CONTENTS
FOURTH
SESSION — TWENTY-NINTH LEGISLATURE
of
the
Legislative Assembly of
Saskatchewan
DEBATES
AND PROCEEDINGS
(HANSARD)
N.S.
Vol. 65 No. 3B Monday, October 30,
2023, 19:00
[The Assembly resumed at
19:00.]
EVENING SITTING
The Deputy Chair of Committees: — It being 7 o’clock, we resume debate now.
SPECIAL
ORDER
ADJOURNED
DEBATES
ADDRESS
IN REPLY
[The Assembly
resumed the adjourned debate on the address in reply which was moved by the
Hon. Mr. Morgan, seconded by Mr. B. McLeod, and the proposed amendment to the
main motion moved by Ms. Conway.]
The Deputy Chair of
Committees: —
I recognize the member from Melfort.
Mr.
Goudy: —
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. There’s not many better ways I could imagine
spending my Monday evening than with a bunch of good friends together here in
this Chamber talking about the province we love and the province that many of
us have grown up and come to appreciate.
So tonight I wanted to start off by mentioning the
changes in the Chamber and three new members. We lost three good members and we
gained three more, and we’re looking forward to working together with you three
in the days ahead.
Just one personal mention for the member from
Lumsden-Morse. Funny enough. I really loved the last member, and I’d heard of
him with my ears. But this member I’d seen with my eyes.
And so when I was a boy, the member from
Lumsden-Morse actually lived in the Goudy bunkhouse for a couple months when I
was young. And I looked up to him then, and I still look up to him today. But
back in the days when dad was developing Treflan, and
the old 875 Versatile tractor pulling the diskers and
Chem-Farm stainless steel tanks, there was the member from Lumsden-Morse,
working night and day.
So he didn’t spend much time in the bunkhouse, but
we did see him from time to time when he was incorporating Treflan
in a day when farmers said, we don’t have enough subsoil moisture to
incorporate. But when rapeseed hit the prices it did, all of a sudden every
farmer knew that they could incorporate Treflan. And
so those were my introductions to the new member from Lumsden-Morse, but I’m
going to speak a little bit more about the
bunkhouse later on.
But
build and protect. And you know, my kids, my wife, they probably wish I didn’t
love to build quite so much, but I love to build. And over the last number of
years as a pastor — the income’s not the most lucrative — I absolutely loved
the serving of the people, but some days I loved to go and work on building.
And I built a number of houses and my wife got tired of moving, but my kids
probably even more got tired of building.
And
one of the things that I love to do is not just build but to design. And so I’d
be on AutoCAD and spend all sorts of time and show the kids their rooms, and
they could make changes and make it their own, you know. And so the third house
that we built, we currently live in today. And the kids were able to say yeah,
this is what I’d like and that’s what I’d like, and they got to pick their
colours for their rooms. And just repainted my daughter’s over again because
she was a little younger and now the colour is no good, so go back to the plain
colour we warned her that we should start off with.
But
you know, the kids got to make that house their home. And so you know, I think
when we look today at this document, there’s a lot in here that we need to
personalize and make this our document. Like these are our opportunities moving
forward. And you know, in here are some discussions on how we can deal with the
difficulties you face along the way.
If
you’ve ever built a house, you know that it’s enjoyable but there’s a lot of
difficulties and unforeseen hurdles that you need to get over along the way.
And yes, the member from Weyburn, or sorry, from Estevan, from Estevan, I think
she’s gone through a little something like that over the last little bit.
But
you know, one of the interesting things I never would have known if I wouldn’t
have got into housebuilding was when you dig that hole. How many people here,
you’re going through school and you think, oh my goodness, what am I learning
this stuff for? I’m never going to use this. But I had my really-good-at-math
son, Joel, and he was kind of my right-hand builder all the time, much to his
chagrin. But he and I were staking out where we were going to dig, and you dig
a little bit bigger than the hole of your basement.
And
with a good friend of mine once, well he bought a house and I helped him. And
we had to fix the basement because back in the day, you used to just dig the
hole, build it, and then you dump the clay back in around the house and pack it
down and everything was good, you went ahead. But that clay, as it freezes,
thaws, freezes, thaws, busts the walls, then you got to replace the walls.
So
anyways, you’re staking this out, and I say, a2 + b2 = c2.
That’s a big deal for my son. Because we needed to figure out how to make this
thing square and how to dig it correctly because you want to surround your
house with sand. And you know, sand is important, and I’m going to get to the
reasons or how this ties in with some of the stuff in our Throne Speech in a
minute.
But
you put the sand around the house. And you know, water can be good and bad. If
you’re a farmer in western Saskatchewan, or maybe just about anywhere, there’s
a saying that I’d never heard until I was older either, is that “whisky’s for
drinking and water’s for fighting.”
And
you know, water’s a good and a bad thing. Like it’s a great opportunity to have
clean, clear water but too much of it is a problem. So in Saskatchewan, or in
my part of the world we have clay soil and lots of topsoil on top. But clay is
good. You can’t dump it against your house so you fill it with sand, and
strangely enough the water that can destroy your home, you bring it into your
house. I never would’ve guessed.
So
you dig this hole, oversize. You put your cement . . . And my
favourite hero of life taught a parable, and he talked about building your
house upon the rock. And we don’t have much rock in Melfort. In St. Brieux they
got lots of rock, but in Melfort not much rock and so what we have to do is lay
down cement. So we dig the hole, get it to the base of the clay, you — a2
+ b2 — build your square basement the way to follow your walls. And
then you fill that inside of your house with crushed rock and the outside with
sand.
And
so you then punch holes through the foundation of your house so that you can
bring the water from outside of your house into your house. Like that just
makes no sense to me. And then you take that to the sump pit, and you pump that
out away from your house.
And
so the thing that we pump out from the house, it goes into the back alley. It
runs past Dr. Yemi’s house down into the Melfort
Creek, goes all the way down to the Carrot River over by Fred’s . . .
over by the member from Carrot River’s place, and off into the Saskatchewan
River. Then we pipe that water back to Melfort. Then we treat that water. We
pipe it in in pipes into our homes, and we drink it and bathe in it and all the
rest.
But
water can be good and bad. And when I’m looking at some of the things we have
in this Throne Speech, some of it is the positive opportunities that we have.
But some of it is also things, difficulties that we have to figure out how to
deal with because it’s just part of life.
Water
is a part of life on the prairies. Like I don’t know if you see the siding of
different homes, but below that siding there’s a little sheet of paper that I
wouldn’t have known either is so important to the house. That little sheet of
paper, it’s like a Gore-Tex, Tyvek, whatever
you might call it. Ours has Co-op all over it. We bought all of our stuff from
Co-op. And that little membrane is what keeps the water out of your home. If
you’ve got stucco you think, well I got a . . .
No, it soaks through there. Siding, it’s even better. It kind of drains it
away, but that keeps the water out as well.
But
in this is one of the highlights that I want to talk about. It’s something
that’s very difficult in this province, but we have to embrace it for what it
is. And it’s mental health and addictions.
Mental
health and addictions is something that we’re always going to have a difficulty
with it. There’s always going to be things in life that are challenges in our
own homes, in our own communities. And when I see some of the opportunities
that we have in this, it’s great. But dealing with some of the challenges that
we have is the plan moving forward. How are we going to deal with some of the
unforeseen difficulties that we’re going to face along the way?
And
so this recovery-oriented system of care that I see in this document is one of
the things that excites me most because I’ve been a part of many lives with
mental health and addictions. And it is a very difficult thing that you have to
realize is there. It’s a part of life, and sometimes it’s best to embrace it.
You know, bring it right into your home and we can deal with it and we can
recycle it and we can turn it into something good. And that’s what I’m seeing
here is a team approach to something that is destroying lives and families and
communities. And I’m just awfully excited to see that even the difficulties
we’ve turned into opportunities here as a province.
So,
Mr. Speaker, I was out the other day with our member from Humboldt, and we had
a problem that we needed to deal with again. And so what did we do? We
approached the Philippines and said, we need some labour. We have a labour
shortage. And so the member from Humboldt and I actually spent some time with
the consul general of the Philippines, and we were looking at the labour
shortages we have in our province.
And
I’m sitting at the table with our consul general and with our member from
Humboldt, and we’re talking about some of the things that health care has been
trying to do — recruit, train, incentivize, and retain — and the recruiting
process of trying to bring people from overseas and upgrade our capacity within
the province to provide people for the workforce.
But
as we were sitting there talking about different things I said, you know, it’s
amazing how it is so wonderful to be sitting here tonight with the consul
general and talking about all the people who have moved from the Philippines to
Saskatchewan, but now we’re having a bit of a housing issue.
And
so the Finance minister says, well did you see in our document one of the
points there that can deal with some of the housing issues? And you never want
to hesitate with the minister from Humboldt because she is always quick. And I
hesitated for a moment. And she said, you didn’t even read it, did you? I’d
read it twice.
But
interestingly enough, the bunkhouse that my fellow member grew up in — or
sorry, spent some time in, spent some summers in; I grew up in and he spent
some time in — we turned that into what one of these points is that the member
from Humboldt had said we should probably do.
Great
idea she had. I didn’t even realize that we think the same, member from
Humboldt, which may cause you some concern. But to help those facing rising
rates, my government will introduce a secondary suite program. This program
will help homeowners with the cost of building a rental suite within their
primary residence. So that bunkhouse that my father had built when I was a boy,
we just renovated that suite and turned that into a place where my mom lives
today, second generation.
So
I just want to give kudos to the people who are putting together the financial
plans for the future of our province and say that yes, some of these issues
that seems to be a problem, like housing . . . I think that in the
area of LeRoy, St. Brieux, Englefeld, one of the
biggest requests that I have from the mayors and the different leaders of those
communities is housing. What are we going to do with housing?
So
one of the other things that’s in there — that I had read twice before I was
accused of not having read it — is in order to promote new home construction
and protecting new homeowners from rising costs, the provincial sales tax, PST rebate
for the new home construction, which ended on April 1st of this year, will be
reinstated and extended retroactive to April 1st. So another great opportunity
to deal with a problem. We’re embracing it. We’re not ignoring it. We’re saying
this is the issue that we’re facing, and how can we deal with it and turn it
into a positive?
So
currently my sister and brother-in-law have my mom — talk about building and
protecting — living in their yard with them in the place that my dad, who
passed away a few years ago, had built initially for them. And they renovated
it into a place, beautiful place for my mom to live and all the grandchildren
to show up. So I just want to say turning difficulties into opportunities is
part of what this document talks about, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
One
of the things I love to see here, smoking and vaping. We’re going to try and
deal with that. That’s just a scourge. And I’m glad to see that we as a
government are going to take that serious. The number of children in
Saskatchewan that are vaping, that really can’t get off of it, it is becoming a
very difficult thing for some of these young kids who started vaping, to get
off it. And our government is going to try and reduce the incidence of smoking
and vaping, particularly among young people.
I
love to see that the SDLC [Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation], a great
opportunity that we all have no matter where you live in the province, K
[kindergarten] to career, trying to provide kids to get them into the
workforce, to be able to take some of the courses, working together with
industry to build some of those courses that weren’t there before.
And
no matter where you live in this province, through the new Saskatchewan
Distance Learning Corporation, you’re going to be able to engage in ways that
we never could before in this province. It’s a vast province. It’s a very
diverse province. It’s spread out. And yet turning that difficulty, embracing
it, bringing it in and saying, how are we going to deal with this? We turned it
into an opportunity, and really a great one at that. So a number of things that
we see here in this document, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that are great opportunities
for the future of our province.
One
of the nuts and bolts of building a home is the financing of it. And to see the
number of dollars, the billions of dollars that have been paid down. You know,
when I went to build this last house, Mr. Speaker, I was not planning on being
an MLA [Member of the Legislative Assembly] and building at the same time. So
one of the friends in my community came to me and said hey, Goudy, you can
build houses. Why don’t you sell me the one you got and just build another?
And
it didn’t take much to convince me of that. I was like, oh wow, I’ve got some
plans already in the mix here. So I went to my wife and said hey, Tanny, do you think we could sell the house? So reluctantly
she gave in, so we moved down the street. But then you had to find a place to
rent, and it’s quite a rigmarole actually.
[19:15]
But
I thought for sure I was going to be able to build it all. And then my good
friend Kevin Phillips passed away, after I had sold my house and bought a lot.
And so that house was over budget. Wow, it was over budget, and it was not
healthy over budget. I was in Regina back and forth, and I was supposed to be
the general contractor, and I was going to be the guy building this place.
So
yeah, a mortgage. It is a tough thing to deal with when it’s a little bit
bigger than you planned on. And our government, the Minister of Finance has
wisely said, we want to build in this province. We need to have healthy debt
ratio. And as a province we were able to pay down over $2 billion,
$2.5 billion — she’s sitting right here — and that is exciting to be able
to say. Financially, fiscally responsible, in a good place as far as the
province moving forwards. We aren’t leaving excessive debt to the future of our
province. Unlike sometimes what we see from the federal government, we see a
provincial government here who are very responsible and paying down that debt.
How
many schools were we able to build over the last number of years? How many are
going on this . . . We haven’t had the . . . Oh my
goodness, 17 on the go now. Okay, so building and protecting. What does PMR
[preventative maintenance and renewal] stand for, anybody know?
An Hon. Member:
— Preventative maintenance.
Mr. Goudy:
— And renewal. So preventative maintenance and renewal. We’re not only building
schools. You need to, if you’re going to protect . . . If we ever
lived long enough, we’d have to re-shingle a house. As the Goudy family, we
keep on putting . . . But you know, you have to every once in a while
re-shingle things, or you know, repave, or do whatever you need to do along the
way, re-side.
But
PMR is turning schools that may have had a 50‑year lifespan into 70 and
80 years. And you know, my kids are going to the same school that I went to
when I was a boy. And you know, it’s pretty exciting to see the kind of shape
that those buildings are in because of the government’s PMR funding. That was
$50 million, I believe, this year. So the amount of money that we’re
spending, the amount of schools that we’re building, there’s all sorts of good
things, you know, moving forwards into the future.
Mr.
Speaker, before my time runs out I just want to read a little bit from the very
beginning of this document. And it says, “During this session, my government
will continue to build and protect Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan has enjoyed
unprecedented growth in recent years. Saskatchewan has grown by more that
200,000 people since 2007.”
And
you know, funny enough — I didn’t plan it that way; it wasn’t that I had
anything against the NDP [New Democratic Party] —
but we moved to Saskatchewan in
2008. So you know, I grew up here. I moved away for a
little bit, married my wife from Winnipeg, and then brought her back. And so
she came back with me, and I’m so thankful.
We
had seven of us at the time, then we had one more baby. She was born in Prince
Albert, same place I was born. And now there’s eight. But there’s 200,000 other
Saskatchewan citizens, besides just us, who moved to Saskatchewan since then.
And
I want to say that I’m excited with all of those other newcomers to this
province that we have unbelievable opportunities.
And
I’m going to actually share a poem that I think I’ve shared once before. But I
can’t not do it now that it’s “Build and Protect.” So there was a guy. He used
to speak in the US [United States]. Arnold Paulson was his name. He worked with
ag. And in that speech, just about every speech he ever gave, he gave the same
poem.
And
he said:
I watched them tearing a
building down.
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a yo
heave ho and a lusty yell,
They swung a beam, and the
side wall fell.
So I asked the foreman, “Are these
men skilled,
Skilled as the men that you’d
hire to build?”
And he laughed and he said,
“Oh, no indeed!
Common labour is all I need.
My men can tear down in a day
or two
What’s taken builders years
to do.”
So I asked myself as I went
my way,
Which of these two roles have
I tried to play?
Am I a builder who takes
great care,
Who measures life with a rule
and a square?
Am I shaping my deeds to a
well-made plan,
Patiently doing the best that
I can?
Or am I a wrecker who walks
the town
Content with the job of
tearing down?
And
so I would say as I look through this document, this isn’t just a land of
opportunity for the people who sit on this side of the House and the people
that are in our constituencies. This is a document that talks about opportunities
for all people of Saskatchewan, for those who grew up in Saskatchewan and those
who are new to Saskatchewan.
So
in the words of the document, the last four lines, I just want to close: “May
divine providence continue to bless our province and guide this Assembly in all
its deliberations. God bless Saskatchewan. God bless Canada. And God save the
King.”
And
so I will be supporting the motion and not the amendment. Thank you, Mr.
Speaker.
The Deputy Chair of
Committees: — I recognize the member from
Regina Walsh Acres.
Mr.
Clarke: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to
have a little bit of a different tenor than the last member. Where is the
vision in this Throne Speech, Mr. Speaker? Where is the passion or the drive or
the inspiration to make Saskatchewan better for all Saskatchewan people? When I
read through this government’s recent Throne Speech, I am left uninspired.
What
happened to the days when this government committed to making this the best
place for someone with a disability to live? That’s certainly not the case
today, especially if you are someone who lives on the Saskatchewan assured
income for disability program . . . [inaudible interjection]
. . . Pardon me? I’m not sure why I’m offended, but I will continue, Mr.
