Ms. Wilson: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, I would like to welcome Shauna Stanley Seymour seated in the east gallery. Shauna has spent her lifetime involved in the community she has called home. Recently Shauna and husband, Lloyd, returned to her family’s 1904 homestead north of Tisdale to take over the family farm. Shauna has collected 341 letters on behalf of Tisdale residents regarding health care challenges. Please join me in welcoming Shauna to her legislature. Thank you.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Willowgrove.

Mr. Cheveldayoff: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I ask for leave for an extended introduction.

The Speaker: — Leave has been requested for an extended introduction. Is leave granted?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

The Speaker: — Carried.

Mr. Cheveldayoff: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. It’s with great pleasure that I introduce to the House today nine members of the Kinsmen Foundation of Saskatchewan, led by their corporate director, Curtis Kimpton. Curtis has been in the legislature before and is familiar to members on both sides of the House. Curtis hails from Saskatoon. Danika Dinko is the executive director, also from Saskatoon. Jordan Kammer is the incoming Chair, and he hails from Rosetown. Raelynn Nicholson is the current Chair, and she’s from Assiniboia. Susan Colbow, board member from Estevan. Lorraine Duxbury is the board treasurer, also from Assiniboia; Lori Cosh from Macklin; Tracy Prang from Swift Current; and Michelle Stepp from Lloydminster. They cover the entire province, Mr. Speaker.

And I know all members are familiar with the great work that they do. They are planning for their 49th TeleMiracle here in the coming year. This year they raised $6.1 million. And I know members from both sides of the House were invited to participate, and we really appreciate that.

Their cumulative total of 49 years — $165 million back to the people of Saskatchewan. Just in the last few months here, this year alone, $1.567 million for equipment. And I know it has been discussed in the House here, $2.6 million for travel and accommodation of Saskatchewan residents who have to go out of province to seek the treatment that they need. Mr. Speaker, the Kinsmen Foundation, they get over 1,000 applications per year from our constituents, from Saskatchewan residents, and they do their best to try to accommodate each and every one.

So with great pleasure, Mr. Speaker, I ask all members of the House to welcome these nine members of the Kinsmen Foundation to their Legislative Assembly.

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

Ms. Conway: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to join with the member opposite in welcoming these folks from the Kinsmen Foundation together with their leader, Curtis.

As the member opposite mentioned, both sides participated in the TeleMiracle just recently. And of course members on this side, we love being part of that, and we just want to acknowledge the incredible work done by TeleMiracle. And that work would not have been possible without the incredible contribution and the work of the members from the Kinsmen Foundation here today.

So on behalf of our leader and on behalf of the Saskatchewan NDP [New Democratic Party], I just want to welcome you to your Legislative Assembly and thank you for your incredible contribution to Saskatchewan.

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Justice and Attorney General.

Hon. Ms. Eyre: — Mr. Speaker, leave for an extended introduction.

The Speaker: — Leave has been requested for an extended introduction. Is leave granted?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

The Speaker: — Carried.

Hon. Ms. Eyre: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Very pleased to introduce today Ghislaine McLeod. If you could give a wave. I knew her as Ghislaine Carey when we were in high school and participated in a three-month German exchange program, she from Evan Hardy and I from Aden Bowman.

But since then she has gone on to be many things, Mr. Speaker: a strategic advisor in business communications, including for Cameco and the U of S [University of Saskatchewan]. She’s advised corporate, public sector, and non-profit organizations across the province, and she now owns a consulting company, Capital G Communications. She also is a director for Help One, which is a charity which supports school-aged children in Saskatoon, Mr. Speaker, and she’s our candidate for Saskatoon University.

As an engaged, involved, very hands-on member of the team already, Mr. Speaker, we are so pleased to have her on the team to bring our message of positivity and strength, Mr. Speaker, to the people of Saskatoon. So please join me in welcoming Ghislaine McLeod to her Legislative Assembly, and we will see her in the fall.

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

Ms. A. Young: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Request leave for extended introduction.

The Speaker: — Leave has been requested for an extended introduction. Is leave granted?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

The Speaker: — Carried.

Ms. A. Young: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you and to all members, I just want to take a couple of minutes and, I suppose, reintroduce a couple of people to this Assembly. Seated in the east gallery is Rylee Schuhmacher who is back from Australia, albeit quite briefly after, I believe, five years away. Mr. Speaker, Rylee’s been in Australia contributing to politics, contributing to public life, and finishing her law degree at the University of Canberra, which I believe she has one year left in.

In addition to this, while down under she has been part of Bill Shorten and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s media units during the last two Australian elections. And she’s also worked as a constituency assistant for the member for Greenway and the Minister for Communications, the Hon. Michelle Rowland.

On top of this, Mr. Speaker, while juggling all of this, she’s also a paralegal assisting the Crown Solicitor of New South Wales specifically on coronial inquests. She’s back in town for a hot minute visiting for a wedding. I believe she flew in from Australia and is flying back out in less than a week, but we are so pleased to have her here. And I’d ask all members to join me in welcoming Rylee to this her Legislative Assembly.

And while I’m on my feet, Mr. Speaker, I also want to just take a minute and welcome back to this Assembly my CA [constituency assistant], Jocelyn. She’s seated in your gallery. She’s the professional light of my life who keeps everything running in the office and in the community, Mr. Speaker. She’s back in the city. She’s been here, I believe, about 18 months after living away for over a decade. She left a thriving career in theatre in Toronto, and she moved back to be closer to family and to take up a degree at the University of Regina. She’s a proud auntie to her five nieces and nephews, an urban planning enthusiast, a remarkable friend, a developing gardener, and she just cares a whole heck of a lot about this province and the people who live in it, Mr. Speaker.

She’s kind, she’s brilliant, she’s compassionate, she’s clear headed, and she has an attention to detail that I wish I had, Mr. Speaker. Her steady and thoughtful competency shines through all the work that gets done in Regina University and the work that I wish I could take credit for, Mr. Speaker. So with that I’ll ask all members to also join me in welcoming this other remarkable young woman to this, her legislature.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Athabasca.

Mr. Lemaigre: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is with great pleasure that I introduce my friend and his wife, Greg and Deborah Seib. Greg, a proud member of Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation and resides in Deschambault Lake. I’ve known him for years. We used to be neighbours in Saskatoon when I went to university in 1996, and we reconnected recently. And we’ve been in discussion about Cumberland constituency, and Greg has secured his candidacy to represent us in Cumberland.

Mr. Speaker, Greg’s years of owning a family business, a joint family business in outfitting. He is an educator, both him and his wife. He currently resides and is the education coordinator for the community of Deschambault and is well known in northern Saskatchewan. Since the introduction of Mr. Seib it’s been nothing but positive from the people that some day he’s going to represent, and northern Saskatchewan is an exceptional part of this province. And when we contribute to not only Saskatchewan but to the world, you know, we need people that are dedicated, that are going to represent, that are going to show up. And Greg Seib is exactly going to offer that for Cumberland.

So I’d like all members to help me welcome Greg and his wife to their Legislative Assembly.

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

Mr. Burki: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you, through you in your gallery we have about 25 grade 2 students from the Regina Huda School with an incredible teacher, Ms. Amanda Cundall. Thank you very much for coming over here to your Legislative Assembly. It’s really a pleasure for me, the first class that I’m getting from that school.

I have a really good connection with the school. My three daughters have graduated to high school from that school, and two of them are still in the school, grade 3 and grade 5. So I’ve been working with that school since 2008 with their driver education program located in my constituency. And I appreciate all the board, that they’re doing great work and a great job to making our future faces that we will be proud, and we are proud of them as well.

So thank you very much for bringing your class, Ms. Cundall, to their Legislative Assembly. And right after question period, I will be facing your hard and smart questions, I will say. Most of them, they talk to their parent and they bring some mathematical question, which is very hard. I will try to do that. And with that, I will request all members in the Legislative Assembly to give them a warm welcome to these future faces to their Legislative Assembly.

While I am standing on my feet, I want to introduce one incredible person in my office, my CA, Bre. She is over here and a very hard worker, rolling sleeve attitude person, very connected. And I’ve been pleased that she joined in October 2023. Till today I’m very proud to say that I haven’t got any complaint from any person that they’re telling me that your door was closed, there was nobody in your office. That’s really a lot of commitment. Thank you for all the hard work that you’ve been doing for our office, keeping the constituents happy, and with a very big smiling face. And thank you for all the incredible job that you’re doing in our community, in our constituency. Thank you.

And I will request again to all members of this Legislative Assembly to encourage and to motivate our CA and to give them a big round of applause, and welcome her to this Legislative Assembly. Thank you.

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Crown Investments Corporation.

Hon. Mr. Duncan: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, seated in the west gallery, we’re joined by nine interns from across the Crown sector. And I would just ask them to give a wave when I say their name: Mackenzie Bigknife, Matthew Zehner, Mauriah Bedore, Janelle Bruneau, Austin Jordison, Albert Bellegarde, Agis Daniels, Hayden Sies, and Madelyn Kayseas. I hope I got those right.

[13:45]

Accompanying them are members of the Advisory Council on Indigenous Reconciliation, Kent Campbell and Joanne Johnson from CIC [Crown Investments Corporation of Saskatchewan], as well as Wavell Starr. And Fawn Redwood is the other Co-Chair.

Mr. Speaker, they’re taking part in the Crown Career Pathways, an internship program for Indigenous students who’ve graduated from a post-secondary institute in the last two years. The internship program was established in 2023 in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action no. 92, which calls for increased employment opportunities for Indigenous people. The goal, Mr. Speaker, of this program is of recruitment and retention of Indigenous graduates from our post-secondary institutions into permanent careers in the Crowns, Mr. Speaker. And so I would ask all members to join with me in welcoming this group of interns to their Legislative Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, and while I’m on my feet I am extremely privileged and honoured today to introduce two constituents, but more importantly close friends. And that would be Blair and Marcie Swedburg who are seated in the west gallery. Mr. Speaker, I think members, certainly my colleagues will know that Marcie has been the constituency assistant for Weyburn-Big Muddy for nearly 25 years. I believe in October it’ll be 25 years since Marcie first started working on behalf of the people of our constituency, Mr. Speaker. And she has been my constituency assistant for the last 18 years.

Mr. Speaker, she and Blair are wonderful people. I’m excited for them as they’re looking forward to having more time, after we close down the office, to spend time with their grandkids. And hopefully, Marcie, do some travelling; that would be okay if you did that.

Mr. Speaker, I’m going to have more to say about Marcie tomorrow, but I did want to put on the record how blessed I have been to have these two in my life, Mr. Speaker. And I couldn’t have asked for a better boss to work for than Marcie Swedburg. And so with that, Mr. Speaker, I’d ask all members to join with me in welcoming Blair and Marcie to their Legislative Assembly.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Regina Rosemont.

