the sum of eighteen billion, nine hundred fifty-eight million, four hundred ten thousand dollars be granted out of the general revenue fund.

The said resolutions were reported, read twice and agreed to, and the committee given leave to sit again.

Appropriation Bill

The Appropriation Act, 2026 (No. 1)

Moved by the Hon. Jim Reiter: That Bill No. 60 — The Appropriation Act, 2026 (No. 1) be now introduced and read the first time.

The question being put, it was agreed to and the said bill was accordingly read the first time.

By leave of the Assembly and pursuant to rule 32(1)(e), the said bill was then read a second and third time and passed under its title on the following recorded division:

YEAS — 32

Scott Moe

Kim Gartner

Warren Kaeding

David Marit

Jeremy Cockrill

Jim Reiter

Everett Hindley

Jeremy Harrison

Ken Cheveldayoff

Eric Schmalz

Terry Jenson

Michael Weger

Travis Keisig

Jamie Martens

Sean Wilson

Darlene Rowden

Alana Ross

Tim McLeod

Lori Carr

Brad Crassweller

Doug Steele

Colleen Young

Daryl Harrison

Kevin Weedmark

Barret Kropf

Blaine McLeod

Megan Patterson

Terri Bromm

Racquel Hilbert

David Chan

James Thorsteinson

Kevin Kasun

NAYS — 23

Carla Beck

Erika Ritchie

Noor Burki

Jared Clarke

Vicki Mowat

Trent Wotherspoon

Matt Love

Aleana Young

Hugh Gordon

Jordan McPhail

Meara Conway

Nicole Sarauer

Kim Breckner

Brent Blakley

Tajinder Grewal

April ChiefCalf

Keith Jorgenson

Bhajan Brar

Don McBean

Joan Pratchler

Sally Housser

Brittney Senger

Jacqueline Roy

Committee of the Whole on Bills

The Assembly, according to order, resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole on Bills to consider Bill No. 43 — The Municipalities Modernization and Red Tape Reduction Act.

The questions being put on clauses 1-1 and 2-1, they were agreed to.

The question being put on clause 2-2, it was defeated.

The questions being put on clause 2-3 to 2-33, they were agreed to.

The question being put on clause 2-34, it was defeated.

The questions being put on clause 2-35 to 2-38, they were agreed to.

The question being put on clause 2-39, it was defeated.

The questions being put on clauses 2-40 to 6-1, they were agreed to.

The following bill was reported with amendment, considered as amended, read the third time and passed:

Bill No. 43 —

The Municipalities Modernization and Red Tape Reduction Act

The committee was given leave to sit again.

On motion of the Hon. Tim McLeod:

Ordered, That this Assembly do now adjourn.

The Assembly adjourned at 3:50 p.m. until Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.

Hon. Todd Goudy

Speaker

APPENDIX

NOTICE OF MOTIONS FOR FIRST READING OF BILLS

On Wednesday:

Meara Conway to move first reading of Bill No. 625 — The Members' Conflict of Interest Amendment Act

Meara Conway to move first reading of Bill No. 626 — The Lobbyists Transparency Amendment Act

Meara Conway to move first reading of Bill No. 627 — The Election (Fairness and Accountability) Amendment Act

Meara Conway to move first reading of Bill No. 628 — The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act

Meara Conway to move first reading of Bill No. 629 — The Child and Family Services (Betty's Law) Amendment Act

Meara Conway to move first reading of Bill No. 630 — The Public Health Care Transparency and Accountability Act

NOTICE OF WRITTEN QUESTIONS

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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