Speaker.
What
about the vision to have the shortest wait times in health care in this
province, Mr. Speaker? What about the vision to give our kids the best possible
education, so Saskatchewan’s future economy can thrive? Nope. Not in this
speech, Mr. Speaker.
What
about seniors, the folks who helped build this province and deserve our utmost
respect? What’s in this Throne Speech for improving their lives? There
definitely isn’t a vision to make this the safest place for the LGBTQ+ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and/or
questioning, plus] community, especially kids in this province after the
emergency sitting this month.
There isn’t any vision to protect our air, water,
wetlands, native prairie, or wildlife. Mr.
Speaker, to me this Throne Speech is a testament to the fact that this is a
tired and out-of-touch government. It’s just the status quo. Sure, they make
mention of some of the crises affecting this province and the people in it, but
most of the measures just aren’t enough to solve the problems.
But
here’s the thing, Mr. Speaker. As you know, I’m brand new to this job. I was
elected in a by-election back in August. I spent four months knocking on doors
in Regina Walsh Acres talking to regular Saskatchewan people. And you know what
people told us, Mr. Speaker? They’re struggling. They are struggling to pay
their bills, groceries, power, insurance, new school fees. They’re struggling
to get the health care they need for themselves or their loved ones.
Mr.
Deputy Speaker, one constituent told me that they had gotten abdominal surgery
recently when I knocked on their door. They told me that they had some internal
bleeding a few days following surgery and returned to the ER [emergency room]
to get things checked out. They spent hours waiting and finally returned home
without being seen. It’s unacceptable, Mr. Speaker.
Another
person told me, I’m old enough to remember when people used to complain about
sitting in the ER waiting room for an hour. He went on to tell me that their
grandchild had recently broken their wrist, and they had waited 10 hours in the
ER room in Regina. Mr. Speaker, my colleague slipped on the ice in front of
this building last week and waited an hour and 20 minutes for an ambulance and
then was driven to the ER by someone else.
I’ve
also heard about the crisis in our education system: students not getting the
supports they need; parents struggling to fill the gaps for supports but not
sure where to turn or unable to fork out the money to do so. Mr. Deputy
Speaker, in my maiden speech two weeks ago I spoke at length about the
deterioration to the education system that I saw in my own classroom as a grade
6/7 teacher over the last eight years. I spoke about the fact that supports for
new immigrant students have been cut. Programs for kids with disabilities have
been cut. Fun, experiential learning programs have been cut, and so on, and so
on.
There
are so many crises facing Saskatchewan, and this government seems unwilling to
find solutions that actually help. So let’s dive into this Throne Speech, Mr.
Speaker, and take a closer look.
I’m
going to start with affordability, the number one issue I heard on the
doorstep. And the people that I talked to, as I’ve mentioned already, are
struggling financially to make ends meet. From one constituent recently,
they’re asking the question, do I buy food for my kids, or do I buy the medical
drugs my child needs for their health condition? That’s the question that
they’re struggling with. This is a real issue for so many in this province, and
what does this Throne Speech provide?
A new Saskatchewan employment
incentive program. This program will bolster the income of low-income working
families with dependent children by providing financial incentives for
individuals to obtain and maintain employment.
Mr.
Speaker, what does that even mean? What will this program actually do? I don’t
know, and I guess Saskatchewan families will have to wait and see. But they’re
struggling today, now, and they need help today.
We
know that if you have enough money to buy a house, you can save some money. And
that’s cool for those people. What about if you’re just struggling to pay your
existing mortgage? It would appear the government thinks you can spend some
more money to make a secondary suite if you’re struggling financially. Sure
again if you have the money that’s great; it will help with the housing
shortage.
But,
Mr. Speaker, I’m really struggling to see here, and I know many others in my
constituency are struggling to see how their life is going to be easier because
of this Throne Speech. This is not enough help for people, not when we’re
experiencing dramatic increasing food bank use, not when we’re experiencing
worsening homelessness, not when more and more people’s houses are in arrears.
The
government has announced a Saskatchewan job action plan, and I want to give
them credit for that. They have finally addressed the fact that we need one.
Saskatchewan New Democrats have been calling for a jobs plan for two years.
This is a government who has the worst job growth in the country during this
Premier’s time in power. This is the government who shouts the no-NDP plan.
Well
I’m just thankful that the government has realized that they haven’t had a job
plan for years, but they’re going to start thinking about one now. But I’m not
holding my breath, Mr. Speaker.
Now
while we’re talking jobs, I want to touch on the economy and specifically one
of the numbers the government used to talk about economic growth. From their
Throne Speech, and I quote, “Saskatchewan’s economy expanded by 5.7 per cent
last year, leading all other provinces in Canada.” That sounds like a pretty
good number, Mr. Deputy Speaker. So I went looking to see, you know, verify,
because it doesn’t seem to quite match what we’re seeing in this province.
And
I stumbled across a website called Statistics Canada, Mr. Deputy Speaker. From
the Statistics Canada website, I found this quote on their website: “Following
three straight years of economic contraction, Saskatchewan’s economy grew at
the fastest pace nationally, rising 5.7 per cent from one year earlier.”
Okay.
It goes on to say, “Despite the year-over-year increase, Saskatchewan was one
of two provinces where economic activity remained below pre-pandemic levels.”
Those extra lines sure change the tenor of that 5.7 growth statement, but maybe
they got edited out, Mr. Deputy Speaker, for time. I don’t know.
I
was pleased to hear, Mr. Speaker, from the Throne Speech that:
Over the past five years,
First Nations and Métis employment in Saskatchewan is up 28 per cent and 92 per
cent of Indigenous graduates of Saskatchewan Polytechnic have employment upon
graduation.
And
that is great news, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I’m happy to hear that, but there is a
caveat. I’m wondering about high school graduation rates for Indigenous
students.
And
I want to read a clip from a CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] article
from June 7th of 2023, so just a few months ago.
[19:30]
This
is the title of the article: “Saskatchewan government should do more to support
Indigenous students as grad rates remain stagnant: the auditor.”
So
here’s a quote from the article:
Graduation rates [and we’re
talking high school] were stagnant from 2018 to 2021, with 44.7 per cent of
Indigenous students graduating within three years of beginning grade 10,
compared to 88.7 per cent of non-Indigenous students.
The rate is less than a 5 per
cent increase from the 40.1 per cent reported in 2015. At that time, former
premier and Sask Party leader Brad Wall said the
government would prioritize improving graduation rates of Indigenous students.
So
again I ask, what happened? Where is the vision or the drive to solve this
problem? Indigenous kids in Saskatchewan need more support. They deserve
better. Why is there nothing here to address that?
How
about the crisis in our education system? What in this Throne Speech is there
to help students, teachers, parents, school staff? I see the government patting
themselves on the back for building some schools. And that’s great to see.
That’s great to see. That’s great to see, Mr. Deputy Speaker. But no high
school in White City or Emerald Park yet. The government has seen the petition
with 700 signatures asking for a high school in that community, but they’re
still waiting, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
But
teachers, parents, students continue to call on this government to address
ballooning class size, underfunded classrooms, violence in classrooms, and a
number of other issues. There is nothing in this Throne Speech to fix that. You
can have beautiful buildings, but you need teachers and supports in schools so
students thrive.
And
I think these numbers just speak for themselves when it comes to the state of
education in our province. Comparing the 2021‑2022 to 2022‑2023
year, there are 3,840 new students in the provincial system and literally 66.1
fewer teachers in the provincial system in Saskatchewan schools. We talked
about this at length in the emergency sitting. There’s one counsellor to 3,000
students. There are not ample mental health supports for students in this
province.
And
teachers just passed a sanctions vote with 95 per cent support because they are
done with this government’s plan to keep underfunding students’ education. If
everything was working so great in Saskatchewan schools, I don’t think teachers
would be in 95 per cent support of job action.
Now
I will give the government a thumbs-up, because they want us to like some
things in their Throne Speech. And I will give them a thumbs-up for expanding
the list of cancers in the presumptive coverage for firefighters. They deserve
it for the work that they do to keep this province safe. And I do want to say
thank you to the firefighters across this province for everything that they do.
Now,
Mr. Speaker, as Environment critic, I want to touch on a few pieces that are
relevant to my portfolio. The first one is of course the government’s plan to
attend the COP28 [Conference of Parties 28] meetings in Saudi Arabia in
November this year.
I’m
curious which line the Premier will start his speech with. Will it be, when it
comes to the fact that Saskatchewan has the highest greenhouse gas emissions in
Canada, I don’t care? Or will it be, the Saskatchewan government is proud of
its record on fighting climate change by killing the solar industry in one pen
stroke and increasing renewable energy production in this province by a
whopping 6 per cent in 16 years?
Or,
Mr. Deputy Speaker, will he start his speech at COP with this line: this
government knows that wetlands are amazing absorbers of carbon dioxide. That’s
why the Saskatchewan Party government is bringing in a wetland drainage policy
that will allow 70 per cent of all wetlands to be drained in this province.
Mr.
Speaker, we know that climate change is real, and it is serious. And it is
important for Saskatchewan to do what it can in a thoughtful and deliberate way
to reduce emissions but also build a resilience across our province in a
warming climate. But we need a real plan and a real vision of where we are
going.
Now you know what is
absolutely not in this Throne Speech, Mr. Speaker? Any protection for our
natural environment here in Saskatchewan. Nor is there any mention of a wetland
policy.
And this one’s interesting,
Mr. Deputy Speaker. On September 25th, 2023, just over a month ago, a group of
concerned citizens held a press conference on the steps of this legislature to
call on the Premier of the province to acknowledge the fact that we are the
only province in Canada who doesn’t have a wetland policy. Even Alberta has
one, and it’s a good one at that.
Now, Mr. Speaker, this group
included ranchers, cabin owners, farmers, conservationists, and regular folks.
They brought 2,200 letters that they had collected this summer calling on the
government to develop a wetland policy, not an agricultural drainage policy.
They haven’t received a response back yet from anyone in the government, Mr.
Deputy Speaker.
2,200 letters. Gosh, we had
an emergency sitting for two weeks to plow through a
pronoun bill that would affect less than 1 per cent of the students across this
province because of 18 letters, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
I’m curious, I’m curious how
much worse our water quality has to get across this province before this
government wakes up and takes notice. This isn’t just a concern about the
health of these ecosystems. Businesses will be forced to spend more money to
filter and clean water before they can use it. Our cities, towns, and villages
will need to spend more money on filtering water before people can drink it.
We will see more extreme
weather events, including significant rainfall. And the loss of wetlands will
mean more flooding damage. As we know, wetlands help to hold water on the
landscape. This will mean municipalities will have to spend more on repairs,
more money on insurance. This neglect of our wetlands and active destruction of
these places will negatively impact our economy, not improve it, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
How much more degraded do the
Qu’Appelle lakes need to get? How frequent do the toxic blue-green algae blooms
need to happen before this government wakes up?
Now while we’re talking
. . . I’ve only got a couple minutes here, but I want to talk about
Cumberland House and the state of emergency that that community has declared.
And it ties into the Throne Speech, Mr. Speaker, because the government’s
growth plan has a target of 8,500 new acres of land being irrigated each year
going forward. And the community of Cumberland House has declared a state of
emergency because they don’t have enough water for the winter.
The amount of water coming
down the Saskatchewan River into the Cumberland delta is not enough because of
the water being held in the Tobin Lake reservoir above the E.B. Campbell dam.
Now the Water Security Agency says they are retaining all the water because of
the drought and the reservoir levels are of concern.
But on the other side of the
dam, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the delta is dying. The largest inland delta in the
world is drying up. This is a prime hunting location for many people including
those visiting Saskatchewan. It’s an important migratory stopover for birds,
millions of birds, and it’s a vital ecosystem for the people that live there
who rely on that for their culture, their food, and their water. Will the
government not help this community to address the very acute crisis they are
facing?
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I’m
running out of time here. I know the members opposite are upset that I can’t
keep talking, but I’d like to end . . . Don’t flatter myself, they
say. I’m not flattering.
I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful in
this province still, Mr. Deputy Speaker, likely not because of the ways that
the members opposite think. But I’m hopeful because the members on this side of
the Assembly are listening to the people of Saskatchewan. And we are hearing
the real issues that they feel we need to be tackling in this legislature, not
some made-up problem like what a minority of a minority of kids call each other
on the playground.
I’m hopeful, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, because we are ready to work with the people of this province to find
Saskatchewan solutions for the very real challenges that they are facing. And I
am hopeful that tomorrow can be better. But if this Throne Speech is any
indication, it won’t be better under this tired and out-of-touch government.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, for all
of the reasons I have talked about today, I will be supporting the amendment my
colleague the member for Regina Elphinstone has put forward, and I will not be
supporting the government’s Throne Speech. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
The Deputy
Chair of Committees:
— I recognize the member from Yorkton.
Mr.
Ottenbreit:
— Thank you, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees. It’s indeed an honour for me to
join in the debate this evening on this, I believe it’s my 17th Throne Speech
since I began my political career back in 2007 and about my 17th reply. So it
truly is an honour. And it’ll be my last one, the last time I’ll respond to the
Throne Speech. I’m not running again in the next provincial election. It has
been a total honour serving with this great group of people that are currently
in the House and those that have gone before and are no longer here. Of course . . .
An
Hon. Member:
— You have 19 minutes left.
Mr.
Ottenbreit:
— Except the member from Kindersley is in question.
I’m not going to go into too
much detail on a lot of the thank yous, Mr. Deputy
Chair of Committees, but of course we’ve heard over and over again we can’t
serve here without our families. A great supportive family — my wife, Leone; my
daughters, Katelin, Rayanne; and their husbands, Mark
and Austin. The grandkids, Raya, Malaya, Wynnslet,
Otto, and Crew are just a blessing, and I’m looking forward to spending maybe a
little bit more time with them once my role here is completed when the next
election comes.
You know, the members, I
mentioned some that have gone before. A lot have referred to our friend, our
member, Derek Meyers, that we lost, former member for Walsh Acres. In my time
here, in 17 years I think I’ve lost, I think, half a dozen different members.
And you know, all of them just real blessings, really good mentors and
influences on my life. I’ve drawn something from each and every one of them.
They’re all truly missed, but I’m sure appreciative of the chance to serve with
them and become their friend.
Two great premiers I’ve had
the opportunity to serve with, of course Premier Brad Wall previously, who
remains to be a heck of a good friend and somebody I call on from time to time
for input and just to talk with. I think later on in this session I’m going to
get a chance to recognize something that him and a group of his friends did
through Leone and I, through Close Cuts, and in conjunction with another
partnership in the province, but I’ll leave that for another day to talk about
that.
I anticipate I will be giving
another speech here, maybe the budget reply or a closing speech before my time
here is over, God willing. So I’m not going to go into too many of those
details other than, you know, this is a decision I made back in 2004. When I
first sought the nomination for the constituency of Yorkton, Clay Serby, deputy premier, former NDP deputy premier had the
seat. It was almost, you know, unheard of that the NDP would be unseated out of
Yorkton.
[19:45]
But you know, we had a really
good run. We had a lot of good support. People were ready for change, and you
know, even a few of Clay’s strong supporters confided in me that after four
terms they were kind of ready for Clay to move on. And that’s why I decided at
that point to set myself a limit. Should I be lucky enough to win more than one
election in Yorkton, which seemed kind of insurmountable at the time, four was
my limit.
Back in ’16‑17, many of
my friends and others would know that I went through a bout of colorectal
cancer. At that time my wife really questioned my sanity running again in 2020,
but I really wanted to focus on a few key things around our constituency: some
road improvements, infrastructure, some other things, including our Yorkton
hospital that wasn’t quite yet in the planning stages.
Now with it in the planning
stages and assurances that it’s going ahead after Weyburn, at some point —
Prince Albert, Weyburn, and then Yorkton — I’m confident that I may not be
there for the ribbon cutting, but maybe I’ll get a sod-turning before I leave
my seat. So we’ll see how that goes, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees.
The theme of the Throne
Speech, “Build and Protect,” is something that really speaks to me and the time
I’ve spent serving in this province. A couple of years previously, as a
nominated candidate, I spent a lot of time — running up to that 2007 election
and then since — and I looked at the history that this government has had, this
Sask Party government, the colleagues that I serve
with and again, those that went before, what we were able to build, you know,
with the support, with the backing of the people of this province with their
confidence. And you know, hopefully within the course of my time here, I’ll be
able to talk about some of those in detail.
But not only infrastructure
but programs, supports. I know one of our colleagues previously mentioned the
seniors’ income plan. That’s just one example, Mr. Chair, of something that had
been untouched under the NDP for many, many years, I think 90 bucks a month.
Now we’ve quadrupled that over the last number of years, and it gets the attention
every year.
A bunch of other different
programs. We heard about SAID [Saskatchewan assured income for disability] and
some of the other social assistance programs that have been increased and
implemented over the years to support the most vulnerable in our province.