Mr. Wotherspoon: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a real honour to join with the minister opposite to welcome these interns in the Crown sector here today to their Assembly, and to thank them for their service and their leadership and the service and leadership that I suspect that they’ll be fulfilling and providing for many, many years in this province, in this very important sector in this province.

Our Crown corporations are important to all of Saskatchewan. They represent incredible value. And your work as interns and your work leaning into the Crown sector is important to the future of our Crowns and the people of Saskatchewan.

I also want to recognize, obviously, Deputy Minister Kent Campbell there and the advisory committee that’s been doing really good work on this front.

I want to give a shout-out to Wavell Starr, who has led in this province in the civil service through public service in the Crown sector for so very long. Wavell’s an incredible community leader as well. He’s an Indigenous leader. He’s an incredible drummer, Mr. Speaker. And outside of that, I don’t know if you’ve heard of the First Nation Sensation, Mr. Speaker, but he’s one exceptional wrestler over the years that knows how to entertain, Mr. Speaker.

So I ask all members to join with me in welcoming these interns and the leadership that’s here today.

Mr. Speaker, while on my feet, it’s a pleasure to welcome a constituent and a friend, Herb Hinsburg, who’s seated in your gallery right at the top there. Herb knows members on both sides of the Assembly. You’re not going to find a harder working worker in agriculture. He knows cattle inside and out. If you need to find a good bull or know how to build one, Herb is who to talk to. He’s incredibly common sense. He works hard for his family. He works hard on a feedlot. He’s common sense, salt of the earth. And it’s my pleasure to have Herb in his Assembly here today.

He’s cheering hard these days for the Moose Jaw Warriors against Portland — I think we’re all united on that front — and excited for a Rider season ahead of us. And I had the pleasure of sitting down with Herb along with one of our mutual friends, the member for Moosomin, before convening the legislature here today. So I ask all members to welcome Herb Hinsburg to his Assembly.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Arm River.

Mr. Skoropad: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I ask leave to make an extended introduction.

The Speaker: — Leave has been requested for an extended introduction. Is leave granted?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

The Speaker: — Carried.

Mr. Skoropad: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To you and through you, Mr. Speaker, seated in the west gallery, it gives me an absolute pleasure and joy to introduce a number of people. I guess the front, almost the front row there, and so I’ll just kind of work down the line here. Just give a wave when you’re acknowledged. But these are some very special people to me, and a pleasure to introduce.

I’ll begin with Perry Lyke. Perry Lyke is a constituent from Davidson. He is just a great guy. He’s an incredible horseback rider. He’s a good friend. But you know, really, Mr. Speaker, his claim to fame, his true claim to fame is that he is the husband of what I like to argue is the greatest constituency assistant on the planet, Lavonne Lyke, seated right beside him. And so it’s an absolute pleasure.

Actually before proceedings I said to Lavonne, I’m probably not going to say too much in introductions. She said, yeah, right; you’re long-winded. And I really was going to do that until the minister went on and gave such a great tribute to his CA, which guilted me into — sorry, that’s a bad thing to say — encouraged me into giving a little bit more of a talk.

But I will just say this: is that Lavonne is a person with incredible heart. She is like family to me and hopefully I’m like family to her. And I just thank her for everything she does each and every day in that office to support myself and to support all the constituents of Arm River. And I’ll tell you, you’d be hard-pressed to find another CA that can type faster than 90 words a minute and has their 1A driver’s licence.

Mr. Speaker, seated beside them I’d like to introduce to you my mom. Everyone in this Chamber can call her and she’ll be from now on known as just my mom. And so the person beside her, that’s my stepdad; that’s Bob. And you can all call him Bob as well. So we’ll leave it at that. Both of those folks are retired. They are two of the most important people in my life but they’re retired. They are busy continually. Honestly I’ve never met busier retired people. And what they do I have absolutely no idea, and I don’t think they have an idea either some days. But they are just everything to me.

Seated beside them . . . I’ll start with the oldest. We’ll go from oldest to youngest. We’ve got Noah here. Noah is Terrill’s and my oldest boy. He’s 16, going to be 17 here right away. And I’ll tell you what, Mr. Speaker. Noah could end up seated in one of these seats — not those ones — these seats right over here one day. He could end up quite easily. I’ll tell you, he’s incredibly keen. And even when we were coming to get seated here today in the gallery, he wanted to be front row centre. And there he is. He’s keen to see what’s going to happen.

But I will say, I’ve just got to tell this one really very quick one. He was eating his breakfast cereal. He was on his phone, which we don’t encourage in our house, certainly not when you’re eating your breakfast. And so I yelled across the room at him and said, “Hey, off your phone. What are you watching anyways?” And he said, “I’m watching question period. You guys are really giving it to them.” So I said, “Keep going, son. Keep going. Godspeed.”

And so his brother though, while he consumes his 11 bowls of cereal each and every day, he doesn’t watch question period. I can assure you that. And he probably won’t be seated down here. But he will be in something incredibly successful because he’s an incredible hard worker. And the other day I commented as he was working at his . . . He’s always working on his homework. I said, “You love school, don’t you?” “No actually, I don’t like it at all.” “Well why are you working on it so hard?” “Well if I’m going to do it, I might as well do it as good as I can.” So that’s his attitude, and that’s going to go far for sure for him.

And lastly is my wife, Terrill. And she’s seated right over there beside those guys. She is the last one I’ll talk about here right now. And you know what? I actually had a revelation this morning. It was a wonderful revelation. I realized, Mr. Speaker, that because of the rules of this Chamber, I can talk; she can’t. Do you realize the power that there is in that, Mr. Speaker? I don’t think so. So with that, I want to just raise a few things. Maybe we can clear the air on a couple of things.

A couple of things. Terrill, I know you essentially do everything around the house. I know I’m pretty useless. But listen, you’re not carrying your weight outside. There’s a lot of yardwork. Like, really. And you know what else? There’s too many shoes, too many shoes at the entrance. I don’t appreciate any of it. That needs to stop as well. You know what? I will just stop with that, Mr. Speaker. And I will say this, is that I love you. You are the absolute best and I’m the absolute luckiest.

And with that I would just like to introduce Perry, Lavonne, Bob Bennett, Glady Skoropad, Sol, Noah, and my wife, Terrill, to their Legislative Assembly.

The Speaker: — But to the member from Arm River, your wife is welcome to come to my office after and I will gladly listen to the stories about you.

I recognize the member from Regina Pasqua.

Mr. Fiaz: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to you, through you, to all the members of the Assembly I would like to introduce, sitting in the west gallery, one of my constituents and a very good family friend, Shahid Pervaiz, Mr. Speaker. He is a good father, good grandpa, and is retired, spending his retired life putting a lot of volunteer hours in the community, Mr. Speaker. I ask all the members to welcome my constituent, Shahid Pervaiz, in his Legislative Assembly.

While I am on my feet, Mr. Speaker, I would like to introduce Dr. Sohail Tufail. He is one of my friends. He is visiting from Pakistan to Saskatchewan. His daughter Aamna Sohail, she is also a doctor and doing her residency here in Regina, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Dr. Sohail is one of the pioneers of heart and stroke in Pakistan, Mr. Speaker, and especially in the Pakistan rural areas. He is also coordinator of American Heart Association International training centre in Pakistan, putting a lot of volunteer hours in his profession, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to ask all the members to join me in welcoming Dr. Tufail in the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Estevan.

Hon. Ms. Carr: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, to you and through you, it is truly my pleasure to introduce, seated in your gallery in the front row with the TeleMiracle group, Susan Colbow. Susan is someone who we could describe in Estevan as a volunteer extraordinaire. She is involved in so many different things whether it be the breakfast program, the youth centre — she was actually instrumental in helping that get organized in Estevan — Diversified Services board, just to name a few.

But of course she is a proud member of the Kinettes, and she actually had the opportunity to chair the 42nd TeleMiracle here in — was it in Regina? — here in Regina. She designed the logo in memory . . . or not in memory of her mom but in honour of her mother. So it really is a feather in her cap that she was able to do that, and I’m just so proud of Susan.

But most importantly she is one of my two constituency assistants that I have in my office. So even though she’s part-time, she has a full-time job looking after me. And I just want to thank Susan for truly all of her support over the past eight years that I’ve been here. Hopefully we have a few good years left in us together.

But she truly has become a very good friend, and I just want everybody at the Assembly today to join me in welcoming Susan Colbow to her Legislative Assembly.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Southeast.

Hon. Mr. Morgan: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. After I heard the request for extended leave from the member for Arm River I’m thinking I might ask for extreme leave, but I won’t. I will just ask for extended leave, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker: — Leave has been requested for an extended introduction. Is leave granted?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

The Speaker: — Carried.

Hon. Mr. Morgan: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Seated in your gallery are a number of my family and Sandy’s family members.

There is my sister June, who happens to be one of my constituents. She has for the most part been a fairly reliable Sask Party voter, although she doesn’t hesitate to phone me and correct me if she thinks I’ve done wrong. Fortunately not so much lately, but she’s certainly not shy about that. She is the youngest in our family; she has three older brothers. And she is actually the glue that holds our family together. She is the one that orders flowers for a wedding, phones people to make sure that they’ve showed up where they’re supposed to be, so I’m glad that she’s here today.

[14:00]

Seated next to her is my youngest brother, Ken. He is here with his wife, Jona, and her son, John Lester. Jona and John Lester are from the Philippines. They both were due to take out their citizenship during COVID, so it was a proud day for them April 20th, 2022, when they became Canadians.

Now, Ken and Jona often go away in the winter and leave John Lester at home alone. So John Lester thinks nothing of phoning me, saying, “My car doesn’t start.”

Me to John Lester: “Was it plugged in?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Well, does it have a block heater?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

So I would give John Lester a ride to work. And it seemed to go on for a few days, and then I said, “Well, you should be done.”

“No, I have jury duty as well.”

So actually they’re glad to come here today. And I’m exceptionally pleased that they are.

However, they’ve told us that there’s a great Philippine tradition of going to Jollibee for supper. So tonight is a Jollibee night, and I’m actually glad to join them at Jollibee for supper . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . Do you want to join us?

Anyway, we’re also joined by Sandy’s sister Wendy Brigham and her daughter, our niece Rebecca Brigham, and they’ve got Rebecca’s daughter Brooke with them. They live in Rosetown. Rebecca works at Johnston Insurance. Wendy is a recovering nurse; she wants to be retired but has not yet been able to. Anyway, they have come down here not so much for being here today, but they heard about the Jollibee supper.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to reintroduce Sandy. My seatmate and I have not done well in spousal introductions this session. So this is my last chance to make amends.

