CONTENTS
READING
AND RECEIVING PETITIONS
REPORT OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC
ACCOUNTS
MOTION REGARDING SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF
SASKATCHEWAN’S PATIENTS FIRST HEALTHCARE PLAN
SECOND SESSION — THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE
of the
Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan
VOTES AND
PROCEEDINGS
No. 63
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
1:30 p.m.
PRAYERS
Presenting Petitions
Petitions of citizens of the province of Saskatchewan were presented and laid upon the Table by the following members: Noor Burki, Tajinder Grewal, Keith Jorgenson, and Brent Blakley.
Reading
and Receiving Petitions
According to order, the Clerk informed the Assembly that on May 11, 2026, a certain petition orally presented by the Member for Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood was not received and therefore could not be read and received.
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 provide adequate funding to public, Catholic, and francophone schools in Saskatchewan.
(Sessional paper no. 222)
To immediately provide the support needed to complete and open new joint-use elementary and high schools in east Regina as soon as possible.
(Addendum to sessional paper no. 102)
To proclaim October of each year as Islamic Heritage Month.
(Addendum
to sessional paper no. 218)
Report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
Trent Wotherspoon, Chair of the Standing
Committee on Public Accounts, presented the second report for the thirtieth
legislature of the said committee.
(Sessional paper no. 223)
On motion of Trent Wotherspoon:
Ordered, That the second report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts for the thirtieth legislature be now concurred in.
Motion Regarding Support of the Government of Saskatchewan’s Patients First Healthcare Plan
Moved by the Hon. Jeremy Cockrill:
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.
A debate
arising, it was moved by Meara Conway:
That all the words after “House” be omitted and that the following be inserted:
does not support the health care policies of the government because they fail to deliver timely access to care, provide transparency on emergency room closures, ensure fair wages for health care workers, or prioritize public health care over private profits.
The debate continuing on the motion and the amendment and the question being put on the amendment, it was negatived on the following recorded division:
|
YEAS — 20 Erika Ritchie Noor Burki Jared Clarke Matt Love Nathaniel Teed Aleana Young Hugh Gordon Jordan McPhail Meara Conway Nicole Sarauer Brent Blakley Tajinder Grewal April ChiefCalf Keith Jorgenson Bhajan Brar Don McBean Darcy Warrington Joan Pratchler Sally Housser Jacqueline Roy |
NAYS — 30 Scott Moe Kim Gartner Warren Kaeding David Marit Jeremy Cockrill Jim Reiter Everett Hindley Jeremy Harrison Terry Jenson Michael Weger Travis Keisig Sean Wilson Chris Beaudry 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 |
The question being put on the motion, it was agreed to on the following recorded division:
|
YEAS — 31 Scott Moe Kim Gartner Warren Kaeding David Marit Jeremy Cockrill Jim Reiter Everett Hindley Jeremy Harrison Eric Schmalz Terry Jenson Michael Weger Travis Keisig Sean Wilson Chris Beaudry 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 — 21 Erika Ritchie Noor Burki Jared Clarke Matt Love Nathaniel Teed Aleana Young Hugh Gordon Jordan McPhail Meara Conway Nicole Sarauer Brent Blakley Tajinder Grewal April ChiefCalf Keith Jorgenson Bhajan Brar Don McBean Darcy Warrington Joan Pratchler Sally Housser Brittney Senger Jacqueline Roy |
On motion of the Hon. Tim McLeod:
Ordered, That this Assembly do now adjourn.
The Assembly adjourned at 4:00 p.m. until Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.
Hon. Todd Goudy
Speaker
APPENDIX
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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