We know that in the past,
some of the members opposite when they were in government, and even when we
formed government and had a goal of growing our province by 10 per cent, they
said it was farcical. We’ve far surpassed that now. We’ve grown the province by
over 200,000 people, partly due to our own people staying here but also with
the great immigrant population that has been coming.
Our economy continues to
grow. We’ve seen more and more investment in our province year over year. We
see from just over a year ago, 13,700 more jobs, more people that are working
here than a year ago.
Our economy growth has been
something that’s record. Of course, we’ve heard many members talk about, you
know, the fastest growth not only in population but economically, than over the
last 100 years.
You know, it’s something
Premier Wall used to talk about. Growth in itself isn’t the goal, but growth
for the benefit of the people of the province is what we focus on.
And again, when we look at
the infrastructure improvements, the growth there. We heard other members talk
about the 60 schools that have been built, 17 in the works. A number of
hospitals that I was personally involved with. You know, it was really an
honour for myself, Mr. Chair, in my time I spent in Rural and Remote Health
from 2014 to ’19, I had the opportunity to open the majority of the 14 or 15
long-term care and integrated facilities that we built. I was able to be there
for the sod-turning to the opening of the Saskatchewan Hospital in North
Battleford, our mental health facility.
One of the things I count as
probably one of my proudest or most heartwarming
moments was being able to be there . . . The first duty I did as the
Rural Health minister was do the sod-turning or sand turning with a lot of
young children at the children’s hospital in Saskatoon. And one of the final
things I did, just after I transitioned out of Health into Highways, was attend
for the ribbon cutting.
And you know, I still think
of that day when we did the sod-turning on that facility. I looked up at peds
3000 which is where we spent the better part of three years with our youngest
son, Brayden, going through his cancer treatment. And you know, it really
choked me up that, who would have thought 13, 14, 15 years later I’d be there
as a minister of the government starting a hospital and ultimately opening a
hospital that’s going to serve the kids of this province very much like the
ones that are going through the challenges like Brayden did. You know, one of
my proudest moments.
But you know, there’s so many
of those events over the last 17 years I can point to. And again, I’ll save
some of those for one of my final speeches in this House, but just an amazing
amount of, again, integrated facilities, mental health facilities. I was able
to open the F.H. Wigmore Hospital in Moose Jaw, you
know, primary health clinics and different facilities around the province.
I was able to be part of, you
know, training and recruiting more nurses for the province. You know, I think
we went up by 4,000 nurses over the last number of years; doctors, well over
1,000. We increased training opportunities for nurses and physicians in this
province. And now we’re expanding that even further. In fact in Yorkton, we
just opened up the program with the Suncrest College, not only as it’s itemized
in this Throne Speech with the medical lab technologists and some of those
other professionals that we are now training and expanding and hiring in this
province. But medical lab assistants, we have never trained them in the
province. Now we’re training them in Yorkton, Suncrest College to employ them
in our areas.
So, Mr. Chair, just an
amazing amount of things again. Not just because of the government. It’s
because of the support of the people in this province implementing what they
wanted to see done and carrying through with those wishes, listening to them
and implementing what we could do.
You
know, the one challenge, I think some of us were talking about it earlier, we
were talking about 76 more schools that will have been built once this next
tranche is over with. And you know, 20 000 kilometres of roadways and
multiple hospitals and long-term care facilities and clinics and urban urgent
care centres and so many different initiatives, Mr. Chair, it’s become
normalized.
I
think a lot of people don’t realize . . . You know, why I decided to
get into government, why I wanted to run was because of what I experienced up
in the ’90s and up to 2007 was a steady rate of decline, the wee province
mentality. And we needed a change of attitude, but we also needed a change in
leadership. And although, I mean, the members opposite are open to criticize
and that’s their job, Mr. Speaker, I don’t think anybody can deny how far this
province has actually come.
And
as my friend the member for Melfort pointed out, absolutely there’s challenges.
But I often said, even back in ’07 when I was running, I’d way rather deal with
the challenges of growth than the hardship of decline which we experienced for
many, many years when I was running my business and starting my family.
You
know, numerous things that have been touched on in this Throne Speech. The
graduate retention program is something that I know this government is very
proud of putting into place and implementing. And you look at the dividends
it’s played in this province over the last, you know, number of years. How many
young people have stayed here, taken advantage of that program, and continued
to work here and contribute to our province but also grow their families.
You
know, in my time in Health we worked on, I touched on, nurses, doctors, and
other medical professionals that we decided we were training and trying to
train them in more rural areas. In my time we started, I think, the first
course of nurses being trained up in Ile-a-la-Crosse was a dozen. We were
training nurses in Yorkton, so spreading those courses around. Those people
experiencing those different career choices in rural areas, now a lot of them
deciding to stay there, including physicians.
I
remember back in my time in there we started training physicians. You could go
through your whole course in Prince Albert, exposing them to the northern way
of life, northern medicine, and continue to work there.
It
pointed out in this Throne Speech, the health human resources action plan:
train, retain, recruit, and incentivize health care workers. And although we’re
still challenged and we’re still, you know, short in some areas, I’m really
encouraged by how many people are taking advantage of that program, how many
are looking at Saskatchewan as a career choice and over the next number of
years will be working here to support health care in our province.
You
know, Mr. Chair, looking through the Throne Speech it talks about — I won’t go
into too many details; I know my colleagues will — but setting an environment
for investment. We see record investment, billions and billions of dollars of
record investment coming to our province, including in the agri-food business.
You
know, a lot of our 2030 growth plan initiatives and targets have already been
met or ahead of schedule, and it’s just exciting to see that Saskatchewan be an
export-based province. We’re a small province. We always punch way above our
weight, exporting around the world.
And
you know, the need for those trade offices that we do get criticized for from
time to time, but we have to, as has been pointed out, we have to as a
sub-national government go directly to the national governments for
export-based business support to sell our wares around the world because our
federal government just does not, is not really helpful in a lot of different
areas when it comes to Saskatchewan’s economy.
And
those trade offices in Vietnam, United Kingdom, Singapore, United Arab
Emirates, Mexico, Germany, India, Japan, China, some of our biggest trading
partners, we’re going to continue to work with them to make sure that our
businesses and our export businesses are viable in the province. You know,
continue to sustain those national relationships around the world and make sure
that our province does well, and we can benefit the people of our province
because of those relationships.
You
know, so many don’t really realize. We talk about potash and gold and uranium
and things like that from time to time, but so many around the world recognize
not Canada but Saskatchewan for what is in our future, what’s just over the
horizon, whether it’s other resources like rare earths, helium, hydrogen, lithium,
and others, Mr. Chair, that are really going to benefit this province not only
for the year, couple of years, or 10 years in the future. But it’s going to be
for decades, decades in the future, Mr. Chair.
So
I’m going to kind of go through a lot of this stuff fairly quickly. There’s a
few local things I want to talk about when it comes to Yorkton and my
constituency, when it comes to some of the growth, some of the building, some
of the benefits to our area. You know, we’ve talked about a stronger province,
stronger communities, a stronger economy, and when we look at some of the
things that have been spoken about in detail already, whether it’s the housing
programs or, you know, supports for addictions and mental health.
SIGN,
Society for the Involvement of Good Neighbours is a great organization in
Yorkton, a partner with our health agency as well that delivers a lot of these
programs on the local level. And we couldn’t do a lot of what we can do without
the support of our community-based organizations.
Different
initiatives in Yorkton when it comes to homelessness. So we just opened Bruno’s
Place not too long ago. It actually has mental health and addictions supports
along with the homeless part of their business, Mr. Chair. And they’re doing
just great work. I talked about the Pattison Children’s Hospital and some of
the things that I’ve been involved with. And you know, when it comes to the
local level — that’s on the provincial level — on the local level I talked
about like our Yorkton hospital. It’s in the planning stages. So I’m looking
forward to that project moving ahead, and I’ll be as involved in that as I can
even once I’m out of office. Happy to take part in that.
As
well as when we look at education infrastructure, our own Yorkton Regional High
School, they didn’t want a new high school. They wanted a renovation on the
existing. It’s a trade school. It’s got a lot of the nice shops and stuff, and
they knew if it was replaced they may lose some of what they had.
Twenty-million-dollar renovation that’s pretty much complete now, and it’s just
becoming a great facility that’s going to serve our community for many, many
decades to come.
Our
own Parkland College, now Suncrest College — in partnership with Cumberland;
now the two of them known as Suncrest — are just creating some really good
programs. I talked about the medical lab assistant course.
We
just did a graduation in Melville here on Friday for the first new platoon,
platoon 19 firefighters. You know, the Throne Speech touches on some of the
other supports that we’re putting in place, cancer recognition for firefighters
and things like that to make sure that we have a strong firefighter force in
the province. But to be able to be training these men and women in the province
— not only in the province but in Melville, right adjacent to Yorkton — is
something that we’re very proud of.
So,
Mr. Chair, you know, there’s not a whole lot more I’m going to touch on here.
I’m going to allow the floor to be taken up by some of my colleagues. I just wanted
to make sure I had the opportunity to weigh in one last time on one last Throne
Speech and just acknowledge again how much of an honour it’s been for me to
serve the people of my community and my province, to serve with this group of
men and women — and of course the premiers, the two best premiers that I can
remember in history — has really been a benefit and a pleasure.
You
know, one last thing I just want to touch on really quickly, Mr. Deputy Chair
of Committees, that I haven’t heard talked about, and I know we talked about,
one of our other members talked about, the member for Melfort talked about the
two-and-a-half-billion- dollar debt paydown. The general debt is down from when
we took over. And you know, many will point out about, oh this increase in debt
and how much more debt. Well, Mr. Chair, if you look at that chart, when did
that happen? That happened when . . . and was encouraged by the NDP
at the time, to go to summary financial statements.
The
general financial statements, like a chequebook, the summaries include all of
the third-party debt, the Crown corporation debt. And what have the Crown
corporations been doing? SaskTel’s been investing in fibre and they’ve been
investing in cell service and technology.
[20:00]
SaskPower’s
been expanding by a billion dollars a year, I believe. All business debt,
funded debt, through the business course of their operations. So, Mr. Deputy
Chair of Committees, we have to remember that, that we’re not comparing apples
to apples. The general debt is down. The business debt of the province is up,
but it’s because of the investment back into the province, Mr. Speaker.
So
I will support the Throne Speech. Obviously I won’t be supporting the
opposition’s amendment. Thank you again for the time. God bless this province.
And I’m looking forward to hearing from the rest of my colleagues.
The Deputy Chair of
Committees: — I recognize the member
from Martensville-Warman.
Mr. Jenson:
— Thank you, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees. It’s wonderful to be on my feet
this evening. You know, such good presentations, so good remarks from my friend
from Yorkton explaining everything, and also from my colleague from Melfort.
I
just want to start tonight by giving a quick shout-out to my family who I know
aren’t watching tonight because there is things like hockey and cheerleading
on. So I know that they’re not tuning in. But I do want to say thank you to my
family like we all do. We can’t be here without their support and their love.
And so to my wife, Angela; my son, Asher, who is going to be graduating in June
by the way; and my daughter, Kolbie, you know, thank you for being there for me
and thanks for the ear when I need it.
Somebody
else I just want to recognize really quick before I kind of dive into my
remarks is my constituency assistant, Whitney Friesen. Whitney is going to be
celebrating 30 years as a constituency assistant in the province of
Saskatchewan next month. And I think that is an incredible achievement, and it
speaks volumes to the commitment that that gentleman has for the people of
Saskatchewan. So to Whitney, thank you so much for all that you do.
And
of course, I can’t not say thank you to my constituents, the people that put
their trust in me and all of my other colleagues that are here tonight to be
here to represent them. So we’ve had great conversations. We have phone calls,
emails. We stop in the grocery store, the hockey rink, anywhere in the
community. And I really do appreciate the support from the constituents.
So
earlier this summer I spent quite a bit of time door knocking. Three months or
so I knocked on hundreds of doors — 3, 4, 500 doors. Had some great
conversations. And when I was out, a few of those door knocks do relate
directly to this Throne Speech, the theme “Build and Protect.”
One
of those door knocks I had was with a gentleman by the name of Milt Lepp. Milt has a seed cleaning company, just off of Highway
12, just north of Martensville. Milt is . . . I can’t remember the
exact age, but I believe he’s 85 now or 84. He took me on a tour of his entire
operation, and it’s grain bin after grain bin after grain bin. This guy started
from scratch, back probably 50 years ago or more.
He
has his own drinking water system on the farm, aerated ponds, filtering
systems, and everything. I have never seen somebody so proud of what they have
built. And it really hit home that he has built all this, and he reinvests into
that operation regularly to protect it. He wants it to be there for the next
generation. So that one really stuck with me, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees.
So
when we look at things in the Throne Speech like the PST rebate of 42 per cent
on all new home construction, and the secondary suite plan that we’ve rolled
out, I look at how important those things are in the communities of Warman,
Martensville, Osler, and the surrounding area. And I’m just going to read a
quick letter, email that I received into the record because it’s important, and
I think it really describes how important this is. It’s from Angela Steiert, and Angela is one of my guests on Throne Speech
day. She’s the executive director of the Prairie Sky Chamber of Commerce. She
was here with Melissa Stevenson, who is the Chair. So I’m just going to read
this email really quick into the record:
The Prairie Sky Chamber of
Commerce is dedicated to assisting its members in the dynamic communities of
Warman, Martensville, and the surrounding areas — all of which are among the
fastest growing cities in Canada. As our province, and our region in particular,
experiences remarkable growth, we are committed to witnessing the development
of the central infrastructure that will catalyze our
regional economies.
The continuation of the
provincial sales tax rebate for new home construction remains a pivotal tool in
fostering the expansion these flourishing cities require. With the economic
growth also comes employment opportunities and the need for housing to
accommodate those workers. We are happy to also see that both are a priority
for this government through the Sask jobs plan and
the secondary suite program.
So
when we talk about growth, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, we’re not talking
growth just for the sake of growth so we can roll out new numbers every month
and everything is fine. We’re doing it for our kids. We’re doing it for our
grandkids. We’re doing it for our nieces and nephews. We’re doing it for our
neighbours. We’re doing it for the people of Saskatchewan and the newcomers to
our province.
We
have better schools. We have better healthcare facilities. We have better
infrastructure. And it’s important to remember that none of that happened when
the NDP were in power. We have the Jim Pattison’s Children’s Hospital. We have
the Saskatchewan Hospital at North Battleford, new hospital in Moose Jaw, new
ones coming online in the coming years in Prince Albert, Weyburn, and Yorkton.
And in my constituency we’ve got two new schools in Martensville, the École Holy Mary and Lake Vista
Public School; one newly renovated and expanded high school in Martensville;
three new schools in Warman, middle-years school Traditions and Holy Trinity.
This
summer we added three nurse practitioners in the city of Warman. There’s three
more nurse practitioners going to be starting work in Martensville in the very
near future. We’ve had calls and emails that have recognized this very
worthwhile initiative, and the people are thankful to our previous Health
minister because he listened and he responded. And that’s something we will
continue to do for the people of Saskatchewan tomorrow, next week, and all the
days forward.
In
Martensville, if you’re driving up Highway 12 you’ll see this big monster of a
building on the west side of the highway. It’s a $46 million recreational
facility, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees. That was funded partially through
ICIP [Investing in
Canada Infrastructure Program], so a
federal-provincial-municipal fund cost-sharing agreement. In Warman, I was
lucky enough last week to be able to cut the ribbon. And it’s not the most
glamorous project, but it was a lagoon expansion. This lagoon expansion, okay,
through the ICIP program, will allow the city of Warman to grow to 40,000
people. It’s a terrific investment, and it shows the confidence that the city
of Warman has in this government to continue to grow the economy and grow the
population.
We
have not one, but two new interchanges on highway 11 and 12 as well as the
realigned Highway 305 that runs between Martensville and Warman — much safer
road, I might add. And there’s just so much going on, whether it’s through
ICIP; municipal economic enhancement program or MEEP; or through municipal
revenue sharing, which we all know is tied to the PST. And the stronger the
economy is, the better the revenue sharing is for our municipalities.
There’s
so much positivity everywhere, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, except over
there. There isn’t, according to the member from Nutana,
anything, anything to be proud of. The economy is apparently a dumpster fire,
according to a member over there. Well tell that to the roofing contractors,
the farmers, the salon owners, the dentists, the restaurant owners. Business
people are telling me that things are good. Things are very good. In fact, you
know, the Conference Board of Canada is predicting Saskatchewan’s economy is going
to lead the country again in 2024. We’re leading it in 2023, and we’re going to
continue that in 2024.
Just
a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, a member opposite said,
Mr. Speaker, we’ve heard over and over from a lot of residents, we can’t find a
job in Saskatchewan. To that, I’m going to remind the members opposite that SaskJobs, as of today,
has over 16,000 jobs posted — 7,200 in the sales sector, 3,400 in trades,
construction, and transport. There’s over 4,100 jobs available here in Regina
and over 4,300 in Saskatoon.