So I don’t want to get into how long we’ve been married, because I botched that up last time. But I will say that today is Sandy’s birthday. I told her I wouldn’t say how old she was, but 11 years ago, when she turned 50, I arranged for her to get as many phone calls as I could from as many different people as I think would be willing to phone her. So I managed to get calls made from the Premier, the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker, Stefani Langenegger, John Gormley, most of caucus, a number of the opposition members, and I promised that if she came down today, I wouldn’t do it again.

So, Mr. Speaker, I would ask that all members join me in welcoming them to their Assembly.

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Mr. Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to just quickly introduce someone working in my office here at the legislature this summer, Mr. Speaker. Jackson Geddes is up in the west gallery over there. Folks in Regina might know him better as no. 87 for the Regina Rams football team, but to me Jackson will always be a North Battleford Comprehensive Viking, whether on the basketball court or on the football field.

I got to know Jackson back when he was in grade 9 and got called up to the senior team that I was coaching at the North Battleford Comp, know his family well, and know Jackson and all his siblings to be very hard workers. And so it’s a real privilege to have Jackson working here in my office this summer, Mr. Speaker.

I would just ask all members of the Assembly to help welcome Jackson to his legislature.

PRESENTING PETITIONS

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatchewan Rivers.

Ms. Wilson: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I rise today we, the undersigned residents of the province of Saskatchewan, wish to bring your attention to the following: Tisdale Hospital serves the Northeast. Over the years our region has grappled with deceased access to primary health care providers due to shortages and turnovers, but our emergency room has remained open most of the time. Last year the Minister of Health verbally committed to expanding our physician and nurse practitioner positions. Little progress was made.

Recently a delegation from the town of Tisdale met with the government to plead this case once again. There were promises of additional physicians and a process to retain the current ones we have; however we still see Tisdale losing three physicians in the next few months. Tisdale relies heavily on the provision 24‑hour emergency capacity, and the delay in addressing this issue is causing significant distress amongst residents.

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectively request that the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan identify the roadblocks between the Ministry of Health, Saskatchewan Health Authority, physicians, and communities to ensure that as much effort is put into retaining physicians as is put into recruiting. It is our sincere prayer that you prioritize the allocation of resources necessary to address this critical issue.

This is signed by individuals in Tisdale and Sylvania. I do so present.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon University.

Ms. Bowes: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to rise today to present our petition calling on the government to reverse the ban on third-party sex ed providers in our public schools.

The undersigned residents would like to bring to our attention the following: that banning third-party providers of sexual health education will mean fewer kids getting access to evidence-based sex education, which we need given that Saskatchewan has the highest rates of teen pregnancy, STIs [sexually transmitted infection], and HIV [human immunodeficiency virus] transmission in the country, also the highest rates of sexual assault and domestic violence in the country, Mr. Speaker; as well that banning third-party educational providers from schools is seriously harmful to children’s well-being.

All children do have the right to comprehensive age-appropriate sexual health education. Many teachers, Mr. Speaker, have expressed great concern because they are not adequately trained to administer sex health education, and third-party providers have always strived to provide the best education with oversight from school boards.

I’ll read the prayer:

We, in the prayer that reads as follows, respectfully request that the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan call on the Government of Saskatchewan to immediately reverse its policy decision to ban third-party sexual health educators in Saskatchewan schools and listen to experts and stakeholders in developing comprehensive sex education curriculum for all publicly funded schools.

The petition today has been signed by residents of Yorkton and Regina. I do so present.

STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Southeast.

Gym Gives Back to Their Community

Mr. Love: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m honoured to rise today to recognize a local business that’s doing great work in Saskatoon Eastview. Rise Strength Lab recently opened a massive new location that has allowed them to more fully realize their vision. Owned by Brandon Wicks and Jarek Rhode, the team is made up of 70 per cent female trainers, which is unique in the field. And I’m proud to say that my own daughter does most of her training at Rise.

Now not only is Rise a gym, their members say it’s also like a family. And this unique family is dedicated to giving back to their community every month. During the month of February, their by-donation, rise-and-grind, early morning class raised $2,500 to fund an entire year of yoga for patients at the mental health short-stay ward at RUH [Royal University Hospital]. In April, 100 per cent of the funds raised went towards ensuring students and teachers facing financial hardships can still take part in a full day of fun and learning at the Children’s Festival in Saskatoon.

Rise Strength Lab is a community-minded business, and like many businesses in our province, they want to do good with the platform that they have. Thank you to Rise Strength Lab and all of their members who get up to go to the gym bright and early to rise, grind, and make a better city for all. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Moosomin.

Spirit of Generosity Makes Moosomin and Area a Fundraising Leader

Mr. Bonk: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to share the commendable news of Moosomin’s outstanding generosity in fundraising, marking it once again as the top community fundraiser in Saskatchewan for the Tim Hortons Smile Cookie campaign. This remarkable achievement of raising $45,000 in Moosomin not only positions it as Saskatchewan’s highest fundraiser but also ranks it sixth in Canada. Despite its modest population of just over 3,000, Moosomin continues to surpass expectations year after year, showcasing a deep, ingrained culture of generosity among its residents.

Recent contributions from local businesses and individuals further highlight the community’s philanthropic spirit. One hundred and forty-six local businesses participating in The World-Spectator Support Local Business Initiative collectively donated over $2.1 million to local organizations.

Donations totalling 1.75 million have been pledged towards the Moosomin airport expansion project in only a few weeks, including significant contributions from IJACK and Darcy Rambold. Additional contributions to health care and various causes in recent weeks have amounted to $265,000.

The late Alex Bruce generously bequeathed $170,000 to three local facilities. Furthermore, donations totalling $107,000 have been allocated towards the Terry Lynd outdoor basketball court. And $100,000 was recently raised at the Alzheimer’s awareness walk. In total, Mr. Speaker, these contributions amount to an impressive $4,519,574, averaging over $1,500 per capita.

Mr. Speaker, I extend my sincere gratitude to the residents of Moosomin and area for their exemplary spirit of community and generosity, solidifying Moosomin’s standing as a fundraising leader in Saskatchewan.

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

Organization and Indigenous Communities Partner to Supply Menstrual Products

Ms. Sarauer: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am honoured to rise today to recognize Nicole White and the Moon Time Sisters organization. Their tireless efforts and an unwavering dedication to supporting people who menstruate in our communities have not gone unnoticed.

Nicole White launched the Moon Time Sisters program in Saskatchewan in early 2017. They are now partners with over 25 northern Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories to supply people who menstruate with free period products to alleviate lack of access and affordability. Moon Time Sisters also works with high schools, health care centres, women’s shelters, and community programs to ensure these products are accessible to the community. Over 500,000 items have now been sent to remote northern communities.

Mr. Speaker, Moon Time Sisters advocates and works towards period equity within in Canada while striving to lift Indigenous voices and stories. Access to menstrual products is a human right, ensuring dignity, health, and equality. It enables safe, comfortable period management, free from discrimination or stigma, something that still exists to this day. They have also created safe spaces for open dialogue, fostering a sense of belonging and understanding.

Mr. Speaker, I ask all members to join me in thanking Nicole White and the Moon Time Sisters organization for all the work they do, both in Saskatchewan and in Canada. Thank you.

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

Income Assistance Mobile Outreach Supports Clients with Complex Needs

Mr. Fiaz: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last Friday the Queen City Wellness Pharmacy and the Minister of Social Services announced the expansion of the Income Assistance Mobile Outreach Services initiative.

Mr. Speaker, this initiative places income assistance workers within CBOs [community-based organization] like the Queen City Wellness Pharmacy to support clients with complex challenges where they are. Since the initiative launched last year, mobile income assistance workers are on site at 26 community-based organizations’ locations across the province.

This initiative is already making a positive impact, helping to reduce the services gap and variance for clients that are engaged with the CBOs and accelerate the path to stability for clients with complex needs. That’s why this government is investing $690,000 in this budget to expand the initiative and place an additional 10 workers within various CBOs. Important investments like this would not be possible without the strength of our growing economy.

I ask all the members to join me in recognizing our collaborative efforts to support clients as they build a better quality of life, and in thanking organizations like the Queen City Wellness Pharmacy for the important work they do to help achieve a brighter future. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Westview.

Indigenous Graduates Gain Work Experience through Crown Career Pathways

Mr. Buckingham: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Crown Career Pathways program is an internship program for recent Indigenous graduates to gain experience in Saskatchewan’s Crown sector. The pathways program provides Indigenous graduates with knowledge and work experience in our province’s Crowns and the opportunity to start a career in the Crown sector or provincial government.

Twenty-two interns will be hired over a two-year pilot program in the Crown sector to support Saskatchewan’s plan for economic growth and give more work experience to graduates. Recruitment for the first 11 interns started in October 2023, and since then another 10 graduates have been hired and are working in Saskatchewan’s Crown corporations, a number of whom are joining us today.

These interns exemplify the growing wealth of Indigenous talent in our province and, as the pathways program progresses into its second year, I am confident we will see this program launching long-lasting, fulfilling careers in the Crown sector.

Mr. Speaker, I’d invite all members to join me in welcoming our first group of Crown Career Pathways interns to their Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

[14:15]

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Cannington.

Geoscience Initiative Drives Exploration Activities and Creates Jobs

Mr. D. Harrison: — It’s another great day here in our province. Saskatchewan remains Canada’s top-rated jurisdiction for mining investment, according to the annual survey of mining companies released today by the Fraser Institute. The annual survey ranks 86 jurisdictions worldwide, based on their overall investment attractiveness as well as the attractiveness of their mining policy and geology. On overall investment attractiveness, Saskatchewan ranks in the global top three for the fifth time in six years.

This recognition is a testament to Saskatchewan’s rich mineral resources and supportive regulatory environment. The mining industry continues to contribute to employment growth by providing nearly 13,000 residents with jobs in mining and supply services.

And to continue supporting the growth of our resource sector, our government is also committing $10 million for the Saskatchewan Geological Survey’s public geoscience initiative. This initiative will drive mineral exploration activities, reduce investment risk, and create more jobs. With nearly $13 billion in mineral sales last year, we’re proud to host a sector that attracts investment and engagement globally. Our resource sector continues to drive the economic growth needed to support classrooms, care, and communities in our province. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Lloydminster.

Saskatchewan Exports Show Unprecedented Growth

Ms. C. Young: — Mr. Speaker, I have more great economic news to share with everyone. Saskatchewan’s producers and exporters reached a historic milestone. For the first time in our province’s history, exports exceeded $100 billion over a two-year period.

Exports in 2022 and 2023 saw a 52 per cent increase over the previous two-year period, the highest on record. Over this period, exports of uranium increased by 1,525 per cent, potash by 112 per cent, and crude oil by 82 per cent. This unprecedented growth doesn’t happen accidentally. It’s made possible through showcasing Saskatchewan’s sustainable and high-quality products on the world stage and building strong relationships with our international partners.

As a province that exports 70 per cent of what we produce, this work has never been more important. But it’s unfortunate that the NDP still can’t see the positive benefits of international engagement. They want to close our trade offices and turn away investment. Their abysmal economic record speaks for itself.

Our government will continue supporting Saskatchewan companies working together to build a strong and growing economy. This is what allows us to make record investments. Our classrooms . . .

QUESTION PERIOD

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Provincial Fuel Tax

Ms. Mowat: — Mr. Speaker, things aren’t going very well for this tired and out-of-touch government. Last week 90 per cent of teachers said no to the Premier and his failing Minister of Education. Then on Friday we learned that the Premier continues to have the worst job-creation record in Canada. And yesterday the member from Kelvington-Wadena announced he’s joining more than a dozen from the Sask Party who are not running again this fall. No wonder the Government House Leader benched the Premier yesterday. People are ready for change.

But as much as the Sask Party is struggling these days, Saskatchewan people are struggling more. Why won’t the Premier cut the gas tax and give Saskatchewan families a break?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Finance.

Hon. Ms. Harpauer: — Mr. Speaker, the member opposite is well aware that they get more in a break in not having to pay carbon tax on their home heating than they would get on their suggestion.

But it’s $500 million is what we collect in the excise fuel tax in Saskatchewan, and we’ve yet to hear the members opposite say where they would get the money. They have this one idea, and where are they going to get the money? Are they going to cut the highways budget, which they did in the past and told people to fix their own highways? Are they going to cut another budget? Is it going to be health care? Is it going to be education? What would they cut? Or would they borrow the money with a larger deficit and then . . . They don’t like borrowing. They’ve criticized that, Mr. Speaker. What they’d do is raise taxes. That’s what the NDP did in the past — actually did all of those in the past — but they would have to raise taxes.

What is their answer to where they would find the money? Because their leader said, well it’s just in the GRF [General Revenue Fund], Mr. Speaker. That goes to show that they don’t understand the economy and they don’t understand finances.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Contract Nurses and Health Care Staffing

Ms. Mowat: — Let’s talk about where they’re spending their money, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, they’re failing to deliver on cost of living, and they’re absolutely failing when it comes to health care. A perfect example of this is the Sask Party’s overreliance on travel nurses. Travel nurses used to be a one-off, fill-in-the-gap tool. But under this tired and out-of-touch government, travel nurses have become a baked-in part of the health care system.

Can the minister update the House: what’s the going hourly rate for a contract nurse working in a Saskatchewan ICU [intensive care unit]?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Mr. Hindley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Great question for estimates that the members opposite could have asked a number of weeks ago, Mr. Speaker.

Here’s the plan when it comes to health care, and I’ve detailed it before in this Assembly, Mr. Speaker, where this government is making significant investments into health care — despite the members opposite not wanting to hear the answer to any of the questions — $7.6 billion into health care, a 10 per cent increase in health care in this year’s provincial budget, Mr. Speaker.

Eleven hundred nursing graduates that have been hired either from Saskatchewan or other Canadian provinces that are now working in Saskatchewan since December of 2022, Mr. Speaker; 230 new and permanent full-time positions across many communities across Saskatchewan — rural communities, remote communities as well.

Yes, we utilize contract nurses, much like other jurisdictions do as well, but with a goal to reduce our reliance on that, create more permanent full-time positions in health care, and get Saskatchewan graduates working in our hospitals and long-term care facilities, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Ms. Mowat: — Mr. Speaker, the answer is $92 per hour. At least that’s what it says on an Instagram ad posted by travelnurse.ca. In the video, a man holds a money gun, shooting $100 bills into the air while standing in a Saskatchewan canola field. “Gimme the Loot” by Notorious B.I.G. plays in the background and the text over top: “Point of view: you just finished your Saskatchewan contract, making $92 per hour.” Gimme the loot indeed, Mr. Speaker.

What message does this send to Saskatchewan nurses who are burning out whilst contract nurses are cashing in?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Mr. Hindley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve said previously, contract nurses are not something that the government or the SHA [Saskatchewan Health Authority] intends to rely on unless necessary to fill vacancies, to provide for instances where nurses need to take vacation or sick time, Mr. Speaker.

In the meantime, we continue to make record investments into our nation-leading health human resources action plan. Over $100 million from the Ministry of Health, plus additional funding from other ministries — Advanced Education, for example, to create more training seats, Mr. Speaker.

And I know members opposite don’t want to hear the answer because, Mr. Speaker, we’re going to continue to invest in these areas. Unlike the members opposite, who just continue to talk over top of the answers, Mr. Speaker, they just, they refuse to listen. Significant investments in the HHR [health human resources] action plan.

Let’s look at the members opposite’s record. We’re curious to see what their plan is going forward. We know in the last election, they had a lofty goal of hiring about 400 nurses over four years, Mr. Speaker. That was their low target, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Ms. Mowat: — Mr. Speaker, no one is saying we’re leading the nation except for these members when they pat themselves on the back. Mr. Speaker, this ad sends exactly the wrong message to the nurses that we still have left in this province. And let’s remember whose cash is shooting out of that money gun — tax dollars by Saskatchewan people. This tired and out-of-touch government has lost the plot when it comes to health care, and their non-stop privatization is only making things worse.

Here’s a simple question to the Health minister: how much has the Sask Party paid out to this contract nursing agency over the last three years?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Mr. Hindley: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know what doesn’t help is when the members opposite continually run down the health care workers and our health care system, Mr. Speaker, when they constantly do that, when they constantly run down the health care workers of the system.

I came from Saskatoon this morning. We were at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital, there to announce a portable pediatric MRI [magnetic resonance imaging] at our children’s hospital here in Saskatchewan, Mr. Speaker, which by the way it’s my understanding is the first portable pediatric MRI in all of Canada right here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, supporting families right across this province.

We’re going to continue to invest in a variety of opportunities to expand health care in Saskatchewan — 250 new and enhanced permanent full-time positions, health care positions, some of those nursing, Mr. Speaker, across this province; $11.9 million to support continued recruitment and training of internationally educated health care workers; return-for-service agreements on bursary programs and incentives to help get people working in rural Saskatchewan; plus bringing in more health care workers from other countries to help bolster our workforce, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to keep doing that work across this province.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Saskatoon Fairview.

Ms. Mowat: — Mr. Speaker, he wants to talk about everything except provide an answer to the question that I asked. He didn’t even touch it.

Mr. Speaker, this company cashed in on more than $6 million since 2019 — $6 million. Last month 49 ER [emergency room] nurses wrote a letter sharing how out-of-province travel nurses are making morale worse in Saskatchewan hospitals. SUN [Saskatchewan Union of Nurses] says that we’re on track to spend a record $70 million on travel nurses this year alone. And in their most recent member survey, it shows that 58 per cent of nurses are thinking about leaving the province and the health system altogether.

The Sask Party broke our health care system and they cannot be trusted to fix it. It’s time for a change. Why won’t the Sask Party just get out of the way so that New Democrats can get to work rebuilding the public health care system?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Mr. Hindley: — Mr. Speaker, that is quite a stretch from the members opposite and that critic for health care in terms of her recollection of health care in this province.

Since 2007, Mr. Speaker, 3,700 more registered nurses; 240 more nurse practitioners in this province since 2007; 1,480 more licensed practical nurses since 2007. Nearly 19,000 nurses of all designations call Saskatchewan home. That’s an increase of over 5,000 since 2007. We’ve hired, as I’ve said before, over 1,100 graduates, nursing graduates into our province from across this country, Mr. Speaker.

As I said earlier, Saskatchewan’s a place that people want to be. Graduates from health care, from other health care designations, doctors, Mr. Speaker, right across this country, they want to be in Saskatchewan. They want to be working in this health care system. What they don’t want is all the constant negativity from the NDP, Mr. Speaker.

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

Contract Negotiations with Teachers

Mr. Love: — Mr. Speaker, this tired and out-of-touch government can’t get a handle on travel nurses and they’ve totally failed to get a deal done with teachers who want to address class size and complexity. Parents want to know that the school year and their summers won’t be thrown into chaos by this Sask Party government, and students want to know that they’re going to be able to do grad and other year-end celebrations without disruptions.

Now there’s one person who can deliver on all of that, and it’s that Minister of Education. Will he finally get to the table and negotiate a deal that addresses class size and complexity for Saskatchewan teachers and Saskatchewan children?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Finance.

Hon. Ms. Harpauer: — It’s very encouraging, Mr. Speaker, that the STF [Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation] and the government trustee bargaining committees are talking, and I believe if they haven’t already set dates to commence negotiations, they will be setting them today or tomorrow. So, Mr. Speaker, we have a number of tables, of course, within the purview of government for collective bargaining, and we believe collective bargaining is the answer when talking with our workers.

And we have about 15 ratified tables now, Mr. Speaker, that have quietly ratified with the deal that the government has offered and two that have tentative. That’s almost half of the bargaining tables, and I would love to put them into the record if I have the time. And that’s SaskGaming PSAC [Public Service Alliance of Canada], SaskGaming RDSW, SaskGaming RDWSU, SaskGaming IATSE [International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees], the Sask Medical Association, SaskEnergy Unifor, SaskPower Unifor, SaskWater Unifor, SaskPower IBEW [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers], WSA [Water Security Agency] Unifor, Legal Aid CUPE [Canadian Union of Public Employees], Conexus Arts Centre IATSE . . .

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

Mr. Love: — Mr. Speaker, I understand why the minister wouldn’t want to touch the question when last week 90 per cent of Saskatchewan teachers voted to reject his final offer. Now they’re more unified than ever, and teachers are unified in calling for better — better in our classrooms, better for Saskatchewan children.

[14:30]

There is no way out of this for that minister that doesn’t include real commitment to class size and complexity in the collective agreement. Now that’s good for everyone in education. That’s good for students, that’s good for teachers, and that’s good for parents and families.

Why won’t the Education minister finally listen for once, change his tone, and negotiate a deal on class size and complexity?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Mr. Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve been clear right from the start that where we’re going to get a deal done is at the bargaining table. In the previous answer, our Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance outlined a number of tables where government has already been able to find a bargained agreement with public sector unions around the province, Mr. Speaker.

When it comes to education, Mr. Speaker — and I’ve talked about this before, and I’ll say it again — we have a 9 per cent lift to the school operating funding for next school year. And when it comes to classroom supports, we’ve signed a multi-year funding agreement with the Saskatchewan School Boards Association and our 27 local school boards, Mr. Speaker. This is a government that has invested significantly into education and will continue to do so.