The
population is growing at the fastest rate in over a century: 1.22 million
people and growing. Mr. Deputy Chair of
Committees, when my wife and I moved to Warman in 2006 the population
was 4,700 people. Today the population of Warman is estimated at 13,700. That’s
a growth of nearly 200 per cent. That’s an average of 11 per cent per year, one
of the fastest growing communities in all of Canada. Martensville, which is 3
kilometres away, has recorded similar growth numbers: 4,900 people in 2006,
today 11,300. That’s 130 per cent growth or seven and a half per cent per year.
So,
Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, with that growth that we’ve been experiencing
since we formed government in 2007, it’s important to protect the investments
made by the people that are here. And it’s even more important to protect our
residents, especially from the harmful policies that are emanating from Justin
and Jagmeet in Ottawa.
Our
government has been very clear. We will work with the federal government where
it’s a benefit to the residents of Saskatchewan — $10‑a-day daycare, ag programs, things like that. But when it comes
to things like carbon tax, clean fuel standard, net zero power generation by
2030, that’s not on the table.
We’re
also committed to protecting our residents with additional funding and tools
for law enforcement. We’re building a stronger and more resilient economy.
We’re building stronger communities, regardless of where those towns, villages,
and RMs [rural municipality] are in the province.
So
back in the spring I was chairing a Human Services Committee meeting. The
member from Saskatoon University decided to bring the graduate retention
program to the floor and asked questions. The member from Saskatoon University
was advocating that this government get rid of the graduate retention program.
True story. Even though 81,000 post-secondary graduates who have stayed in
Saskatchewan, those post-secondary graduates have received $739 million
through that graduate retention program. It’s a terrible idea. Our government,
Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, is committed to doing more. We’re committed to
protect what has been built, not only protecting what has been built in the
past, but we’re going to protect what is going to be built tomorrow, next week,
next month, next year, and for generations to come.
So
with that, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, I will not be supporting the
amendment put forward by the opposition, but I will be supporting the motion
made by my friend from Saskatoon Southeast and seconded by the member from
Lumsden-Morse. Thank you.
The Deputy Chair of
Committees: —
I recognize the member from
Canora-Pelly.
Mr. Dennis:
— Thank you, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees. It’s a great honour to be standing
here tonight to talk about the Throne Speech and tell the story about growth
and all the great things that are happening in Saskatchewan — our population,
our economy, infrastructure. We’ll continue to grow and protect Saskatchewan.
I’d
like to thank our Premier for his persistence and his leadership through this
year. It’s a great honour to have a Premier that truly cares about our people
of the province and looks out for the best in Saskatchewan.
Thank
you to my 46 MLAs, colleagues, for not only their hard work and commitment to
themselves, but truly have become some of my best friends. And I’m just so
happy to be with them today. And I would say that our caucus is one of the
strongest caucuses in Canada.
Three
to one. Three to one, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, that is positive speeches
towards negative speeches. Wow, the speech from the MLA from Indian
Head-Milestone. Unbelievable. He talks about how we’re renewing and the
negative, no-plan NDP. It was awesome. The MLA from Melfort, he gave me a
lesson on house building I guess. I guess. And I’m trying to figure out how his
water flows in our province, and he gave me a real-life lesson.
Also,
Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank my CA [constituency assistant], Jessica Kwas,
for all her hard work and commitment that she continues to work and take care
of me and the Canora-Pelly constituency.
[20:15]
Also
I’d like to welcome Lizemari Menton
to our office as well. She’s just starting. She’s going to do some casual work
for us. And she’s got a little family of three moving in from South Africa, and
I think she’ll fit in really well in our community.
Mr.
Speaker, I’d also go through the family thing. I’d like to thank my wife,
Lorri, who is a retired nurse practitioner and has been enjoying life — well-deserved
retirement, travelling, spending time with our children and grandchildren. And
also, I guess, in the fall time I’ll be looking at spending more time with her,
and I’m not sure if she’s too happy about that.
I’d
also like to thank my children, Jasmine, Jade, and Carson, and my two
sons-in-law, Jason and Shane. I’d like to thank them for always being there for
me and supporting me, except for when there’s work to do around the lake,
hauling the boat in and hauling the deck dock out and everything else. But most
importantly, I’d like to thank three grandsons, Lewis, Oliver, and Hendrick.
Life has been so much fuller with them, and I’m so grateful and I love them.
I
got to watch my grandson play hockey at the Pats game yesterday at
intermission. By the time old grandpa got there and finally put the seat down,
the buzzer went and that was it. I took a couple pictures of him, but at four
years old, it was the popcorn and pop. And he dropped an ice cream thing, and
it was just a great, great, great feeling to be around.
I’m
also very excited. Within about five days, but I think my daughter is going to
be late — she’s late for everything — but my middle daughter, Jade, is due any
day now. And I’m very much looking forward to her because she’s always
critiqued me about the way I parent and I look forward to seeing her parent. So
it’ll be great. I know my wife is looking so forward to seeing a, hopefully
seeing a granddaughter, but all I look for is a healthy, happy baby.
I’d
also like to, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, I’d also like to thank my
executive and the people from Canora-Pelly who continue to support me over all
these years.
Mr.
Speaker, over the last 16 years this government has worked to build a province
that I’m quite proud of, and we must protect all that we have built. Since 2007
Saskatchewan has grown by over 200,000 people, and the last year alone over
30,000 people, which is the largest population growth in about a century.
Saskatchewan is no longer the place to be from, it’s the place to be.
Mr.
Speaker, Saskatchewan is a growing province and population is what grows our
economy. September alone showed 13,700 more people working in Saskatchewan, and
our economy has expanded by 5.7 per cent in the last year, leading all the
provinces in Canada.
Mr.
Speaker, we have invested over $66 billion in our province over the last
15 years which includes 60 new schools, 30 major renovations. Seventeen new
schools are under construction, under way today. Thirty-five major health
projects completed, under construction, and/or planning — new hospitals,
long-term care facilities, and urgent care centres. And I’m looking forward to
moving forward on our new regional hospital, as my colleague in Yorkton said.
We’ve
done nearly 20 000 kilometres of highway repairs and improvements. And in
my area in Highway 229, we redid that whole highway. Good Spirit park has been
repaved. Madge Lake has been paved. Highway 9 passing lanes from Canora to
Melville plus a new highway, repairs on Highway 8, 47, and 49. And yes, we are
going to do more.
We’ve
got $193 million in capital investments and preventative maintenance in
Saskatchewan provincial parks, $780 million invested in post-secondary
infrastructure, and over $22 million in Crown Corporation, including the
expansion of wireless services which 99 per cent of the province is hooked up
to.
Mr.
Speaker, that’s growth that works for everyone. And now since 2007 our families
are paying less in provincial tax than they did. Mr. Speaker, 81,000
post-secondary grads have stayed in Saskatchewan and received $739 million
through the graduate retention program. We have more doctors, nurses, and other
health care professions.
In Canora, we have signed
four new university grad nurses and we are getting our third doctor in November
and our fourth doctor in January. And we’ve also developed a second full-time
nurse practitioner that is fitting in really well in Canora.
In Preeceville,
we got three new nurses that started. We have three full-time doctors and a
nurse practitioner working in Preeceville. So they’re
at full complement.
Norquay, there is one nurse
practitioner, and the long-term care facility is full.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, in
general our long-term facilities in Norquay, Preeceville, Kamsack, Canora, Theodore, and Invermay are
full of seniors receiving some of the best care. And I’ve been to almost all of
them.
I’d like to thank all the
health care workers for their continued hard work and their service for
Saskatchewan.
Mr. Speaker, private capital
investment of $16 billion, private investment has been invested this year
alone. In 2023 investment reached 13.2 billion and agri-food exports of
20 billion annually. And just recently in Norquay,
I was part of a group, helping out a group of private investors that invested
$17 million in a peat moss plant. And now in the little town of Norquay of about 600 people, there’s over 50 people working
in there.
And we’ve also seen an
expansion of two canola crushing plants just outside of Yorkton. And we’re
going to be rebuilding a road there too as well.
Mr. Speaker, Saskatchewan has
increased in exports by 50 per cent, and we’ve doubled the meat processing and
animal feed. And by the way, I might be getting into making shishliki
again.
We have what the world needs
— food, fuel, and fertilizer. Mr. Speaker, Saskatchewan is a secure, reliable
choice for over 150 countries to deal with around the world. Saskatchewan has
opened trade offices in nine countries: Vietnam, United Kingdom, Singapore, the
United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Germany, India, Japan, and China. Saskatchewan
has not been able to rely on the federal government to promote Saskatchewan
products, so we have done it ourselves.
And I would just say, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, I was fortunate enough to be part of some of the trade meetings
in Berlin when I was out there on a trip to connect with the Ukrainian refugees
and let them find out about stuff that was going on in Saskatchewan and stuff
that we offer. And I would be proud to say that this summer, we opened up a new
trade office in Berlin.
Also while I was down there
in Berlin, as Legislative Secretary of Ukraine Relations in Saskatchewan, I
went down there to find out a little bit about the refugees that have came over
from Ukraine to Berlin and just kind of some of the things that we needed to do
to get prepared when we were bringing the Ukrainians over here from Poland —
Warsaw, Poland.
And I was happy enough to be
part of the five flights that were organized, and over 4,500 Ukrainians that
have come over to Saskatchewan from Ukraine and welcome them. We have one of
the best welcoming packages in the world. And along with that, while we did
that, we had Enrique. He was from Argentina, and he’s a billionaire that took
all these flights and he paid for all the flights. He paid for all the
Ukrainians and he organized the staff and that. And when we got together with
him and had lunch with him and that, he signed a memorandum of understanding
with the Premier to bring these five flights because he was so happy and
intrigued with how well organized our province was to welcome these Ukrainians.
And I think it was just a
great honour to be part of that in helping the Ukrainians come over and helping
them with a package of, you know, social insurance number, health cards,
banking, housing, finding jobs, and just integrating their kids into the
schools in our province. And right in my hometown in Canora, we have about 15
Ukrainian families. And I will tell you that all the families are working. The
kids are happy. They’ve gone to Ukrainian camp out at Crystal Lake and it’s
great to have them there.
Mr. Speaker, if other
countries would use the same environmental regulations that we do, their
emissions would be cut by almost 25 per cent, which is a good reason to buy
Canadian oil. And that, Mr. Speaker, is something that our federal government
should be telling the world.
Mr. Speaker, Saskatchewan
will have a significant presence at the COP28 conference in the United Arab
Emirates. They’ll be promoting our province that has sustainable products and
to represent . . . virtually every country in the world. As an
export-reliant province, Saskatchewan companies must be able to quickly and
effectively transport goods to market. Our government recently signed a
memorandum of understanding with Alberta and Manitoba to strengthen the economy
of supply chains.
Mr. Speaker, Saskatchewan’s
agriculture industry remains the backbone of our economy. Our farmers and
ranchers have had mixed results in 2023, where some of the areas have
experienced extreme drought conditions and other parts of the province have
produced record crops.
I will say, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, Canora and area has had some of the best crops. I talked to some of
the farmers that have been farming for 51 years in our area. They’ve never seen
crops like that — 95 to 100 bushels of wheat per acre and over 70 bushels of
canola per acre — and it’s just great to see that. It’s great to see the cattle
prices the way they are. And it’s just great for our farmers and my
constituency.
Mr. Deputy Speaker,
agriculture has now posted the third consecutive record of agri-food exports in
2023 too, and it’s something to be quite proud of. Mr. Deputy Speaker, January
to June 23rd, agricultural exports of over $10 billion is up 35 per cent
from 2022, and Saskatchewan crop insurance coverage has increased to a record
level of $446 per acre this year alone. Mr. Deputy Speaker, our government is
supplying an additional $70 million to help offset extraordinary costs of
feeding livestock to maintain the breeding herd in Saskatchewan.
And one of our biggest
threats to this economy and to agriculture is our federal government and the
federal carbon tax increases that are causing harm to all of the industries right
across our province.
Mr. Speaker, the member from
Saskatoon Eastview says that we don’t listen to them. Why would they? They have
no plan and they are so negative.
Mr. Speaker, we plan to use
the Sask first Act for federal clean electricity
regulations, the clean fuel standard regulations, and the oil and gas emissions
cap . . . to the Economic Impact Assessment Tribunal.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, in order
to promote new home construction and protect new homeowners from rising costs,
the provincial sales tax rebate for new home construction, which ended on April
1st of this year, will be reinstated and extended retroactive to April 1st.
This rebate returns 42 per cent of the PST paid, which is about 2.5 per cent of
a total house price, to help those facing rising mortgage rates.
[20:30]
Our government, we will
introduce a secondary suite program. This program will help homeowners with the
cost of building rental suites. In addition to help the homeowners with their
mortgage costs, the secondary suite program will increase the availability of
rentals in Saskatchewan.
I’m getting the wave here,
Mr. Deputy Speaker.
An
Hon. Member:
— You’ve got two minutes.
Mr.
Dennis:
— Yeah, give or take.
In the first two years, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, of the Canada-Saskatchewan early learning and child care
agreement, nearly 5,000 spaces were created, and 2,500 new child care spaces
will be added in the upcoming months. And, Mr. Deputy Speaker, since 2007 over
10,000 child care spaces were provided in our province, which is up 114 per
cent.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, earlier
this year our government delivered an additional $40 million to school
divisions to help support the increasing enrolment and classroom complexity.
Funding has grown to over 2.08 billion for the ’23‑24 year, an
increase of 89.4 million. Today we have more than 705 more teachers, 570
more educational assistants, 221 more student . . . staff positions
since 2007.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, our
government is investing $147 million this year to build a francophone
school in Regina, St. Frances Cree Bilingual School in Saskatoon, a
kindergarten to grade 12 school in Lanigan, a joint-use school in Moose Jaw, an
elementary school in La Loche, a Regina north
joint-use school, a Saskatoon city centre school, and the Harbour Landing west
joint-use school.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, this
summer the parks recreation welcomed over 900,000 park visitors to
Saskatchewan. And you know, I’ve been around quite a bit this summer. Good
Spirit, we did paving and renovations of cabins. Madge Lake, we did new park
equipment and expansion of over 100 sites. I attended many events in Burgis, Canora Beach, Tiechko
Beach, Northshore, Bella Sands. Tried to get out there as much as I can because
I live lakefront on paradise island at Crystal Lake. And it’s just nice to see
the people of Saskatchewan enjoying the beautiful sights and the lakes and
everything else within our province.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, in
closing I’d like to thank the MLA from Saskatoon Southeast for his hard work
and dedication over the years. We’re going to miss him and I wish him all the
best in retirement. I’d give him a hug but I can’t hug anybody anymore, right?
No. And I will be supporting his motion, seconded by the MLA from Lumsden-Morse,
and I will not be supporting the amendment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The
Deputy Chair of Committees: — I recognize the member from Regina
Douglas Park.
Ms.
Sarauer: — Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker. We were saying on the other side, we’d really like some context for
what the member just concluded his statement on. But actually maybe we don’t
want to know what the background story was on that.
Anyways before I get started
on my comments around the Throne Speech, I do want to take this opportunity to
give a shout-out to a couple of friends who really saved my bacon this evening.
As we talk about often in this House, we are supported in the work that we do
here by both family and friends that help to, I’d say, stoke the home fires
when we’re away.
And as you well know, we have
Halloween tomorrow. We have been prepping for that. My kids are super excited
for Halloween. They’re two and four, so it’s like peak Halloween excitement in
my house right now. We’ve had costumes picked out for them for a few days now.
It’s actually my husband’s job this year to get the costumes for my children
because he was making some promises to my kids that I wasn’t really willing or
interested in keeping. So I told him, costumes are your responsibility this
year.
Luckily for him, he was able to convince
them to both use hand-me-down costumes that we already had in our house. So
Olivia is going to go as a witch for daycare, and then she’s got a wolf
costume she’s going to wear for trick-or-treating in the evening. And then my
son has this great — this very great, very fancy — dragon costume that’s
actually his sister’s hand-me-down. But he was super excited to wear it until
the drive home from daycare this afternoon, when he
informed me he doesn’t want to be a dragon anymore. He wants to be a vampire,
which is not what you want to hear when you are driving your kids home from daycare knowing you have to go back to work 20 minutes
later until 10:30 at night, mister deputy deputy
speaker, and your husband’s at home with the two kids so can’t go shopping last
minute for a costume for 7 a.m. daycare the next day.
So I put out a call request
to a couple of friends, a bit of a panic text to see if they had any backup
costumes, backup vampire costumes. I was willing to take a Spider-Man. I think
I could convince him into a Spider-Man costume. My two friends who have
children around the same age as my kids, they quickly . . . One of
them sent me about eight different choices of costumes that she had in her
house that she was willing to lend to me. And then the other friend actually
took her baby and went to Spirit Halloween tonight and got a vampire costume
for my boy. And she just dropped it off at my house. She just sent me a note. I
was frantically e-transferring her some money. So shout-out to Leslie Genoway and Steph MacKnight for
being grade A friends. Very lucky to have them in my life.
But I won’t be surprised if I
wake up tomorrow and my son tells me he wants to be something completely
different for daycare. But you can only do so much,
frankly, with two-year-olds, mister deputy deputy
speaker.