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

Mr. Love: — Mr. Speaker, every time this minister opens his mouth to talk about public education, he demonstrates how unfit he is for his role. He should have been fired long ago, and the Premier should make up lost time and do that today. This minister has single-handedly sown chaos across our education system and especially in our classrooms.

If he won’t bargain for a fair deal, why won’t he get out of the way, send this to arbitration, so we can get a deal once and for all for Saskatchewan teachers and families?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Mr. Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have said, I have been clear right from the beginning that where we’re going to get a deal is at the bargaining table.

Mr. Speaker, I shared with the House yesterday when the Leader of the Opposition was asking several questions yesterday, that we have both bargaining committees talking this week, having an ongoing discussion, working to get a deal for students and teachers and families in this province. This is a government that’s committed to doing that. That work is happening this week. And we look forward to moving back towards bargaining with the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation.

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

Education Legislation and Pride Parade

Mr. Teed: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This government is failing to address the needs of our kids and they are failing to protect their rights too.

Through Bill 137 and use of the notwithstanding clause, this tired and out-of-touch government has chosen to roll back the human rights of queer and trans youth in our province. They have chosen to make the lives of vulnerable youth more dangerous. And the actions of this government have not gone unnoticed. Queen City Pride has decided to ban all Sask Party members from Pride events next month.

What does the Minister of Education have to say about the move by Queen City Pride to ban him and his colleagues from Pride?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport.

Hon. Ms. L. Ross: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Government of Saskatchewan routinely proclaims days, weeks, months such as Pride Month. Recognizing community events like this are important when as we look to ensure inclusivity in society.

With respect to the Queen City Pride organizers, we respect their decision. We’re disappointed in their decision but we respect their decision. In the past, Mr. Speaker, we have participated in Pride parades. We’ve had flag raisings here at the Legislative Building, but again, Mr. Speaker, as I say we are very disappointed in the decision that the committees have made.

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

Mr. Teed: — Mr. Speaker, they’re disappointed? I think an entire community in Saskatchewan is disappointed by their actions.

Queen City Pride sent a bold message yesterday. Queen City Pride usually hosts 4,000 people every year, with hundreds of businesses and organizations registering floats in the Pride parade. In recent years, yes, the Sask Party has even joined that parade.

But in Queen City Pride’s statement yesterday, they made it clear that they will no longer be a prop for this Sask Party government. I’ll read the quote: “We will not allow them to masquerade as allies and supporters, then put our community in danger for the other 11 months of the year.”

What is the Minister of Education’s response to that statement?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Mr. Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to Bill 137, I think the member opposite needs to actually go and read the contents of that bill. That policy, which we brought forward in legislation in Bill 137, does not take away the rights of any individual. In fact it protects the rights of parents to be involved in important conversations about their children, something, Mr. Speaker, I would say the parents of this province believe quite strongly in.

But, Mr. Speaker, not the NDP. The NDP have said in this House, they’ve said on doorsteps in this city that they would take away the rights of parents to be involved in important conversations, Mr. Speaker. Not this government.

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

Mr. Teed: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. You know, it isn’t even just Queen City Pride that’s taking action on this file. This blanket ban of Sask Party members has spread to Prince Albert as well. From P.A. [Prince Albert] Pride Chair Chelsea Bleau, I quote: “Having MLAs attend our events who are actively trying to roll back our rights is not something that we are willing to do.”

Mr. Speaker, Saskatchewan people deserve a government that respects human rights, that affirms the lives of queer and trans people, instead of one that betrays them to keep far-right voters in their tent. These organizers recognize that. Why won’t this minister? Will the minister finally recognize that his actions have consequences and repeal Bill 137 today?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Education.

Hon. Mr. Cockrill: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let me say it right here on the floor of this legislature for that member opposite, that Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Speaker, and this province. We will not be repealing Bill 137.

Mr. Speaker, if NDP members want to rise in this House, if they want to go to doorsteps around the province and say that it’s a far-right idea for a parent to be involved in their child’s life, fill your boots. Fill their boots, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I can tell you right here — right here — that it is important for parents to be involved in their children’s lives. That is the purpose of Bill 137, Mr. Speaker, and that’s why our government stands behind it.

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

Social Services’ Policies on Emergency Hotel Stays

Ms. Conway: — Mr. Speaker, the Sask Party is failing to stand up for human rights and they’re totally failing when it comes to transparency and accountability. Nowhere is that more clear than on the case of the Sunrise Motel. Between the Sunrise and the Thriftlodge motels, only 1,300 were paid out to the member from Regina Northeast before he was elected. After? The total paid out to these motels — three-quarters of a million dollars.

The minister still hasn’t explained this exponential growth in cash flowing out to motels connected to the Sask Party. But more troubling perhaps, Mr. Speaker, is that I’ve called on the minister to change the way that these payments are recorded so that this never happens again. Why has he so far refused to do that?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Mr. Makowsky: — Mr. Speaker, in terms of our valued public officials and including on the finance side — the comptroller, the auditor — I don’t direct them or control them in how they report the finances of the province of Saskatchewan, nor do I control the procurement of hotels or any other things within the ministry.

So we’ve talked about this many times in this House and in committee. There is a new process that is being implemented by Social Services in terms of the procurement side. But in terms of direction, Mr. Speaker, on Monday, April 15th, 2024, our non-partisan deputy minister of Social Services, Kimberly Kratzig said, I’m quoting here, “I think it’s really important to note that at no point in any of our use of hotels has the Minister of Social Services ever directed placement of an individual in a hotel.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Ms. Conway: — Mr. Speaker, the question was about accountability. The minister keeps blaming the public service or the clients for the increases in motel payments, but it’s not the social workers or the clients singing, gimme the loot. It’s the member from Regina Northeast, and he’s been cashing in on a lot of loot — 1,300 before the election, three-quarters of a million after.

I’ve asked the minister this question over and over again but we never get an answer: why did the payments to these two hotels skyrocket after the member from Regina Northeast was elected? And why, and again why won’t the minister take decisive action to fix the loopholes that allow Sask Party MLAs [Member of the Legislative Assembly] to cash in when the public is picking up the tab?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Mr. Makowsky: — Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure the member was listening to the last question or the many answers I’ve given on this subject over time. The ministry, at my direction, has changed procurement policy with a three-quote process in our major centres for hotel use, as well as the RFP [request for proposal] is part of this to try and get more competition and lower prices for the taxpayer. We want to keep in mind as well, though, we want to look after the most vulnerable in our province that may need help in an emergency situation, Mr. Speaker.

But in terms of my involvement, there is another, there is another article, Mr. Speaker. On April 17th, 2024, the ministry’s executive director of service delivery, Jeff Redekop, said, and I’m quoting here:

Front-line staff are looking for what options are available for clients who are in need. The ministry has generally no knowledge of who owns the hotel and has never been instructed by government to use a certain hotel.

So we have a new process in place and that will unfold in the coming months.

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

Ms. Conway: — Mr. Speaker, this government has zero respect for public money and they have zero respect for basic accountability and transparency. They say they have no money for health care, but they pay millions of dollars — waving a money gun in a canola field — to travel nurses. They say they have no money to fix up rundown, boarded-up, mouldy, and sometimes exploding Sask Housing units, but they always pay up when the motels connected to the member from Regina Northeast start singing, gimme the loot. That’s just the way things work under this Premier, notorious M-o-e.

But seriously, Mr. Speaker, back in November that minister said that they would have the Conflict of Interest Commissioner look into whether the member from Regina Northeast was in contravention of Saskatchewan’s conflict-of-interest laws. What did the minister learn? And what is he doing to avoid another mess like this ever happening again?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Social Services.

Hon. Mr. Makowsky: — A lot of questions there, Mr. Speaker, a lot of questions in the one question. In terms of Sask Housing units, a lot of work is done by our valued public servants right across the province to upgrade and improve the units that we have available for low-income people here in our province. A $9.6 million increase in this budget — $83 million in total — the NDP voted against it unfortunately, Mr. Speaker.

In terms of going into the future, I’ve explained many times a new procurement policy for hotels when they are needed, when shelters are full. And this is in addition to the good work that’s happening with our CBO sector in the emergency shelter space, Mr. Speaker, which we have expanded to help individuals in emergency situations.

A new procurement policy is in place. We’re going away from the NDP policy that has been in place for decades, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to look for . . .

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

Provision of Care for Addictions

Mr. Clarke: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Every single day in this Assembly we raise the alarming number of overdose deaths in our communities. And every single day the minister boasts about the increased number of treatment beds available.

Now, Mr. Speaker, treatment is important, but those beds don’t help if people like Peter Godfrey are turned away when they are ready to access them. And the minister should know that there is a short window of opportunity for those ready to seek help. He should also know that the shame people face when they are turned away can keep them from asking for help again.

So to the minister: is this your solution to the addictions crisis, denying people access to treatment when they are ready to attend?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

Hon. Mr. T. McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I’ve said many times, there are three pillars to the government’s action plan on mental health and addictions. The first pillar is the expanded capacity. But the second pillar is to make access more available to people who are seeking treatment. That means making it easier for people to access spaces. That means improving the system to make it simpler for those who want to receive that treatment to access those spaces, Mr. Speaker.

Now as we dealt with the . . . or talked about the situation yesterday, I met with Bonnie and discussed the situation with Peter. And, Mr. Speaker, that situation occurred before the transition that we’re talking about happened.

Now, Mr. Speaker, the third pillar of that plan is also to provide a recovery-oriented system of care which focuses on the holistic treatment of individuals to ensure that they’re getting the specific resources that they need to address their individual circumstances. That is the plan that this government has implemented, Mr. Speaker, and we’ll . . .

[14:45]

ORDERS OF THE DAY

The Speaker: — I recognize the Premier.

Hon. Mr. Moe: — Mr. Speaker, I’d ask for leave to move a motion regarding retiring members, and further that leave be granted to waive rule 51(c) which would allow for referring to members by their name.

The Speaker: — Leave has been requested. Is leave granted?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

The Speaker: — Carried.

MOTIONS

Retiring Members

Hon. Mr. Moe: — Thank you to my colleagues and thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would move:

That this Assembly gives thanks to retiring members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for their service and the dedication to the people of their constituencies and the province.

I so move.

The Speaker: — The Premier has moved:

That this Assembly gives thanks to retiring members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for their service and dedication to the people of their constituencies and the province.

Is it the pleasure of the Assembly to adopt the motion?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

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

Mr. Friesen: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to try and stay on track here today but I have a lot of thank yous to do. I have a few comments I want to get on the record. And I’ve said this in this House many times, but walking up the steps of this Assembly and doing it with my daughter Danielle yesterday again has been such an honour.

My colleagues, this is one of the hardest decisions that I have ever made. I’ve got some health challenges. I have a surgery coming up and I’ve got to prepare for that. My big thing is I’ve always felt that whatever you do, you do it 110 per cent, and I’ve tried to do that with my constituents. And I feel like unless I’m able to perform the duty that way, Mr. Speaker, I don’t think it’s the right time.

Since yesterday, since the announcement at caucus and our press release, Mr. Speaker, I have been inundated with texts and calls and I’ve been so touched. My daughter was with me here and I couldn’t even look at my phone. It was very heartwarming. The most interesting thing I think is my constituents that, you know, arguably maybe were the toughest on me for a long period of time with some challenges in Riversdale community, have had words for me that honestly I couldn’t even look at some of these messages. They were so touching and, you know, calling me “friend” and, you know, looking forward, just want to make sure that I’m okay. And that was just an incredible piece.

You know, another thing, Mr. Speaker, was when the press release went out is I wanted to thank the building staff here. One of the things that — and I guess I can say his name — Don Morgan and I like to do and Greg Ottenbreit and I have done a few times is maybe, hmm, I don’t know, cause a little bit of . . . maybe lighten up the day for some people, we’ll just put it that way, in some offices so . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . And shenanigans, sure.

And honestly the office staff, that was one of the toughest things for me. Because in this building, you know, we talk about the colleagues that we work with becoming like family. And honestly, Mr. Speaker, those staff members are almost like extended family, and a lot of them being the age they are, they’re almost like additional children in the family. And I just want to thank them for all their work that they do because they are just a unbelievable powerhouse in those background offices, Mr. Speaker, and they make us all look good. And so I want to thank them for all they do.

You know, I’ve definitely got to thank my constituency association. This has been a long, hard drive for the Saskatchewan Party trying to win Riversdale. And one of the things I’m going to put on the record is I have absolutely no fear of running in another election. I ran in Riversdale in 2016 because I wanted to see the constituents and the people around even Riversdale represented with someone that is on, first of all, the governing side of government and had the ear of the ministers.

And you know, Mr. Speaker, I know a number of my colleagues can attest to the miles that I’ve put on in this building representing my constituents each and every day. And I feel, I feel very comfortable with the level that I’ve served my constituents, and I don’t plan on stopping that whether I’m in office or not, Mr. Speaker. I’m dedicated to my community, and I want to continue working with my community, Mr. Speaker. I talked a little bit about the texts and calls and it’s . . . I wish I could call everybody back. I’m over 100 already.

I want to talk a little bit about what this government has done and, you know, how one person can make a difference and, you know, some of the initiatives that . . . And this feels so weird but, you know, I talked to Everett about actually some of the things with mental health and addictions and, you know, speaking with the community so often, with my community-based organizations. And before I come with an idea to the ministry, I wanted to make sure my community-based organizations and people in my community, they had a piece of input for me, so I could really bring it to the best way.

And you know, between yourself and honestly one of my best friends in the House here, Tim McLeod, that carried on the legacy of what Everett had started, you know, this 500 beds for mental health and addictions and our recovery-oriented system of care . . . This wasn’t going to be a political speech, but I am so proud of these investments. I am absolutely so proud of these investments.

And I’ll tell you, Mr. Speaker, my community is talking about . . . even people that don’t support me. That’s totally fine. I always say, it doesn’t matter how you vote. I need to hear from everyone. And, Mr. Speaker, the people that don’t necessarily support me are proud of our investments in mental health in this province and proud of our direction. And I just love the direction we’re going with this. Our 988 suicide helpline, Mr. Speaker.

I gave my suicide speech in this House, and again, this feels weird, but it took me a long time to get through my practising the speech. And people that know me on this side know that I’ve given up on speaking notes. I have a couple of bullet points. And it happened actually by accident in my second speech. My speech was gone out of my computer. And Hayley Cattell was freaking out. She was trying to figure out where it went. She’s gotta find it, because they had to review the speech, because it’s only my second one. And I, for some reason, printed out bullet points, thinking if I ever have the courage to do it this way, I’m going to try it. So I had no choice; I had to do it at that time.

But you know, the member from Arm River, Dana, when I did my speech on suicide . . . And I had said to Greg, if it ever comes up that that’s part of the debate, I want to be a part of it. And you know, thinking back, Jim, Derek Meyers, and myself were the three members on this side in our private members’ day.

And I practised that speech. Got to the building about 3:45 in the morning, and I practised till about 7:30 in the morning. And I could not get through it. I just . . . I couldn’t do it. And I thought, I don’t know if I can continue. And you know, Todd came to my office and prayed for me. And I was just thinking, boy, it would be nice to have Todd around.

And Dana comes, talks to me just before I’m about to stand up and speak and he says, “Marv, here.” He was going to give me advice. I’m like, “No, I don’t want to talk to anybody right now. I’ve just got to think of how I’m going to do this.” And he said, “Just dip your toes in the water.” You know? And it was a tough thing to do, but I’ll tell you, Mr. Speaker, there has been just shy of a thousand people that have reached out to me since I gave that speech.

Because I believe that first of all people need to know that any one of us can struggle with mental health. Anyone can struggle with addictions. Any one of us can face the chance of taking our own life. It happened to my daughter — she’s still alive. Derek Meyers was not so lucky, Mr. Speaker. And I know Jim Lemaigre had a loss in the family as well. And I’ve worked with youth for over 35 years now, Mr. Speaker, and I’ve seen way too many suicides. So just again another one of . . . there’s a number of investments on that end in this part of the government. And I know there’s more work to be done, but I will say I know this: I’m 100 per cent convinced that our government is committed to that work, Mr. Speaker.

And you know, we can’t do any of this without our Premier being in India or all over the world at our trade shows and promoting what Saskatchewan does. Because of those visits, those tours, we have a very strong economy in this province, and that is something we should always be very proud of, Mr. Speaker. Because we can’t pay for all these things that we do on, I don’t know, hopes, dreams, higher taxes . . . No. We do this with the strength of our economy, Mr. Speaker. And that’s something I’m very proud of.

You know, Mr. Speaker, and I know a lot of my colleagues on this side of the House feel the same way, when we hear . . . I’ve had a number of guests here — I wish I could have had a few more — but they ask me about the processes of how the day goes. And I talk to them, you know. There’s introduction of guests and then there’s petitions and then there’s statement by members. And they say, well what does that mean? And I say, well statements by members are to highlight something good in your community.

And then we come into the House, and we listen to the opposition NDP give their statements and it’s doom and gloom. And, Mr. Speaker, it is really frustrating, because you know on this side of the House we’re positive. We have a positive outlook on this, Mr. Speaker. And Brad Wall said it great: hope beats fear. You know, and I’ve always felt that way, Mr. Speaker. And that’s why I started my statements with “It’s a great day in Saskatoon Riversdale,” Mr. Speaker.

Because that is really I think the positive attitude, the positive outlook, what we do in our communities each and every day, the engagement, whether it’s tough . . . And a lot of the meetings are tough, you know, Mr. Speaker, like that is a lot of the thing we do.

But the point of it is this government, my colleagues, I know are committed to listening to anyone and everyone, and it doesn’t matter what the concern is or . . . Sometimes they come in with a little bit of heat in Riversdale, Mr. Speaker, but they’re passionate about what they believe. And that is something that we can never take away from them, and we need to listen to each and every one of them and take those concerns forward, Mr. Speaker.

I do have to . . . I was so honoured to have my daughter here from Vancouver, Mr. Speaker. Danielle came down to support me in this couple of days and to get introduced in the House. And my kids have just been amazing. And just to that testament that, you know, we booked a flight Friday. I called her Friday and we booked a flight right then and there and she came down. You know, I’ve had Morgan and Christopher here as well, and they’re an amazing support for me, Mr. Speaker.

I do . . . We’ll just say my mom and dad were — and I know I’ve spoke about this, but this is my last chance right now to speak — so my mom and dad were very invested in politics, and they’re not around anymore. My mom’s been gone now eight years. Dad’s been 27. And I’m just so very proud of the way I was brought up, Mr. Speaker. My parents taught me and my family so much. And I hope I instill some of this in my kids, Mr. Speaker, because I don’t know if I have said it in this House, but my dad even used to bring homeless people into the house. And my mom would go, what am I going to do when you go to work at four in the morning? But my brothers would, you know, help out or whatever.

But I grew up with that, and I’m very proud of the upbringing, very proud of my parents. And it’s . . . I believe they’re still watching right now, Mr. Speaker, and I just, yeah, love you guys.

My kids, yeah, and I just wanted to say — I think I’m going to wrap it up — but you know, there’s a number of things I’m going to miss, and I will say to my colleagues today here that you guys are the biggest thing I’m going to miss. This, being able to have chats with you, coffee, whatever it is. You know, go for a dinner or whatever it is, but have those chats any time. Like just reach out with a text and, boom, you give me five minutes.

And you know, this is a very busy job when you’re committed to what you’re doing, and so to have that available is just second to none. And I truly do feel like this is an extension of my family, and that you’re all . . . I’m so proud to be part of this family and proud to have been here for the time that I have.

[15:00]

I’ll tell you what I won’t miss. I won’t miss the doom and gloom over there. I won’t miss that. I won’t miss the same question asked 10 times in a row because they can’t pivot and get a new question, Mr. Speaker. I won’t miss that at all.

I am really looking forward to hearing my colleagues’ speeches here as well. And you know, to all the ones, all my colleagues that are stepping away and retiring, thank you all for your service. And it’s been an absolute pleasure and honour to work with each and every one of you. And Premier Scott Moe, it’s been an absolute privilege to serve with you, sir. And I wish everybody the best. And please don’t forget my number and reach out any time.

But with that, Mr. Speaker, I’m just going to wrap up and say thank you so much, and thank you to you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

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

Mr. Grewal: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in this legislature today to deliver my final address. It’s been an absolute honour to serve the people of Regina Northeast over these past four years. Regina Northeast is an amazing community filled with hard-working, caring neighbours and so many talented people.

I would like to begin by thanking my family, especially my wonderful wife of over 40 years, Seema, and my children Simran, Indu, TJ, Jag, and Railin for their endless encouragement and support. Without family support you cannot do this job. I must also include my grandchildren Mila, Niam, Henry, and Otto for their hugs, giggles, and overall shine they bring into my life. I absolutely love my family, and I’m looking forward to being able to spend more time with them. They have been here to support me every step through this journey.

I would like to share a little bit about that journey with you. I have always been very active in my community for over 35 years, volunteering in Sikh Society of Regina, India Canada Association, Mosaic festivals, and Saskatchewan and Canadian cricket associations. As my professional life slowed down, my friends encouraged me to get even more involved by running for a Member of the Legislative Assembly. I was hesitant at first as politics was something I had never considered before, but I wanted to give back to the province that had given me so much. So I approached my family with the idea of running, and they were very encouraging.