Before I get into the Throne
Speech, actually there was one more thing I wanted to do, and that is to give
some love and some thanks to my constituency assistant, Aiden McMartin, who has
done phenomenal work in my office since he started working there several months
ago. He actually started off as a practicum student with my friend, my
colleague, the member for Regina Elphinstone-Centre. And he enjoyed that work
so much he was willing to take a job opening at my office.
Since he’s been there he’s
been absolutely great, so consistent, so smart, so wonderful with my
constituents, mister deputy deputy speaker, and every
single day he sends me — when we’re in the House and I’m not able to be at the
office — he sends me a bit of a debrief as to what has come through our office
that particular day in terms of the issues that have been presented, the
concerns that have been raised by constituents and then the casework that we
have.
And my goodness, mister
deputy deputy speaker, we have a lot of people who
are struggling out there right now. The amount of people who come to my office
in Regina Douglas Park who have issues with social services in particular,
getting access to their SIS [Saskatchewan income support] benefits, has grown
substantially since I started this work in 2016.
So we know that at Throne
Speech debate time there’s a bit of a play in that we’re being too negative on
the opposite side and government is much more positive and all that sort of
thing. And there’s this dance that happens between the two sides in their
speeches, mister deputy deputy speaker.
But I urge them to listen to
what we’re hearing from our constituents, and what I like to think that they’re
hearing from their constituents as well. Because these struggles aren’t unique
to Regina Douglas Park. I know that is a fact, mister deputy deputy speaker. It’s not just the opposition making it up,
mister deputy deputy speaker.
In fact they don’t have to
take our word for it. They just have to listen to the former minister for
Parks, Culture and Sport, the former member for Coronation Park, Mark Docherty,
who said himself as to the slogan of the Sask Party
government, “growth that works for everyone,” he said, “certainly not for my
constituents. Certainly not in Regina Coronation Park.”
So you know, you can say that
we are the ones that are being a downer, but I know that there are members
opposite over there who are hearing the same thing as us, who are hearing about
the struggles, hearing about the worst economic record in the last five years,
hearing about the worst out-migration, hearing about the poor graduation rates,
hearing about the challenges in terms of paying their bills. It’s not just
coming from us.
When you get the Throne
Speech, it’s a real opportunity for a government to provide their vision for
the future and their goals for the future. It’s really just a path that the
government is laying out. That also happens with budget. It’s not just words then,
it’s actual dollar figures where you’re prioritizing certain things and laying
out what your government sees are priorities moving forward for making this
province a better place.
And I will agree. Every
member in this Chamber wants to see this province be the best place it possibly
can be. But really when you look at this Throne Speech, you know, you can see
how truly tired and out-of-touch this government has become. Someone said to me
the other day, they’re not just tired and out-of-touch anymore, they’re out of
steam and they’re out of ideas. And that’s really clear in this Throne Speech.
And again you don’t have to
just take it from us in the opposition. I read several news articles that
called this Throne Speech hollow, sparse, lacking in substance, really
visionless, especially leading into an election, Mr. Speaker.
There was so much opportunity
that this government had that they could talk about, so many things that they
could do to work toward truly making this province the best place it possibly
could be. In health care, in particular, Mr. Speaker, they talk about working
toward improving the surgical wait times. We’ve got some of the worst surgical
wait times in the country right now. We’ve got folks out there who’ve been
waiting for surgeries over a year, Mr. Speaker.
The critic for Health, my
colleague from Saskatoon Fairview, has done a fantastic job in conjunction with
the critic for Rural and Remote Health, my colleague from Saskatoon Eastview,
reaching out and talking to local leaders, talking to those folks on the ground
who truly have some visionary ideas for how we could improve health care in
this province. One of those things that they proposed is a local Grow Your Own
strategy, Mr. Deputy Speaker, which is a great proposal and one we would
strongly encourage government to take if they want to next time put forward a
Throne Speech that has some actual vision, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
The other one is on cost of
living. Like I said, this is a province right now that sadly has some of the
worst mortgage arrears in the country, and that’s actually not a new phenomenon
for Saskatchewan. It’s been like that for several years now, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, but we’ve seen very little in terms of this government putting forward
any sort of substantive relief measures for individuals.
This relief measure they
provide us in the Throne Speech this time around is a secondary suite program,
which is essentially the government saying, we acknowledge that, you know,
times are hard for families right now. Things are tough. It’s hard to pay your
bills. It’s hard to pay your mortgage.
But instead of doing
something substantive like, I don’t know, reducing taxes or fee hikes, any of
the number of 31 that they instituted over the last few years in particular,
you know, insurance, used cars, two examples — Rider games, there’s another one
that was recent — they’re saying, we are going to incentivize you to renovate a
portion of your home to rent it out to somebody else. That’s the solution to
the cost-of-living crisis from this government. Talk about visionless, Mr.
Deputy Speaker.
Another one is on the
economy, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And we’ve presented the case time and time again
in question period that under this Premier we have seen some of the worst
economic foundational indicators over the past five years. I will say some
things . . . And this government loves to talk about 2007, 2007 to
2009, you know. The last five years though they kind of gloss over a little bit
because, you know, if you talk about it from 2007 till 2023 it’s a bit of a
different conversation than if you talk about it over the last five years, Mr.
Deputy Speaker.
[20:45]
Some suggestions to
government opposite if they want to put forward a Throne Speech that has some
vision is to focus — as my colleague had been talking about, the member from
Regina Walsh Acres — on Indigenous high school graduation rates, Mr. Deputy
Speaker. That is a sleeping giant of a labour force in this province that is
just ready and willing and wants to participate fully in our economy, Mr.
Deputy Speaker. They need this government to step up and support that, Mr.
Deputy Speaker. We don’t see any of that in this Throne Speech in terms of
focusing on graduation rates, high school graduation rates and the supports that
are needed to increase that, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
A few positive notes in the
Throne Speech that I do want to acknowledge, as colleagues before me have also
acknowledged: the changes to The Workers’ Compensation Act to include
additional presumptive cancers for firefighters is very welcome. It’s very good
to see us be leaders in the country on this file. It’s something that has been
advocated for by firefighters for, in this province, for a while. A very
positive step. We’re very excited to see this. Very welcomed.
The other one I will say is
the proposed legislation on human trafficking, to allow for those who have
experienced human trafficking, if they’ve incurred negative consequences to
their credit rating, debts, that sort of thing, to seek to have those relieved.
Obviously I don’t know the details of the legislation yet. I haven’t seen the
legislation, but I will say that any measures to address these issues are
welcomed and positive. I will say that legislation on this is easier for
government to do than substantive investments into, for example, ensuring that
shelters like Hope Restored have sustainable funding over a long period of time
with the ability to provide the wraparound supports that are so needed for
those who are leaving what is truly horrendous situations.
Another one that’s very
important is — and is for all issues when it comes to gender-based violence,
including sexual assault, intimate partner violence, something that I know we
talk about a lot — is preventative education, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And you don’t
see anything about that in this Throne Speech. In fact the Minister of
Education has prevented that work from happening in this province right now. We
are now rolling into month three of the school year with this government deciding
that all third-party educators that were providing that education are now
banned from schools, so can no longer go into the schools and provide that
education. And again I remind members opposite, what was that education they
were providing? Consent education, healthy relationships education, Mr.
Speaker. It is a pillar for the national action plan to end gender-based
violence, the federal one that the Minister for Status of Women signed onto —
and we applaud her for doing that — but one of the pillars of that action plan
is prevention.
And it says in that action
plan that an opportunity for action is to:
Develop
age-appropriate school- and community-based approaches to educate children and
young people to prevent gender-based violence. These approaches could include
content on topics such as human rights; child- and youth-appropriate sex
education, including gender norms; healthy relationships; consent; gender
identity and expression and sexual orientation; conflict resolution strategies;
bystander intervention; bullying prevention strategies; and root causes of
violence such as colonialism, racism, and discrimination.
Mr. Speaker, I’ve asked this
before and I ask this again: why is the Ministry of Justice funding
organizations to do this work while the Ministry of Education is preventing
them from doing this work? How can this government put forward legislation to
help survivors of human trafficking when they’re refusing to allow
organizations to go into schools to prevent situations that could result in
human trafficking? It does not make any sense to me, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Another one I want to talk
about, knowing that I don’t have a lot of time, is policing. And I welcome the
government’s announcement in the Throne Speech that they’re going to continue
to work with PAGC [Prince Albert Grand Council] in particular, as well as I
hope other communities to expand work around Aboriginal policing, Mr. Speaker.
Truly Indigenous-led policing is the future of policing in particular in this
province, and there’s a lot of communities doing really great community-based
work on this, working really hard to make their communities safer. I very much
applaud them in that work, and I urge the province to work closely with these
communities to ask them what their needs are and then ask them how they can
help, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
I know my time was limited
today. I wanted to present some challenges and opportunities to members
opposite on ways that we feel that the Throne Speech could have been more
robust than it was, could have had more of a vision than it was, and could
really bring some hope to the people in this province.
I do believe that this is
truly one of the best places in the world to live, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I do
wish we didn’t have a government who got in the way of that. I do wish we
didn’t have a government who continues to make international headlines for all
the wrong reasons, preventing us from being able to tell the great story about
this province, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And because of that, I will not be
supporting the motion on the Throne Speech. But I will be supporting my
colleague’s amendment. Thank you.
The
Deputy Chair of Committees: — I recognize the member from Last
Mountain-Touchwood.
Mr.
Keisig: — Thank you, Mr. Deputy
Speaker. Always a pleasure to get to my feet. At Last Mountain-Touchwood, we
were very fortunate. We had not as good of crops as my colleague from
Canora-Pelly, but it was quite good. And we’re very excited about the increase
in cattle prices. Cattle farmers have really struggled the last few years, and
the prices this fall are looking strong. So it’s always good news to talk about
that, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
Now I just want to tell a
little story. Everyone that serves in this Chamber has a lot of opportunities
that are presented to them, and Saskatchewan’s kind of one big small town. So
through different connections or whatnot I had a phone call one day, and a
teacher from E.D. Feehan school in Saskatoon reached out to me and asked me if
I wanted to join a school group on a tour of the Legislative Building. So I
went out and met this group of students, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
And these were all
English-as-a-second-language students. So they were all immigrants, new
immigrants to Saskatchewan, and it was a great experience. Very nice to meet
the students. They asked some very tough questions. But they were so excited to
be in the province and excited for all the opportunities that are out there for
them. You know, and it was very important to educate the students on how things
are funded in the province and how governments operate. They were very critical
about the high cost of attending university, because many of them were in grade
12.
And I really encouraged a lot
of these students to take a look at a career in the trades. We need more
tradespeople. And I gave them some great example, like the member from
Saskatoon Riversdale, a mechanic. And I also mentioned the member from
Saskatoon Westview. He’s a truck driver. We need more skilled trades in this
province and I really wanted to advocate for them to these students.
You know, it was really
exciting to see the $200 million announcement for Saskatchewan
Polytechnic, the new campus at Innovation Place in Saskatoon. And it was really
nice to attend their meet-and-greet this evening and talk to the board and all
of the members there. This school is truly critical for the growing enrolment
and the skills that are needed across this province. You know, the member from
Saskatoon Southeast is an absolutely fearless advocate for the legal
profession. And I want to be a strong advocate for the trades, Mr. Deputy
Speaker.
You know, I always look
forward to Farm Progress Show. It’s always a big, exciting event, lots of things
. . . Whoops, Mr. Deputy Speaker, it’s Canada’s Farm Show. I got in a
lot of heck from different management on using the wrong name there. But I met
an individual there from Netherlands. And we seen a lot of news this spring
about what was going on in the Netherlands and you always take a lot of the
stuff you see on TV and the interweb with a grain of salt.
So I really posed the
question . . . and her name was Judith. She was from Holland. I said,
how accurate have the agricultural protests and the challenges that they’re
facing have been? And she said, it’s 100 per cent true, everything that was
being reported. They were cutting nitrogen fertilizer emissions. They were
using different environmental policies to really restrict these family farms in
the Netherlands. And the Netherlands is truly the breadbasket of Europe. And it
was very, very challenging for their family farm to keep functioning under this
government overreach.
And I really want to assure
the constituents of Last Mountain-Touchwood and the people of Saskatchewan that
this government supports our agricultural producers, and we are ready to stand
up for them any time we have to.
I want to talk about the
Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport. We’re doing some great work in the film
industry. And there’s many programs that are being published with our film tax
credit, and there’s many more in the pipeline, but I really want to talk about
the series Alone. It was on the History Channel. It’s their number one
program. It was filmed in northern Saskatchewan.
And I had the opportunity,
along with the member from Regina Northeast and the minister, to attend the
premiere of the event. So we’re visiting with the producers of the show, we’re
visiting with the directors and everything else. And that show has been running
for 10 years on the History Channel. It’s the number one show. And the largest
freshwater fish ever caught in that show’s history was caught in northern
Saskatchewan . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . No, it was
not the member from Carrot River.
Anyway, like people do not
understand how big a deal this is. The amount of American tourists that this
show is going to attract and bring into our province, how much dollars are
going to be generated in our tourism industry. We have many people that enjoy
their fishing and they watch that show, and when they see this massive fish
caught, it really attracts a lot of tourism interest.
And you know, I honestly want
to talk to the members opposite and encourage them that they should watch this
program, you know, as well. And really not so much for entertainment, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, but more kind of a how-to guide of how to survive if they ever
had the opportunity to enact their policies of banning fossil fuel production
like they had in their meetings in Hamilton a couple weeks ago. So I think that
would be critical for them to watch this show and educate themselves on how to
survive in the wilderness.
Peak oil is literally nowhere
in sight, no matter how badly the members opposite want that. But on this side,
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we will continue building our world-class energy industry
and protect that resource from outside forces. It’s essential that we, as a
province and a country, Mr. Deputy Speaker, become the preferred global
supplier. You know, Russia has weaponized energy exports, and with the conflict
going on in Israel, we cannot let Iran and other energy-exporting nations
follow suit.
You know, I honestly do not
believe the members opposite understand when they make their horrible statements
like ending fossil fuel production, what that does to investor and corporate
confidence in our world-class energy industry. We have to ensure that the
members opposite are never in a position to enact their policies, and the
importance of the Supreme Court ruling on Bill C‑69 cannot be overstated.
[21:00]
There’s something else I want
to talk about, Mr. Deputy Speaker: the federal clean electricity standards. In
May our Premier clearly stated that these are unattainable and unaffordable,
and he is 100 per cent right. Our diversified electrical portfolio is something
the Saskatchewan people have built over generations, and it’s something that
this government will protect, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The federal government is
trying to cripple our ability to generate electricity, which is clearly in
provincial purview, and provide this energy to all Saskatchewan people,
communities, and businesses.
The members criticize the
government incessantly about the cost of people’s power bills, but they never
put forward any policies or any ideas on how they would lower them. You know,
the member from Walsh Acres was talking about solar panels and renewable
energy. It’s important to note, Germany has spent over a trillion dollars on
renewables. A trillion. Like, it’s hard to get your head wrapped around that
number. That’s over 50 years of our provincial budget with that many zeros, you
know, and they’re currently paying anywhere between 25 and 70 cents a kilowatt
hour. That is not affordable. That is not sustainable. California, they’re big
on renewables. They’re paying over 33 cents — that’s what Google said just this
morning — and they aim to be 100 per cent renewable by 2045. What will the
prices do then?
This government, Mr. Deputy
Speaker, will always focus on balanced, affordable, and reliable electrical
generation. And I want to use an analogy here and just explain things. And the
Leader of the Opposition would understand this. I don’t think anyone else
would. But you know, I’m a farmer, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I’m very proud of that.
And a lot of times as a farmer you get a new-to-you truck. And that truck, a
new-to-you truck — not brand new, but it’s new to you — that becomes your town
truck. So you take good care of it. You keep it clean. You change the oil. You
park it inside. You’re very fussy. You would never even think of sitting in
that seat with your farm coveralls.
But the years go by. You get
a few miles, a little bit of salt, everything else. It gets demoted down to the
farm truck. So farm trucks you use for pulling trailers and different things
and work around the farm. And you know, eventually after a couple more dings
and bang-ups and some more rust and different things, it becomes a field truck.
So then that field truck gets loaded with a lot of extra tools, and you drive
it out to the field and park it there and it stays there. And you use it around
and it gets very little maintenance, and it becomes very much a tool for you to
use.
And then after it’s done
being a field truck, Mr. Deputy Speaker, it becomes a chore truck. Well that
chore truck is hauling chop. It’s hauling salt blocks. It’s getting used to
work with livestock and everything else. And just a word of caution, Mr. Deputy
Speaker — do not ever buy a used chore truck from the member from Cannington.
But the point I’m trying to
make, Mr. Deputy Speaker, is that our coal-fired power plants are not brand
new. But they’re definitely not chore trucks yet. There is still life in them,
and to get full advantage out of them you will get the full return on
investment that every Saskatchewan person has put into them. And we will run
them until they are like a chore truck and ready for the bush.