I had a wonderful campaign team and would like to thank them especially for getting me here. My good friends Sharat Pandit, Bob Dhindsa, Amrinder Sandhu, Bikramjit Singh, and Kulbir Bugtana had a big hand in getting me nominated for the very first time in 2018. I had one of the best campaign managers for the 2020 election, Paul Hamnett. He started as an acquaintance, but by the time the election was over, he had become a very good family friend.

My GOTV [get out the vote] manager, Cheryl Spencer, and my business manager Aaron Metcalf did a great job. I also had an amazing group of volunteers including my campaign office manager, Naren and his wife, Rajula Pandya; door knockers that were there no matter the weather including Judy Simpson, Donna Rosin, Rupel Pandya, Sahil, Sagar, Nigel Sharp, Bobby and Sonia Sehmee, Kevin Kay, and Geeta and Ashwin Brahmania. Thank you to all three Regina members of Parliament for their friendship and support. There are many others and I want to thank each and every one of them for their time and great effort.

I am proud of what our government has accomplished for our province. As a member of this Assembly, which began in a global pandemic, I was part of a team under the great leadership of Premier Scott Moe that successfully transitioned our province and economy through COVID, strengthening programs and services that our residents rely on. We have since delivered new affordable housing, added an urgent care centre in Regina, are adding much-needed parking to Regina General Hospital, grew the population of our province to 1.2 million, surpassed 100 billion in exports over the last two years, delivered $10‑a-day child care, just to name a few.

For the members opposite, let us remember that our constituents expect more from us than the politics of character assassination. They deserve a discourse rooted in the issues that impact their lives daily. These immature battles may hit the headlines’ front pages of the news, but we are better than this. Though I still have many more things to say about the NDP’s twisted and unfounded attempt to attack my character, I am committed to leading by example and will keep on doing so.

I have been so blessed to have Cheryl Spencer, my constituency assistant, who is just the best. She has done such an amazing job of providing support for my constituents, always taking time to listen, being very thoughtful with understanding what their issue is, and then working with me to find the right solutions for them. That has been some of the most rewarding parts of my tenure as an MLA.

I also want to offer thanks to all my colleagues in this legislature. We are all here to do our best to improve things for the people of Saskatchewan. To my constituents, the caucus office, and staff in this building, I thank you for supporting me. It has been an honour to serve not just the residents of Regina Northeast, but all the people in the province of Saskatchewan. It has been a true honour to be here. I will miss you all. Thank you.

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from Arm River.

Mr. Skoropad: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from the first moment I walked up the steps of this building, you know, I’ve thought of this day. And I always wondered how I would capture, how I would capture, you know, these past years in the few moments I have to speak on the floor of this Assembly. I knew that’s going to be a tough task, there’s no question, Mr. Speaker.

I remember my initial sense of awe as I walked through the doors of the building and then certainly took my seat here. It certainly is a thrill of a lifetime. There’s no question about that. And it was also a thrill to receive and to get an office assigned to me in the building. I remember that was a big deal. And you know, some of my family — and I won’t say if they’re up there or not, but they probably are up there right now — some of my family told me that my first office would probably be a closet and that I would probably be making good friends with a broom somewhere and maybe a dustpan. But you know what? That first office was up in the caucus office area and, you know, I absolutely, I loved it.

The only problem was I guess my nameplate kept falling off. That was a problem, but it had something to do with one of my colleagues. Hey, we’re naming names here today, I guess, so we can freely . . . That was Marv there. Every time he walked by, he had a propensity to grab my nameplate, either flip it upside down, turn it backwards, or put it on someone else’s door. And so that didn’t stay very nicely very long. So it kept falling off and I was just hoping that wouldn’t be an omen for me in these four years.

But this certainly is a special place and this Assembly is a special place and such a special place that we’re vulnerable sometimes. And we just heard a couple of members give some very heartfelt speeches. And it’s a place where we do share a lot about ourselves, and over the course of my time here I’ve certainly shared a lot of myself and spoke to my family and maybe shared too much of myself from time to time.

But I’ll share something else of myself here right now, and that is I am an absolute lover of books. And I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, I love the feel of books. I love the texture of the pages. I love the smell of a book, whether they’re new or old. You don’t get that same . . . It would be kind of strange really if you were smelling an iPad. It’s probably strange that I’m smelling books too but I mean it’s less strange if you’re smelling a book than an iPad. But I love the lessons that you can glean from a book.

And certainly of all the books that I’ve read or sit on my shelf and I’m planning to read, apart from the Bible, there’s one that I treasure far above all other books I would have to argue. And this book actually doesn’t even have a title. It’s a blue hardcover book that I picked up at the U of S in 1993 at the university bookstore. And really it was a part of a class. The professor, Professor Murphy, he challenged us to go out and get a hardcover book like this one and to write down things that are meaningful to us, things that maybe will help shape who we are and who we will become one day, and things that would inspire us.

And in fact I believe that I gave, actually used . . . One of my first entries ever into that book, I used it in my maiden speech. And I talked at that time about gratitude. It was a line about gratitude and it went like this: that gratitude is the least of the virtues, but the absence of which is the greatest of the vices. And you know, gratitude, Mr. Speaker, I think it’s fitting that that’s where I will begin and probably that’ll be the theme of my comments here this afternoon. Because how do you sincerely say thank you to so many people when there truly isn’t significant time or specific words or enough words to do so? And I just wonder. It’s a question.

There’s also another question that’s been quite honestly searing in my soul these last number of days and, Mr. Speaker, it’s one I was faced with this morning. What suit do I wear today? So, Mr. Speaker, today is not a day for the pistachio suit. I will tell you that right now. And it’s certainly not a day for the baby blue suit — I just felt the vibe — I thought I was going to clash, actually, with the Minister of Environment seated right in front of me. I thought she might be wearing that baby blue suit also.

Sorry, Michelle, if you’re watching out there. It’s not a day also for the light grey suit, because I noticed too many members opposite have been wearing light grey suits. I don’t like blending in with those guys too much. But also a member on this side had pointed out that I look kind of like a Q-tip when I wear it. So I won’t be wearing that one today. And I won’t be wearing a navy blue suit, Mr. Speaker. I thought, you know, I’ve gone this long, almost four years without really fitting in suit-wise — why would I start today? I’m not going to do that, so I’m not wearing that suit.

And it won’t be the tan suit, because I don’t want to blend into the background behind me. That’s horrific. It won’t be the violet suit, or the McDonald’s Grimace suit as others have called it. It won’t be the black suit. I wore the black suit here a while back, and when I wore the black suit in the hallways, people, staff in the building came up to me and asked me one of two questions. One, are you okay today? Or two, are you going to a funeral? And so no, I’m neither doing any of those things. But I won’t be wearing that suit today.

And I certainly won’t be wearing the hot pink suit here today that made its appearance last week because, Mr. Speaker, a human being can only take that level of criticism once in their life. So I will not be wearing that suit. And I won’t be wearing the Aquaman suit today because I would not want to leave our Premier wondering throughout my speech what box of crayons did I dump that suit out of. So that won’t be the suit.

So no, there actually was only one. And my wife actually this morning said, that’s the one you’re wearing today? And I will tell you, but there is only one suit for today, and it’s this one. I actually don’t really like this suit. It’s kind of bland. I find it very dull . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . Thank you very much. But you know what? It’s the suit that I wore on my nomination night. So I thought that is where I should be . . . or the suit I should be wearing. And also that’s also maybe where I’ll begin this piece of gratitude I’m going to show here today.

[15:15]

So that night, October 23rd, 2019, was actually kind of one of those unusual nights, those nights that stick in your memory. It was one of the last windows to harvest on that particular year. We had rain leading up, and it was the last window. They were forecasting snow actually that night and a long stretch of rain, and so you’re hoping people show up.

And I’ll tell you, people did show up. And people left their fields and they left their homes and they left their shops and they left their busy lives. And I’ll tell you, they came and they cast the ballots. And I have never received so many hugs from people that were just drenched in chaff, and I didn’t care. So this cleaned up nicely. And also I’ve never received so many multi-purpose grease handshakes in my life, and it was wonderful. For that I am eternally grateful to those people.

And so many people from so many communities as a matter of fact, Mr. Speaker, have continued to support me, certainly supported me in the nomination, but who came to support me in the election and certainly beyond. And you know, I didn’t understand then, and I certainly don’t understand now why, why those people believed so much in me. But regardless, to all those people I just want to say a heartfelt thank you.

Now the election campaign in my mind was simply the beginning of my work as an MLA, and as such I had full intention to cover myself, spread myself right across the entire constituency — every corner, every nook and cranny. And I did so. In fact I got a hold of, to start the election campaign, got a hold of one of those big, those big maps that Elections Sask provides, found some rigid insulation in the shop, and put it up there on an easel in the shop. And then I took red pins and I put in every single community I was going to visit, I was going to door knock. And there was 56 communities, 56 pins. And I would only change the colour of those pins when I had completely door knocked that community, and some communities it took a lot of time before I changed that pin.

But we headed out. And sometimes it was just Terrill and I, and sometimes we took the kids actually. In communities or on doors where we thought that we might have some particularly tough door knocking, we took the kids. We used them as a human shield for campaigning. It was so effective, Mr. Speaker, and I highly recommend it to all my colleagues. Sometimes, sometimes, Mr. Speaker, the team of us was a larger group of friends, but most often it was a combination of Terrill, Mom, Bob, Lavonne, and Perry. And so to them, I certainly — and to all the people who have supported me in that time — I just want to say thank you.

Well I would like to actually single someone out that’s here today, Bob in particular. I want to thank you. I want to thank you for encouraging Terrill and I to get a new vehicle following the election. You see, Mr. Speaker, Bob was often our driver throughout the campaign. I would throw him my keys and I would be on my phone, emailing, making phone calls, lining things up, our next stop, talking to voters. It was a busy time. And so thank you for that.

And you know, it was one beautiful evening or one beautiful afternoon during the end of the campaign. As a matter of fact, it was in the Jansen area, in the countryside. We headed to meet a voter who very much wanted to discuss some issues with me. So while I thought her instructions were crystal clear — that our turn before the dead end, a quarter mile past the yard with the row of bins — Bob thought otherwise. And before the now-infamous words, “There’s no — expletive — dead end here,” could leave his lips, Terrill, mom, Lavonne, Perry, and I were catapulted in our, at that time, relatively new and in good shape black Suburban. And to this very day, Terrill’s ponytail, I think, is imprinted in the roof of a black Suburban travelling somewhere around Saskatchewan. So to that, Bob, I’d just like to say thank you for that.

What an absolute blessing it has been to represent the people from Arm River and I thank God for this opportunity each and every day. I truly do. And you know, how do I express gratitude for the people of Arm River? These are the people responsible for placing me in this seat and placing me at this desk and on the floor of this Assembly. These are the people that put trust in me, and these are the people who shared their voice with me and trusted that I would respect their voice and carry their voice forward, regardless of their political stripes, absolutely regardless of their political stripes.