So Sunday mornings, Mr.
Deputy Speaker, I always have a kind of a routine. I get up, make a leisurely
breakfast, and then I watch the political programs on television. Question
Period I watch first, then I watch The West Block later. But I was
watching Question Period and the federal Minister of Rural Economic
Development, the Hon. Gudie Hutchings, you know, she
was on there trying to justify the government’s choice to remove the carbon tax
on home-heating fuel, which is diesel fuel, Mr. Deputy Speaker, which primarily
affects Eastern Canadians. The majority of Saskatchewan people use the far
cleaner option of natural gas to heat their homes, but we will still be paying
a carbon tax on that. And I was so excited with the announcement that came out
of this government this morning and so excited to support our Premier in all of
his work that he’s trying to do.
I was in Kelliher
on Saturday, and that was the number one issue that people wanted to talk about
was how hypocritical the federal policy was that you would give a certain
segment of the population a tax break and then charge us the full price. Like,
that is not appropriate behaviour for a federal confederation of a government
that’s supposed to govern all of Canada.
The carbon tax is the main
inflationary driver in our economy and it disproportionately affects
lower-income and fixed-income people more . . . [inaudible
interjection] . . . You bet.
Volunteer firefighters are an
absolute cornerstone in rural Saskatchewan, and we truly appreciate all the
excellent work they do serving their communities.
Our government in the Throne
Speech outlined that we will introduce changes in The Workers’ Compensation
Act to include six additional types of cancer. Firefighters are important
members of society. When typical people run away from harm, these guys are
running into it. I’m proud to be an MLA who represents many volunteer
firefighters, and I’m incredibly grateful for the work that they do.
As many members know, a
couple of years ago in the springtime my daughter had a fire, and the volunteer
firefighters saved her house and saved most of her farm. I was sitting in this
Chamber at the time, and it was very tough to hear those messages coming in our
family group chat and the challenges they face. So thank God for the volunteer
firefighters and thank God for their great neighbours.
Well five minutes left?
. . . [inaudible interjection] . . . Okay, you betcha. I’ve got time. You know, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I know
that this might seem like something that some of my colleagues have talked
about before, but it is something that I need to get on the record
. . . [inaudible interjection] . . . I will.
The closure of the Plains
hospital is something that still resonates in rural Saskatchewan, people
driving by and looking at that, now being used as a Sask
Poly school, but it was under an NDP government that did that. That was a
hospital that was easily accessible for all of rural residents. It was very
accessible for ambulances, and it had a state-of-the-art building with all
private rooms.
My mother was in there for
heart medication in 1987, Mr. Deputy Speaker — and I was very young but I
definitely remember it — and it is absolutely something that we as a government
have to educate so many of our young people on what was happened before when
the NDP had the chance to govern.
I am going to let another
colleague of mine speak going forward, Mr. Deputy Speaker, but I do want to say
that I am so proud to serve with this Premier. I am so proud to serve with this
cabinet, and I’m so proud to serve with this caucus on the good work that we
have going forward. And there is so many opportunities for young people in this
province. And I look forward to many more throne speeches with this government.
Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker.
The
Deputy Chair of Committees: — I
recognize the member from Regina Wascana Plains.
Hon. Ms. Tell: — Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, yes, deputy deputy. I’d like to start off my chat here tonight, a chat
thanking my staff in my ministerial office, Ken, Kielle,
Anshumaan, and Emni. I also
want to thank very loyal service and over a long period of time in my
constituency office, Kirsten and Jackie. Without them, without competent,
capable staff would make our jobs so much more difficult. That’s for sure, so I
appreciate each and every one of them.
Mr.
Deputy Speaker, this Throne Speech spoke to several topics that I believe are
incredibly important to the people of Saskatchewan. We have seen significant
investments in our health care and education sectors. There have been increased
investments to ensure our citizens are safe. And our economy is strong,
growing, and on track to achieve many of the government’s ’20‑30 growth
plan targets.
Our
province is the place to be with unprecedented population growth across this
province. To see people entering the province in just this past year was once
viewed as unachievable, but it is so great to see. These people have settled
into more than 450 communities across Saskatchewan, which has enabled our
government to reinvest into this great province.
I’ve
had the honour of representing the people of Regina Wascana
Plains since 2007, which means I have seen many times and first-hand our
government investing almost $66 billion into this province. This includes
20 000 kilometres of highways repaired or improved; $780 million invested
in post-secondary infrastructure; and over 22 billion in Crown corporation
capital, including the expansion of wireless services to more than 99 per cent
of the province.
Our health care
. . . And I’m just touching on what I believe to be some salient
points. Growth — health care growth, industry growth, population growth, job
growth — has allowed this government to reinvest in the most precious resource,
and of course we all know that precious resource is our people.
We’ve focused on providing
appropriate services to those with addictions and mental health challenges.
Now, Mr. Speaker, this addictions issues and challenges are very near and dear
to my heart. I recall many times being in a Health minister’s office over the
last 10 years, I guess, advocating for what we see today, and that is, you
know, ensuring that there is emergency spots for detox, appropriate length of
time, rehabilitation for an appropriate length of time.
Mr. Speaker, I had to send
both my children out of the province to ensure — and this is quite a while ago
now — to ensure that they got the addictions assistance and services that they
needed. As a result . . . And it wasn’t about me and my circumstance
with my children. It was about all of those out there who didn’t have the
resources to be able to send their children out of province for long periods of
time.
And it was the length of
time, the detoxing length of time, type of services provided outside of this
province, that my children are good today. My children are alive. How many
nights spent sitting up, no sleep? I was an MLA then, Mr. Speaker. Sitting up,
no sleep, waiting for a phone call that thankfully never came.
[21:15]
So what we have today with
mental health and addictions services that are going to be provided to our
citizens are, like, so much better. It is about ensuring that the
rehabilitation follows the steps necessary, provides the amount of time
necessary. Not everyone is going to need six months, which my children did, but
I can assure you, Mr. Speaker, that the majority of people that are suffering
with addictions require more than 28 days. Seven to nine days for detox, Mr.
Speaker, then that 28 days doesn’t leave a lot of time for a person to get the
services that they needed.
I’m very, very proud of my
children. It was a long haul, but they did it. They did it when they were
afforded the dignity to ensure to the best of their ability that they will,
that they would become valuable, productive members of our society today. And
for that, I’m grateful. But I’m grateful to this province for listening to what
we were told is needed in the province of Saskatchewan.
And I recall during
. . . at the tail end of the pandemic, that all of us started to see
things that were happening in our society. And a lot of us, you know, were
somewhat, I suppose, shocked by it. What the pandemic . . . I mean
I’m not sure if that would be 100 per cent the pandemic, but it was a large
part of it, where we saw our young people, our people getting, you know,
becoming addicted for a variety, a variety of reasons. Social isolation, no school
— I mean it could be a myriad of different things. But I recall seeing
happening what I went through as a parent. It’s heartbreaking,
devastating, to say the least. And you know, I always hearken back to sitting
in a chair, 3, 4 o’clock in the morning and rocking, waiting for the call. I
knew my kids were at risk, so waiting for the phone call of overdose, waiting
for the phone call that they had died.
And this side of the House
certainly has heard my story over a number of Health ministers over time, and
I’m so proud. I’m very proud of what this government has done to ensure the
services are available. That doesn’t mean that people who are suffering with
addiction are going to avail themselves of those services. It’s important
though to ensure the services are there and ready and willing to assist in this
regard.
The new mental health and
addictions plan will have concrete, near-term actions to address the addictions
issues impacting all of us — families, communities right across this province.
While other jurisdictions have taken a different approach, and that’s fine, I
believe that the province of Saskatchewan has taken the right approach. And I
am proud that this government will not be supplying illicit drugs through our
publicly funded health care system. I do believe health dollars should be spent
where it is needed in the recovery model and emergency care.
Instead a compassionate
approach will be used, built on the three pillars: increasing capacity, get
more people the help they need, improving the system to better serve patients,
and transition to a recovery-oriented system of care. The target of 500 new
addictions treatment spaces across the province will provide many individuals
. . . and again it’s ensuring that those services are available with
the help when they are needed.
Funding rehabilitation and treatment
centres is how this government is tackling these heartbreaking and all-too-often tragic
outcomes. We’re set to work on enhancing our health care system in this
province. And as we always say, there is always so much more work to do, but as
a government forever thus, there’s always more work to do because you can never
do everything all at once. And people change, societies change, and that’s what
we need to continue to do.
Twenty-five health care
facilities have been built since 2007. Saskatchewan people deserve a quality
health care system. New investments in Humboldt, new Saskatchewan Hospital in
North Battleford, Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon, and the new Dr. F.H. Wigmore Regional
Hospital in Moose Jaw. Long-term care centres have been built — Meadow Lake,
Swift Current, Prince Albert, Rosetown, Tisdale,
Saskatoon, and Watrous. In addition, integrated facilities with both acute and
long-term care beds have been built in Leader, Kelvington,
Biggar, Kerrobert, Maple Creek, Kipling, Radville,
Redvers, and Shellbrook. It sounds to me that pretty well, pretty close covers
the entire province of Saskatchewan.
We have more doctors, more
nurses, and again it is about attracting and bringing in, recruiting. We’re no
different than any other province in this country. We’re all having the same
challenges and issues. I always wish I could just snap my fingers and all of a
sudden we would have enough nurses or enough therapists or radiologists, GPs
[general practitioner], whatever the case may be. That is not real, but the
work is being undertaken by our government to try and get as many health care
professionals as possible.
’23‑24, this government
is providing 100 million for construction of Prince Albert Victoria
Hospital, 12 million for capital and operating funding of the Regina
urgent care centre, 3 million for Saskatoon urgent care centre in
partnership with the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation,
38 million for Weyburn Hospital, 500,000 for Regina General Hospital parkade.
Health services or the health
human services action plan — I don’t know what it is about government; they
give these initiatives such long names, long titles — to recruit, retain, and
incentivize health workers. We’re all doing it. In each province, we’re all
doing it and looking for the same people.
There’s always more work to
be done, and we’re investing 25.2 million in continued support for
approximately 500 new post-secondary training seats for Saskatchewan students
across 18 health training programs. We’ve reduced and streamlined a pathway for
internationally educated nurses from nine months to 14 weeks. That is
significant. We continue to expand the scope and practice for pharmacists,
nurse practitioners, and advanced care paramedics to utilize their skills. In
June 2023 the total surgical wait-list has decreased by 15 per cent. We’re on
track to eliminate the COVID‑related backlog and return to pre-pandemic wait-lists by
March 31 of 2023.
This government budget plans to invest in the next
generation. 2.4 billion has been invested by this government to build over
60 new or replacement schools and to fund 30 major renovation projects. This
includes Saskatoon, Regina, Martensville, Langenburg, Hudson Bay, Lloydminster,
Swift Current — again right throughout the province.
There is 147 million in Education budget this
year to build a francophone school in Regina, St. Frances Cree Bilingual School
in Saskatoon, joint-use school in Moose Jaw, elementary school in La Loche, Regina north joint-use school, Saskatoon city centre
school, and Harbour Landing joint-use school. As the MLA for Regina Wascana Plains, I’ve seen this government meet the needs by
building a joint-use school in my constituency, actually two. And I was pleased
to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Regina
north joint-use school. Total operation funding has grown to 2.09 billion
for ’23‑24 school year, an increase of 89.4 million or 4.5 per cent
over last year.
Mr. Speaker, as the previous minister for
Corrections, Policing and Public Safety — my nose is running — I am proud of
this government’s commitment to protecting communities across this province.
Saskatchewan joined with other provincial and territorial governments in
calling on Ottawa to reform Canada’s broken bail system. Mr. Speaker, this is
about public safety. We will continue to hold the federal government
accountable for their promised changes to the Criminal Code for the sake of all
Canadian citizens.
We will continue to work with the federal
government and First Nations to develop solutions . . . Oh, thanks.
Thanks, darling. Ah, relief. We could write an ad about that, couldn’t we? And
continue with working with P.A. [Prince Albert] Grand Council to look at
self-administered policing options. During this session our government will
introduce the protection from human trafficking (coerced debts) amendment Act.
This will relieve human trafficking victims of negative credit factors incurred
through coercion during these particular nefarious, questionable relationships.
We also protect communities
in other ways, such as through the training of our firefighters — and that’s
been mentioned already tonight — right here in Saskatchewan. Our government
recently established the Saskatchewan Emergency Response Institute through our
partnership with Suncrest College just outside of Melville. This will provide
firefighter education and train industrial and volunteer firefighters.
Proudly we are a province no
longer the place to be from. It is the place to be. We have what the world
needs, and this government will continue to protect and build for the future.
While our resource sector continues to be under attack from our own federal
government, as the Minister of Environment I am proud to highlight the work our
government has undertaken.
Our government’s own climate
initiative, Prairie Resilience, focuses on developing and implementing policies
to improve Saskatchewan’s resilience to climate change while standing up for
the people of the province. It is a plan that supports the people of this
province and allows us to continue bringing sustainable Saskatchewan products
to the world while maintaining economic competitiveness.
The products the Saskatchewan
people create are some of the most sustainable products in the world.
Saskatchewan grows the most sustainable canola, mines the most sustainable
potash, and exports some of the most sustainable fertilizer. Saskatchewan also
sequesters more carbon in agricultural soils than any other province in Canada.
Members on this side know that we must continue to provide food, fuel, and
fertilizer that the world needs, while at the same time significantly reducing
the emissions required to produce it.
[21:30]
Okay, I’m getting the
. . . Okay. We will continue to support our sustainable Saskatchewan
industries. What we do not support is, of course, the carbon tax. Taxing people
into poverty is not any way to resolve or solve anything.
And, Mr. Speaker, I do know
and understand that there will be a time . . . If we unleash the
creative ability of our technological sector, there will be a time that we will
be able to create technology to assist us in reducing emissions. Our tech
sector is doing yeoman service today and there’s more to do with the support of
a lacklustre federal government, but the support of this government to ensure
that we have what we need going into the future. We have today ways to ensure
that our emissions are as low as possible. But tomorrow and the next day and
the next year, we will see our sector create what we need to go into the
future.
The members opposite will say
they are opposed to a carbon tax, but we know that they are in full support of
the Trudeau Liberal government carbon tax. And if you would like me to quote
what the member from Walsh Acres has stated publicly, “My take on the carbon
tax, the climate change from here is Saskatchewan [spoiler] I’m in favour.” If
the opposition were in government, our province would be stuck with the
overreaching federal backstop. That means less investment, fewer jobs, less
growth that works for everyone, and a worse-off Saskatchewan.
I am proud of our
government’s economic record. Saskatchewan’s economy has expanded by 5.7 per
cent last year, leading all other provinces. The growth our province has seen
works for all of Saskatchewan. It means that the average family pays thousands
of dollars less in provincial taxes than they did in 2007. This is at a time
when many believed that this growth was not possible. I think we all know who
thought the growth was not possible. Growth is not for its own sake, but to
reinvest in Saskatchewan and its people. The plan, 1.4 by 2030, that is people.
Doubling the growth of Saskatchewan’s forestry sector. Agricultural food
exports hit 18.2 billion, the largest on record.
As an exporting province,
what we sell creates thousands of jobs right here at home. Our government has
opened trade offices around the world, actually nine — United Kingdom,
Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Germany, India, Japan, and China. This
is indeed a tremendous success story.
We will continue to foster
these relationships with other countries, but we also must build this capacity
within Canada. We will continue to tell Saskatchewan’s story. It’s imperative
that we do, to continue to build a strong economy that attracts people,
investment, talent, and business. We are so blessed with natural resources, and
it is this government that will ensure Saskatchewan continues to be at the
forefront of all of the opportunities.
Now I’m going to finish here
tonight with a story. Now there was . . . Well I’m going to keep it
short, apparently. You all want to hear my story? Okay. There was a family.
They were in Canada but they had immigrated to Canada, so they were in a
province in this country. I’m not going to say which province. So what their
interest was was to register their children into school
in Regina. And they didn’t care that they didn’t have jobs because they said,
we’ll get jobs when we get here. How many are on the list on SaskJobs? They had no worries at all, but it was important
to them to get to Saskatchewan.
And as I delved further into
this conversation, what she said, what the mother said to me, Saskatchewan is
Canada. Saskatchewan is the province that we believe Canada is. She said, we’re
telling all our friends. We’re getting all our friends to move with us because
Saskatchewan is what Canada is. Anyway that’s my little story for the night.
The Deputy Chair of
Committees: — I recognize the member
from Weyburn-Big Muddy.
Hon. Mr. Duncan:
—
Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Mr. Deputy Speaker, I’m pleased to rise this
evening to speak to the Throne Speech. Before I do, I want to thank a number of
people as members have done in their speeches.
First
and foremost, to the constituents of Weyburn-Big Muddy who have given me this
opportunity since 2006, I do not take it for granted and I appreciate their
ongoing support.
I
want to thank my staff that work in the building. As Minister of Crown Investments
Corporation, I have an opportunity to work with a new set of staff members. And
so I want to thank David, Mike, Robyn, Cindy, and Jesse. Jesse was my summer
student we shared. Between the Education office and the CIC [Crown Investments
Corporation of Saskatchewan] office we shared a summer student, and Jesse
stayed on part time in the afternoons. After he finishes his courses in the
morning, he comes over and does a great job for us. And so I want to thank
them.
I
also want to take the opportunity to thank the staff that I had the great
pleasure of working with as Minister of Education. Holly, Amy, Aaron, Daphne,
Mr. Speaker, all did a tremendous job in supporting me as minister, but most
especially Mitch Graw, the chief of staff. Mr. Speaker, I can’t say enough
about the work that Mitch, the support that he provided me, Mr. Speaker.
Certainly know that the Minister of Education will be well served by his new
staff, but most especially by Mitch.
Mr.
Speaker, I want to as well thank my constituency assistant, Marcie Swedburg. Marcie has been the constituency assistant for —
I always lose track of this — somewhere in the neighbourhood of 25 years. She’s
probably watching and she’ll text me and let me know what the answer is. But
she has been serving the people of Weyburn-Big Muddy longer than I have, Mr.
Speaker. She was there with the previous MLA. And I’m so glad that she, all
those years ago, had agreed to stay on and work with me. And so I want to thank
Marcie for all of her support.
I
want to thank my family. Mr. Speaker, tonight was a little bit of a treat for
me. Amanda brought the kids — Jack, Ephram, and
Penelope — to the building for supper. She brought all of us supper.
McDonald’s, in case you’re wondering. It was great. And so I would just, you
know . . . I would say, I think that all members will know, being
around this building, how these halls and the rotunda are very echoey. And so
if you heard during the recess at 5 o’clock, in any of that time if you heard
things like “slow down” or “don’t touch that” or “get off of that,” I hope
whoever that family was that those parents were able to get those kids under
control, Mr. Speaker. But I want to thank Amanda and our kids for their love
and their support, Mr. Speaker.
And I want to thank my other family, and that would be
my colleagues here. Mr. Speaker, it’s just a
privilege to work each and every day with these women and men that I’ve been
privileged to be a part of for a number of years, even though members’ faces
and the people change. But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, this is certainly as close to
having a second family as one can get. It’s a treat. It still is a treat to
hear just the talent.
And
you know, it’s hard to name everybody but what we had right before suppertime
from the member from Indian Head-Milestone, if you could see it, for the people
at home who can’t see it, who comes in here with nothing more than an oversize
sticky note and for the next 10 minutes or 12 minutes can absolutely, in
probably the most charitable way that you can imagine, absolutely eviscerate
the opposition and do so with a big smile on his face, Mr. Deputy Speaker. So
privileged to be able to hear a member like that.
And
then this evening to be sitting in the pew and be a member of the congregation
when the member from Melfort stands and delivers a wonderful message. And then
this evening the member before me from Wascana
Plains, who absolutely eloquently talked about the government’s plan and the
government’s vision for some of the most important and crucial areas of
government and — I don’t even know how she did it — was able to just weave her
own family story into that, Mr. Speaker. And really I just can’t thank her
enough for her words this evening. So it’ll be definitely a tough act to
follow.
And
I do want to as well acknowledge our colleague, the member from Moose Jaw Wakamow, who is not physically with us, Mr. Deputy Speaker,
but certainly is with us in spirit and we certainly wish him a speedy recovery.
I
want to, before I do get to the Throne Speech, I do want to congratulate the
member from Saskatoon Southeast on his speech in moving the motion. As members
will know and as the public will know, he’s a long-serving MLA — with the
Minister of Finance until the time of his leaving cabinet, the longest serving
cabinet minister currently in Canada.
And
I always thought that was a great thing because he’s such a seasoned member and
such a wise individual. But now I’ve found out that actually the really good
reason for why he was so busy being in cabinet is because we’re now seeing what
he has with all this time on his hands, and all the time that he has to think
of new ideas for pranks and to action and execute those. So if the Premier can
maybe in the final year find him even more work to keep him busy, that would be
appreciated by all members.
I
want to as well congratulate and thank the member from Lumsden-Morse for his
speech in seconding the motion and the Speech from the Throne. And he certainly
has big shoes to fill, but I think he’s going to do so in a very good way, Mr.
Speaker. And I want to as well . . . So congratulate him on his
election. And I want to congratulate the member from Regina Coronation Park on
his election in the by-election, as well the member from Regina Walsh Acres on
his election. And I want to as well commend him and thank him for touching
words that he had to say about a former colleague of ours, Derek Meyers. It was
nice to hear Derek’s words here in the Chamber again, so I want to thank him
for that.
Mr.
Deputy Speaker, in the remaining time that I have of my 12 minutes that were
allotted to me by the Deputy House Leader, I want to talk a little bit about
the theme in this Throne Speech — build. You know, this certainly is something
that has been a high priority for my constituents, and we see that in a very
visible way. So you know, when you look at the role of the government and you
look at the province . . .
And
you know, I hear from time to time across the way that somehow the members
opposite see this as a lack of vision in terms of the Throne Speech. And I look
at it both at a macro level as well as a micro level in terms of what the
vision of this government has been and continues to be — a growth plan that
sees 1.4 million people. I think when we talk about things of the growth
plan or the Throne Speech or in previous budgets, I think it’s easy to lose
sight of the context in which those plans are developed and delivered.
[21:45]
And so
you know, people can see that the government has set a goal of 1.4 million
people by 2030. And we just have gotten used to I think in this province growth
and growing economic development, growing number of people.
And
you know, even for me I think it’s important to just take a step back and
realize what that means, 1.4 million people by 2030 as a goal, and that I
think we are well on our way of achieving. And if you think about it, not that
long ago, where just getting to a million people and staying at a million
people was the goal even though there wasn’t really a plan around it, but that
was the hope, you know, just by hanging on by our fingernails to a million
people.
And
now we think about 1.4 million people in this province in . . .
basically it will have been, you know, 15 going on well 16 years now. And so over
the course of a 20‑ to 25‑year timeline, Mr. Speaker, seeing an
unprecedented amount of growth that we have seen and will see, you know, I
think that that lays out and continues to lay out the vision, a large part of
the vision for the province.
And
what that means certainly for my constituents in terms of building, Mr.
Speaker, the Throne Speech does identify a number of projects that are
important to my constituents. As was identified in the budget, $38 million
to begin construction on a new hospital in Weyburn, something that had been
long desired by my constituents. Construction is well under way.
5th
Avenue was blocked off for a number of months right at the north end of the
city because the new hospital grounds will be built on the north side of the
street. And so the city blocked it off because they were putting in all the
underground infrastructure and so had to block off the street. But people are
seeing that the fruit of the vision of what this government has been about
since even before we were first elected in 2007, that fruit is becoming more
visible for my constituents.
As
well I know a big project for myself and the member from Estevan, the minister
from Estevan, is the ongoing project of 6 and 39. And we are seeing certainly
when I head back to the constituency and head south on Highway 6 and you get to
Corinne, there is an incredible amount of earthwork that’s going on to twin
that portion and that curve on your way to Milestone, Mr. Speaker. And so
certainly for my kind of stretch of the project, that is the culmination of a
lot of work that’s been done in the intervening years, to put in place the
passing lanes that have been built over the last number of years.
So
that’s, you know, some real tangible ways that we are looking to continue to
build this province and build certainly for my constituents. And then there’s
the idea around not only building, but also protecting what we’ve built and
protecting our opportunities to continue to build into the future.
And
certainly for me, when I look at my role as the minister responsible for the
Crown investments in the province — SaskPower, SaskTel, and the like — you
know, we look at what the position of the government has been on things like
the clean electricity standards and the work that we have done as a province in
establishing our case in terms of why these are not realistic for the province.
They’re not feasible. They’re not achievable and certainly not affordable for
the people of this province because we want to continue . . . we want
to protect our ability to build and continue to build this province.
And
so that continues as well with the work that has been done by the Justice
minister when it comes to establishing the Sask first
Act, The Saskatchewan First Act and the announcement in the Throne
Speech of moving . . . Well that’s all the time I have so I’ll try to
wrap up here because I’ve reached my allotted time. Many people will say this
has been my best speech, many people will say.
But
the work that has been done by the Justice minister and, you know, I think work
that we’ve seen in terms of not only the creation of The Saskatchewan First
Act but also as a part of that, the work of the tribunals, that we will now
put through three federal standards or regulations and legislation, Mr.
Speaker, which really is work that’s not being done anywhere in this country,
Mr. Speaker. And really a creative way, innovative way to really assert our
provincial jurisdiction while I think demonstrating to the federal government,
as well as the people of the province, we are proud of what we’ve built and
we’re going to do everything that we can to protect it regardless of what the
federal government says.
Mr.
Speaker, that extends to what the Premier announced today and the position that
the provincial government has taken just in the recent days since the federal
government announced, unilaterally the Prime Minister has announced that
heating oil will no longer be subject to the carbon tax for the next three
years.
You
know, and we’ve indicated — the Premier has as have I, Mr. Speaker — the
reasons why obviously we think that that’s not fair. And so we will and have
indicated to the federal government that we expect that that exemption would be
applicable to everyone in this country. Certainly it’s our position that there
should not be a carbon tax on anything for anyone, but if they are now going to
essentially cherry-pick which citizens in this country are going to have the
carbon tax applied to them and cherry-pick who and who won’t have that applied,
then we will — if they don’t change that essentially in the next two months —
we’ll be proceeding to removing the carbon tax from SaskEnergy
bills and will not remit a carbon tax to the federal government, Mr. Speaker.
Mr.
Speaker, I have to say that my kids continue to shock me, Mr. Speaker. Members
will know that or may know that I did a little bit of a video to post on the
social media accounts of the Premier late last week about this issue. And so at
supper on Friday night, I think it was Friday night, we showed the kids the
post, the video, and kind of tried to explain a little bit.
Jack
was asking some questions about what all this meant. And from a nine-year-old
whose interest in politics to this point has been limited to dad’s got a pretty
cool office, that’s been the extent of it, he watched the video. And then after
we tried to, you know, explain a little bit of this, he asked, “Well when is
the next election because we need a new prime minister.” And that’s a direct
quote. I’m not making that up. I did not ask him to say that or tell him to say
that.
And
so I continue to be amazed by these kids and their growing interest in more
than just dad’s cool office, which is a little unnerving if I could be honest,
Mr. Speaker.
Mr.
Deputy Speaker, just in closing, I just want to talk a little bit about, in
terms of protecting families and building out this province, Mr. Speaker, I
think, again going back to what I talked a little bit about in terms of things
like population growth and how we can take things like that for granted. I know
the Throne Speech does mention about the $147 million that’s being
invested in education capital and why that is so important for a growing
province and lists out all the projects, Mr. Speaker. And I know we kind of had
the debate, is it 16 or is it 17 major projects that are ongoing at any given
time in this province?
And
I think what’s important to note, Mr. Speaker, and I know certainly in my time
in the role, talking to officials, but certainly widespread through government,
I think it’s easy to lose context that it wasn’t that long ago when two or
three major capital projects was a huge year for this province. Like a banner
year for this province when there were two huge . . .
Some Hon. Members:
—
Huge.
Hon. Mr. Duncan:
—
Huge, huge years when there were maybe two projects going on in education. And
so it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that 16 or 17, you know, it’s kind of
just become a regular part of the capital plan of the government, Mr. Speaker.
And
on that I also want to just acknowledge and thank the work that has been done
by the ministry and by certainly the government, my colleagues, in establishing
the Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation. I think that this is going to
have tremendous opportunities for students right across the province regardless
of where they live.
I
think the DLC [Distance Learning Corporation] in its original, previous
iteration has really done a tremendous job of working with organizations like
the ag tech dealers association and others in creating innovative projects that
might not necessarily be on the radar of the Ministry of Education but
certainly speak to niche markets and niche opportunities for young people,
particularly in rural Saskatchewan.
And
so we’ve expanded that into, for instance, a partnership with the Saskatchewan
Auto Dealer’s Association, who want to enable kids to have better opportunities
to get into taking a course in autobody. And you know, not every school in this
province, particularly in rural Saskatchewan, will have the opportunity to have
kids in a shop just because of physical limitations of the actual class or the
actual school. And so to have an organization like the Saskatchewan Auto
Dealer’s Association that have car dealerships with autobody shops right across
this province to be able to allow for that in-class opportunity.
And
I can just say prior to the cabinet shuffle, I had an individual reach out to
me from Calgary who has interests in an important sector certainly in my constituency
— in the Estevan constituency and in Lloydminster and Kindersley and others —
and heard about what the SDLC had been doing with organizations like the Auto
Dealer’s Association and with the ag tech equipment dealers association and
basically said, we have a problem in a very important industry in this province
and a very important industry in my constituency where in the past operators
were easy to come by because usually you could hire a farmer who was looking
for some part-time work to be an oil field operator.
And
the individual that phoned me from Calgary said, based on the way that
agriculture is today and the size of the farms, you know, there just aren’t
those same types of opportunities or maybe the requirement for those
opportunities, and so we’re having trouble finding operators. And is there a
way that we can work with the Education ministry in creating a program to maybe
get the tickets that that kid in grade 12 needs that may want to go out and
join the workforce right away and get a full-time job working in a really
important industry and an active industry? And so we said, well yes, the SDLC.
They have experience. And they knew about the SDLC, or the DLC.
And
so those are some of the opportunities that I think an organization like the
SDLC will be able to contribute for students right across the province.
And
finally, I just want to, in closing, I do want to . . . I’ve said “in
closing” like four times, I think so. So once the band starts playing some
music we’ll be in trouble.
I
do want to just note the decision of the government to move forward with the
Saskatchewan remembrance observance Act to protect individual’s rights to wear
a poppy. Mr. Speaker, we’re approaching that time of year, we all have our
poppies on, where remembrance is going to be first and foremost in our minds.
And
I want to acknowledge the work of the Weyburn Legion and also recognize that
likely our last World War II active veteran, and likely the last member of the
South Saskatchewan Regiment from my constituency, Howard Schmidt, had passed
away earlier this year. It is going to be a different Remembrance Day for us in
Weyburn, as Howard was always there, every single year, was in good health
right up until about the last month of his life when he passed in April.
And
so, you know, certainly I want to thank my colleagues for bringing forward this
legislation. Thank you. Probably not a well-noted thing that came out of the
Throne Speech, but I think when we talk about protecting this province, honouring
those that did the most to protect us.
And
so, with that, Mr. Speaker, I won’t be voting in favour of the amendment, but I
will be supporting the motion. Thank you.
The Acting Speaker (Mr.
Friesen): —
I recognize the member from Regina University.
Ms.
A. Young: — Thank you very much,
mister deputy deputy deputy
speaker. It’s nice to be here tonight. It’s nice to be on my feet. I’m honestly
thinking about how nice it’s going to be not to be here tomorrow night.
[22:00]
So
I’d like to start out by thanking some of our colleagues, not because this work
isn’t important but thanking some of our colleagues from out of town who are
going to cover off night sitting tomorrow and give their replies, their
responses to the Throne Speech so that some of us can take our kids out
trick-or-treating, which I am really looking forward to.
And
I’d also like to thank the Government Whip for agreeing to be flexible with us
on some of this so that those of us who really want to get out there and steal
some candy from our children tomorrow night and take part in a pretty fun
holiday have the ability to do that. I also want to give a shout-out to the
member for Douglas Park for supplying us with snacks for this evening in our
members’ lounge. It is much appreciated.
And
I want to thank my family. Honestly, after the special session it feels a
little bit strange to be up kind of reopening the session. It feels like we
never really left, but here we are. So I want to thank my family. It feels like
we’ve been back three weeks, but I guess we’ve really only just begun, mister
deputy deputy speaker.
I’m
really lucky, not only in my partner and my two healthy and happy children, I’m
also really lucky to have my dad here who is a frequent flyer in the
legislature, often, to my dismay, on the internet but also provides wonderful
support to me, helps out with canvassing, and also looks after my son and my
daughter as their beloved pops. I also want to give a shout-out to my husband
who’s been on bedtime duties for a few weeks now, and of course my two
beautiful kids who I’m just so, so lucky to have.
I
also want to give a shout-out and a thanks to my executive, my volunteers, the
plucky people who come canvassing with me, and my absolutely wonderful
constituents. I also want to speak briefly about my wonderful constituency
assistant, Jocelyn Adema. She is, honestly after my
husband and my kids, probably the most important person in my life. She is just
a remarkable public servant. She is far better than I deserve. She’s so thoughtful.
She does such good work for so many people with a real servant’s heart and
immaculate attention to detail and a sense of humour and commitment to justice
that I admire just so thoroughly. And I’m so thankful for her and all the work
that she does not just for my constituents, but for people across the province,
Mr. Speaker.
I
also want to take a moment and give a shout-out to our wonderful staff here in
the building, certainly in our caucus office, who have just put in a mountain
of work over the past month. They are few and far between, but the team is
growing. And they’re just a miraculous group of people who not only do
incredible work but genuinely seem to like each other, which is amazing in an
environment like this that is not always conducive to perhaps a positive
work-life balance and socialization. But we just have a remarkable team of
hard-working people who are as kind and as good-humoured as they are talented.
I
also want to give one shout-out to my two new colleagues in the Assembly, the
new member from Regina Walsh Acres and new member from Regina Coronation Park,
with a special shout-out to the new member from Regina Coronation Park who I
believe has been quietly heckling for this past week, which is a sad but
important rite of passage.
And
I kid but it’s so, again, fantastic obviously to have additional members on
this side of the House, but also to have just two accomplished and fun and
hard-working colleagues who’ve again probably been on their feet more in the
past few weeks than most members are in their first year. And they’ve done it
with good grace, they’ve done it with humour, and they’ve done it with just an
ever-growing level of commitment and engagement that I think is really
remarkable. So I’m so glad that you’re here. I can’t imagine you not being
here, and I’m just so thrilled for the work that we have ahead of us.
All
those niceties aside, I guess I’ll start to talk about the Speech from the
Throne and my response to it, mister deputy deputy deputy speaker. And I think to begin, it was really a
remarkably kind of light Speech from the Throne in terms of substance and in
terms of ambition. And I really enjoy this process as somebody who, you know,
loves politics and loves, loves . . .
And
now for something completely different: the Speech from the Throne. You know,
really as somebody who loves politics, who loves policy, I always think this is
such a magnificent opportunity. What a really interesting exercise this is for
the government. You have this heady ability to lead and shape the province based
on your morals and your values and your vision. And you’re experienced at this,
right?
I’m
setting myself up probably to be heckled here, but it’s been 16 years. That’s a
lot of opportunities, a lot of speeches from the throne, a lot of budgets. And
after 16 years, when I looked at this Speech from the Throne, when I listened
intently to the Lieutenant Governor deliver it, I thought, you know, what does
Saskatchewan have to show for it? Because that was kind of one of the themes.
It wasn’t just looking at the record of this recent government, but it really
focused on that record since 2007.
So
you know, I’d like to look at that record and the Saskatchewan that the members
opposite have built. And maybe I’ll start with a couple questions. You know,
when we look at Saskatchewan today, when we look at the record, where’s this
government’s minimum wage? Do we have an environment ripe for entrepreneurs,
for small businesses, you know? Is crime down by, I don’t know, a third? Are
students getting better grades than ever? Personal savings, economic confidence
— is that sky-high?
Do
we have the shortest surgical wait times in the country? Has child poverty been
cut in half? Do we have a thriving and prosperous North? Affordable, reliable,
sustainable power? Professionals and experts moving here to Saskatchewan to set
down roots in this province, nurtured by an environment of creativity and
excellence? The most affordable rent and the clearest path to home ownership in
the country? Healthy safety nets there for people when they need them, where
they need them?
You
know, mister deputy deputy deputy
speaker, I’m not going to do the whole list because I do have a limited amount
of time. But I wanted to start with those questions because I think the
contrast is actually quite stark. A government that 16 years ago started with
hope beating fear, and now 16 years later we’ve really only got the fear that
things could be worse.
And
you know, there are different stories of the past 16 years. I recognize that.
But when we look at the things that matter, when we look at the things that we
hear on the doorsteps, that we see reflected not just in the stories that
people tell us — that we hear in hockey rinks, in grocery stores, in line at
the coffee shop — but we see reflected in opinion research, there’s two very
different stories. There’s the story in the Throne Speech, and I think there’s
a story that people in Saskatchewan believe because it’s the story that they’re
living. It’s the story of their lives.
And
yes, we believe in this province, believe in its spirit and its people and its
communities, and we need unity. We need vision. We need opportunity. But we
also need that hope, Mr. Speaker, because right now we see people sleeping on
the streets here in Regina, outside in winter. We see four times
. . . Just this past year, this was the statistic I was really
heartbroken but interested to hear from the food bank here in Regina. Last year
to this year, there has been a fourfold increase in the number of new Canadians
using the food bank. And we see this. But we don’t just see that, Mr. Speaker.
On this side, you know, we also choose to see the volunteers, the people who
care about their neighbours, giving, fighting, sacrificing to help their
neighbours.
And
you know, members have said, well you shouldn’t be so negative. You should
smile a little bit more. So let’s try. Like we don’t just see the crumbling
schools, the caved-in roofs. We see teachers in portables, in hallways, still
fighting to give students the best education that they can, which is the
education they deserve. You know, Mr. Speaker, we don’t just see bodies
sleeping in hallways on hospital beds because our ERs are overflowing. We don’t
just see crowded walk-in clinics because nobody can find a family doctor. We
see our heroic health care workers — nurses, doctors — doing the best that they
can to provide care as they’re able.
You
know, Mr. Speaker, we’re not just being negative. We don’t just see closing
small businesses. We see those restaurants, those retailers, those coffee
shops, those workers, still pushing and grinding and fighting skyrocketing
costs, interest rates, labour shortages. Like the worst of both worlds, and
they’re still serving their communities, bringing that colour, that joy, and
giving so much to local charities and initiatives.
You
know, we see parents who are struggling to give their child opportunities equal
to those of other kids around Canada and the world, and what a shame. Because
we cannot and we should not just accept that a child’s life chances should be
determined the moment of their birth, the moment of their circumstances.
There’s still that hope, and that’s what was really missing: that vision and
that relief.
And
you know, I think some of the speeches from members on both sides, especially
those with those personal stories, those are the most impactful. And I think
those are the hardest to hear for all of us because those are the speeches that
actually bring us together, right. It’s the humanity that matters and should
matter more in this place.
And
I want to talk about one person in particular and it’s a constituent of mine.
She came to the legislature during the height of the pandemic. Her name’s
Dallas. She was waiting for a hip replacement, and then her other hip went while
she was waiting for that hip replacement for two years, so she was here in a
wheelchair. I didn’t know her from Adam. I door knocked her. She said, well
I’ve been waiting for years. Came to the legislature, just a feisty lady.
And
I saw her outside at one of the rallies in support of . . . well
opposed to Bill 137. And hadn’t seen her, and she’s, you know, a retired senior
citizen. I said, hey, Dallas, what are you doing? She’s like, well gosh I just,
you know, just finished cancer treatment. I went through the hip replacements,
and like this is the priority? I just had to drag the old bones out to, you
know, let them know that I just think this is a waste of time and totally
misplaced.
And
you know, she’s a raging granny in the informal sense. But it was great to see
her. And I thought, well you know, that’s right. Because we may have
disagreement on this side around some of the priorities, but I think the most
fundamental disagreement that we have in this House right now and when I look
at the Speech from the Throne is around the urgency of some of the needs out
there.
You
know, I think about some of the casework that’s come through my constituency
office just in the past few days, the number of cut-offs of utilities while
it’s freezing outside. And I know there’s a November 1 deadline, but still it’s
cold. It’s snowy. It’s dark. It’s Canada. The number of people we’ve had come
through our office who have had their power cut off, who haven’t been given the
opportunity to have their power limited but just had it fully cut off with no
opportunity to do anything but repay it in full.
I
think about a piece of casework that’s come across my desk with somebody who
just moved into a bachelor suite and had a smart meter installed and
immediately got a $13,000 power bill with no opportunity for a fair and
achievable repayment plan. Like these are pretty serious concerns for people as
we approach winter.
[22:15]
I
think about the seniors and their loved ones who have come through my office,
you know, having had their loved ones and their parents essentially evicted
from Regina Lutheran and Parkview. I spent some time on the phone with a
constituent this week whose mother was kicked out in less than 28 days. As per
the regulations, you know, they weren’t followed. And she and her husband spent
days and days and days and days driving around trying to find a place for her
mom to live.
And
just some of the stories she told me about the very few spaces that she was
able to find. You know, seniors, four to a basement suite with no chair lift
and no way to get up or out in the night. Just some of these things that people
are dealing with that are very, very urgent for them because these are about
people, and these are about people that they love.
You
know, I think about some of the struggles that many of us and many people out
there are having within their own families, with their friends, with
addictions, with mental health, and you know, it’s easy to see it here in the
city.
I
think I’ve spoken about this before in the House. My daughter goes to the YWCA
[Young Women’s Christian Association] for daycare
downtown, which is wonderful. She loves it. It’s a fantastic place. They do
such great work. And there has not been a day, I think, in the past 18 months
maybe, that there hasn’t been a tent city growing just up the street next to
the Sask cancer building. And you know, we drive up
and my daughter says, oh look, Mommy, people are camping. And she thinks it’s
fun. And nobody in Canada should be sleeping outside in winter.
I
was in Whitehorse recently, mister deputy deputy deputy speaker, for a public accounts conference. And on
the last day, the Leader of the Opposition there who’s a friend of mine,
despite our political differences, he drove me around the city, was showing me
his constituency. Whitehorse, beautiful place. Everybody should go. Big
shout-out to the Yukon. And I said, you know, Currie, I’m really interested.
This is a northern city. This is a remote city. It’s a heavily and visibly
Indigenous city. I haven’t seen a single homeless person.
And
I was there with my baby, so we walked, like, the entirety of Whitehorse trying
to get him to sleep. Like, I put miles on. And so I said, you know, like what’s
up? I haven’t seen anybody sleeping in the parks. I haven’t seen anybody
panhandling. You know, I saw a couple of people out maybe having a good time
late at night. But what’s the Whitehorse model? Like, how does this work?
And
he said, well gosh, Aleana,
it’s Canada. You know, we’ve got a couple of people, we’ve got a dozen people
who kind of hang out downtown. Everybody kind of knows them. It’s a small city.
But this is Canada. Nobody’s sleeping outside.
And
it was, honestly it was like a bit of a gut punch when I think about the
situation here in Regina, in the city, with people that we know, with people
that we love.
You
know, Mr. Speaker, you talk for a few hours and all of a sudden 20 minutes
comes up pretty quickly on you. So you know, I’m not even going to go through
some of these recycled and tired announcements in the Throne Speech or things
that will, you know, really only impact a small number of people. But I
recently read a quote that really stuck with me, and I’ll maybe end with this.
And the quote is:
We should never forget that politics
should tread lightly on people’s lives, that our job is to shoulder the burden
for working people and carry the load and not add to it.
And
I think that’s what was really missing from this Throne Speech. I’ve talked
about, you know, what a missed opportunity I felt it was to really set that new
course, that vision for the province and the lack of urgency that we see in
some of these announcements and re-announcements and recycled talking points,
and pointing back to a record from 2007 instead of actually owning the record
of this government.
People
in this province, you know, are asking themselves — and they need to be able to
answer a resounding “yes” to that burning question — are you better off than
you were five years ago, let alone 16 years ago? People in this province need
that vision, they need that unity, and they need that hope, and we did not see
that from this Throne Speech. We saw a lack of vision, a desperate grasping at
2007, and a continuation of this era of uncertainty, mister deputy deputy deputy speaker.
So
for those reasons and so many more that have been canvassed thoroughly by my
colleagues and will be in the next day or so, I think it’s safe to say I will
not be supporting the Speech from the Throne and I will be supporting the
amendment moved by my colleague, the member from Regina Elphinstone-Centre.
Thank you.
The Acting Speaker (Mr. Friesen):
— I recognize the member from Regina Pasqua.
Mr. Fiaz:
— Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is indeed an honour to stand on this
floor and represent the constituency of Regina Pasqua.
Mr. Speaker, this is my seventh response to a Speech from the Throne, and lots
of my colleagues having their 17th response and a few of them having 20th
response to the Speech from the Throne. Mr. Speaker, absolutely a privilege to
sit between this experience, this wisdom, and moreover this positivity, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr.
Speaker, I would like to say thanks to the constituents of Regina Pasqua for their trust in me and support and feedback, and
engage me from time to time on their doorsteps and drop into my office and on a
phone call. And their feedback is very important. That helps us to make
policies in the future.
Mr.
Speaker, I would like to say thanks to all my colleagues for their valuable
suggestions and support. Thanks to all the ministerial staff for their hard
work and efforts they put into all MLAs’ work, Mr. Speaker. They are sometimes
available after work and on weekends, especially in our caucus office, Mr.
Speaker, and you can call them any time. I would like to say thanks to all of
them, especially the chief of staff of our caucus, Ang Currie. Thank you very
much for your support.
I
would like to say thanks to my CA, Josh Fryklund. Mr.
Speaker, he is going back to school now. He is only working on Friday. I hired
a new CA — it’s been one month, more than one month now — Mounir Rahwan. Previously he was working in the Canadian Armed
Forces. He’s a very intelligent guy and taking care of my office really good.
Thank you very much for your work in my constituency, Regina Pasqua.
I
would like to say thanks to my family, extended family, my siblings, my brother
and sister for their moral support and their prayers while I’m working. And I
would like to say thank you very much for my wife. We’ve been together, we’ve
been married since 24 years, Mr. Speaker. Going to celebrate silver jubilee
next year.
I
do remember that 25 years ago, Mr. Speaker . . . This is the family
values, the system. It was June and I was sleeping — very hot weather in Pakistan
— and was sleeping at 3 a.m. My brother, older brother came in and he tried to
wake me up. Actually I was up and pretending not to wake up. And he was trying
to tell me, I found a girl for you. So when I kept sleeping he said, you know,
whatever. I found a girl for you, just would like to tell you that.
I
jumped on the bed and so I was sitting there and said, say what? He said, well
I found a girl for you. I say, okay. And I said, well can I see the picture? He
said, well her father did not give me the picture. I say, okay. And I said,
what is her name? He said, well I forgot the name. And that’s a very true
story. This is how the system works.
So
I could not sleep for one month. And I say, the marriage was in first week
. . . no, the last week of . . . actually the 14th of July,
actually. Yeah. The 14th of July. And that the first time I saw the girl
walking towards me, and I look at my brother, and he look at me and said, well
this is it. This is your wife, and you’re going to spend life with her.
And
you know, Mr. Speaker, a very responsible mother, very responsible lady, and
very beautiful girl I found. Actually, my brother found for me.
We
have, Attia and I have three boys, Mr. Speaker. The first boy is Ayaz. He is in
final year of university, is taking biochem, Mr.
Speaker. And he says, the future is bright here in Saskatchewan, and I’m ready
to serve here in Saskatchewan.
And,
Mr. Speaker, middle boy is Kashif. He is first year in U of R [University of
Regina] taking electrical engineering. I do not know how he is going to
complete, because most of the time I can find him in squash court playing
squash. Mr. Speaker, he is an excellent athlete. I am so proud that he
participated in Canada Winter Games last February, 2023, in Prince Edward Island.
With that, I would like to say — all the squash coaches and especially that’s
team manager, Tara Richter, and Thomas Jackson, that’s provincial coach — thank
you very much for getting all the team ready for Prince Edward Island for
Canada Winter Games.
And,
Mr. Speaker, the third boy is Arsalan. He is in grade 9 in Campbell Collegiate.
All those three boys went into French immersion school. And he’s a very
intelligent boy, Mr. Speaker, also plays squash. Recently he completed gun
safety and a hunter safety course, Mr. Speaker.
And,
Mr. Speaker, this Speech from the Throne set our target and goals and the
directions to achieve. This Speech from the Throne is a great plan, covers
everything that one government can offer for well-being of people of the province.
Mr.
Speaker, I would like to start my response from the Premier’s quote. Premier
said:
Together with Saskatchewan
people, we will continue to build a strong province, a strong economy, strong
communities and strong families.
Moe
said, and:
We will protect what we have
built together from the risks of a global uncertainty and from a federal
government that seems intent on shutting down important parts of our economy.
Mr.
Speaker, I read that phrase, that’s “build and protect.” And this government
since 2007, we are building and protecting. But when you say that — protecting
— and you know, what exactly is that mean, what we protecting? Protecting is
our primary responsibility, which we almost pledge every day. You know, when I
go on . . . read that or sing the national anthem, we say this: we
stand on guard for thee. What exactly is that mean, Mr. Speaker? That what we
guarding for, what we protecting?
That,
Mr. Speaker, that’s of course, this is a very patriotic emotion that mean that
we are protecting our boundaries. That’s very true, but what else? Yes, we are
protecting our land. Yes, we protecting our waters, we protecting our air, and
we protecting our economy, Mr. Speaker. And also we are protecting our people.
And that imply, mean they are making sure they have a quality of life in this
province, having food on the table and pay the bills and everything, Mr.
Speaker.
Protecting
people, making sure that people thrive in their life and having very valuable
jobs, Mr. Speaker. Our government recently partnered with Suncrest College to
establish the Saskatchewan Emergency Response Institute located outside of
Melville, Mr. Speaker.
Building
and protecting since 2007 our education system by investing $2.4 billion
to build 60 new or replacement schools and fund 30 major renovation projects in
many communities all over Saskatchewan. Our government this year projects a
francophone school in Regina. These are the few highlights, Mr. Speaker, that
our government is investing into.
The Acting Speaker (Mr.
Friesen): — It now being 10:30 p.m.,
this House stands adjourned till 1:30 p.m. tomorrow.
[The
Assembly adjourned at 22:30.]
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