That, Mr. Speaker, is the absolute beauty of this job, and it’s the job in a nutshell. It’s about serving and it’s about serving all, representing everyone in your constituency. So it has and continues to be a true honour to serve all the people of Arm River. And to the amazing people of Arm River, I just want to say thank you.

[Applause]

Mr. Skoropad: — This is good. We’ve got this clapping thing going well. It’s good. I have time to drink. All right, so far so good.

The job as MLA though, the job as MLA — and this is certainly to all members here — the job of MLA is unlike any other one. It requires the longest, the longest, most public job interview in history, that being the election. And once you get the job, they don’t come out and give you a manual, say this is how you become, or this is what you do as an MLA. There is no manual for this job, and here’s also the beauty of it. There’s ongoing and immediate feedback given by hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. So you know, this job I would point out also that for some people it even accelerates — if you can believe this, Mr. Speaker, I’ve heard it — it accelerates the natural greying of their hair. Yes. And after taking all these benefits into account, Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely the greatest job ever.

It’s a job that I have fully given myself to and it’s certainly been a job that I have been honoured to do and to serve the people of the province. And it’s been an honour and a privilege to work alongside these co-workers. These are the people that feel more like brothers and sisters, and moms and dads, and even great-great-uncles, this family that I certainly care for well beyond colleagues, but as true family members, as was referenced earlier. And when I think of those who have had a profound impact on me and influenced me and supported me along the journey, there just are so many.

But you know, one stands out and I certainly need to mention this person here. And that’s Lyle Stewart, Mr. Speaker. Lyle Stewart, he encouraged me to follow this path over a decade ago. And he’s been an honest — sometimes too honest — sounding board for me over the course of this time. And Lyle said a lot of things that have stuck with me. And I’ll be honest, some of the things he said really didn’t stick with me. But many of the things he did say stuck with me.

But it was not long after I was elected we had a sit-down in his office and we were just kind of reflecting on some of the things that he will treasure most about this time while he was still in the building here. And he said, you know, easily it’s the people that you come to know, the people you work with, and in particular he stressed that the relationships that he made, like the relationships that I will make, these will be the tightest bonds you’ll ever form in your life. And he could not have been more correct in saying so, Mr. Speaker.

To my colleagues, you’re probably the greatest surprise of my last four years. Yeah, surprise. Boy, you know, I hoped that I can work with, you know, people that I kind of get along with. We’d respect each other. It would be comfortable. But what I ended up with are people that, you know, I would walk through fire with and might walk through a flame or two — maybe — would walk through a flame or two for me as well. So for that and for you I just want to say thank you.

Well I won’t single out each of you individually as colleagues because I would quite honestly single every single one of you out. I’ll wait to do so on Twitter later on, and I’m just kidding, right. But I will say this: there’s one person I want to specifically acknowledge and that’s our Premier.

You know, I don’t know if he fully knew what he was getting into when he became Saskatchewan’s 15th premier. I really don’t, but he has certainly led with exceptional courage, heart, dedication, and certainly vision. And he is tireless. He is tireless.

Mr. Speaker, my dad always taught me that God only gives you the talents God gives you, and then the rest — the determination, the hard work — you need to put that in yourself. I would say that I have always believed myself to be a person who doesn’t get outworked, a person who has no problem rolling up his sleeves, and certainly a person that really needs no external motivation. That said, I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, the Premier has made me a better person and certainly inspired me to squeeze a little bit more out of my sponge. So thank you.

Mr. Speaker, everyone wants a nickname, everyone. And I would also like to thank the Premier for ensuring I was able to secure several nicknames. Case in point, case in point it was shortly after being elected and I was just getting to know my friend, the member from Riversdale, Marv, right, and he quite randomly . . . We were sitting around and he quite randomly came up with what he thought was a fabulous handle for me.

And I didn’t necessarily agree that much right away. I wasn’t completely sold, and you know, I was able to keep it contained to just a few people for a number of days. And actually there came a point when I actually thought that that particular nickname was shelved. It was done.

Well that was until the Premier caught wind of that, that nickname, and then it became the talk of one of our pre-caucus meeting banters. And well let me just say this: the rest is history and to that I am so overflowing with gratitude for that moment. So thank you. Thank you very much.

But in all sincerity, thank you for your leadership and thank you for your friendship.

Mr. Speaker, I have truly been blessed to be surrounded by awesome. I’ve spoke a number of times about my constituency office, and I even gave an introduction here earlier on. And I have specifically made the claim just how great I think the people that work in this office are and how they conduct their business and their lives. And I would just like to thank my constituency assistants past, Donna and Katie; and my now, Reece; and my rock, Lavonne, for not letting this MLA fall completely on his face. So thank you for that.

And you know, Mr. Speaker, I would certainly be remiss if I did not comment on my time as minister of Environment as well. You know, the day I was asked by the Premier to serve in his cabinet was a day, a day like I proposed to my wife — you’re welcome, honey — a day as vividly special in my mind, a day that I remember as though it happened yesterday. And it’s certainly, it’s certainly an honour, an honour that needs your absolute full attention. It really is. You know, assuming a ministerial role is akin to jumping on a treadmill that is spinning at full speed — and I’ve done that, and that didn’t go so well, Mr. Speaker — or drinking from a fire hydrant as we say oftentimes here.

And I recall my first week I was trying as hard as I could and, you know, uncertainty and anxiety were just like bouncing around in my brain. And then, I’ll tell you, it happened. There was a moment in that first week that happened that I knew, you know, it’s going to be good. It’s going to be good. My chief of staff at that time, Morgan Bradshaw, he came into my office one of those early . . . Oh, and I see him in the gallery there. There you go.

He came flying into my office one of those first days. I was reading through a briefing note trying to get ready for the meetings later on that day, and he just barged in and said, “What the heck,” except he didn’t say “heck.” He said . . . He said, “What the heck is that?” And then I looked up, and I’m like, “What?” He said, “What the heck is that?” And I said, “Well what, what?” “That suit. What the heck is that?”

And it was from that moment I knew I was surrounded by great people, honest people, and that’s exactly what he was. Actually when we talk of nicknames, I gave him a nickname. I nicknamed him The Cleaver because he really . . . It’s not pretty, but it sure is effective. And then throughout my time serving in that ministerial office in that capacity I was blessed to work with the absolute best. After Morgan, my other chief of staff — and he’s seated up there right now too — Kenneth Cotterill.

[15:30]

And Kenneth, brand new chief of staff, worked with me. And you know, he’s a fast learner. And you know how I knew he was a fast learner, Mr. Speaker, is because we went on our first meetings together. We were fine, we actually were going to meet with other ministers out in New Brunswick. And he came to the airport. I’m wearing a suit, thinking, you know what? Looking professional, as Michelle would say. Look good, feel good, play good. I don’t know, she’s got some saying there.

But he was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, and he had a little backpack. I thought, that’s strange. And he had a ball hat on backwards. And I thought, that’s strange. Well it is what it is. So we get to the airport, and I’m thinking, what if his luggage doesn’t show up? And even referenced that to him. Hey, I kind of laughed it off.

Well I’ll tell you what. We arrived in the airport in New Brunswick, and we got in there about 1 in the morning, 2 in the morning. And guess what, Mr. Speaker. His luggage didn’t show up. So he learned a quick lesson, long story short. I will say this: he never made that same mistake again.

So, Mr. Speaker, I was also blessed to work with Emni, Anshumaan, Cole, and Jaxen as well. And these are just such different people but such awesome people, and we work so well together. So to all of them I’d just like to say thank you.

You know, before I entered politics, people cautioned me that this was a career . . . This career that I was pursuing was going to be frustrating and probably, most likely was going to leave me a jaded human being. Well, Mr. Speaker, over these past several years — I’ll be honest — I have probably been frustrated a number of times for a number of reasons, and actually I’ve probably caused more frustration in people than I’ve assumed.

But with what I’ve seen take place in this province over the course of those past four years as MLA, I’ll tell you it certainly does not leave me jaded. It leaves me filled with hope, it leaves me filled with optimism, and it leaves me filled with excitement about the future of Saskatchewan and the promise of this province.

So last week I joined the Minister of Agriculture to have a bit of a sit-down lunch with the ag scholarship winners, Maddy, Marleigh, Clare, and Katie. And you know what? They all shared a common story. They want to plant their roots right here in this province. Those two guys, those two guys up in the gallery that kind of look like me — my apologies, boys — kind of look like me, they have plans to plant their roots right here in this province. Sarah from Outlook plans to have roots in this province, and so does Jody from Imperial, and I can go on. They’re planning to have roots right here in this province.

And it’s not because of our winters, Mr. Speaker. It is not because of our winters. It’s because of our opportunity. That’s why they want to be here because we are certainly on the cusp of something great, something greater. We are only on the cusp of that.

You know, when I first put my name forth as a candidate, I ran on a simple concept. Why not us and why not right here? And this government answers both these questions daily, Mr. Speaker. It is us and it’s happening right here, right now. The world, Mr. Speaker, has eyes on us and what we’re doing here. And we’re just getting started.

So jaded, Mr. Speaker? No, no. No, no, no. Jaded, you see, jaded is actually buried. Jaded is buried under our Saskatchewan story, 17 years deep in this province.

Yes, Mr. Speaker, I love this province. I believe in this government and where we are headed. But while the what I am stepping away from certainly is great, the why is much greater. In fact the why is seated right up there. Hard decisions, though they aren’t hard when they’re for the right reason. And so I will be completing the chapter, or section you might want to call it, of that blue textbook, that hardcover book. And I’ll probably title it something like My Political Life or maybe I’ll come up with something snazzier than that.

I’m not sure what that final sentence is exactly going to be yet. And I thought about what punctuation to end it with. Is it a simple period? Is it a question mark? Is it an exclamation mark? But no, Mr. Speaker, you know what? I think I’ll be using an ellipsis and I’ll leave a couple pages. I’ll leave a couple pages maybe blank right after that.

But what I do know is that, you know what? I haven’t deserved all that God’s blessing over the course of these past four years, but I’m not asking too many questions. I just know that I am incredibly grateful. So with that, I will close for now with two simple words. Thank you.

The Deputy Speaker: — I recognize the member from Kindersley.

Mr. Francis: — Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Always a hard act to follow, the member for Arm River. It is nice to see he finally made his way to a men’s store for once, as most of his suits look they come off the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory set. But he is a snazzy fellow, and he is a great friend.

Well here we are — last week of the last session that myself and so many other colleagues will experience as elected members. And I must say that the last six years have flown past very quickly, but especially the last few months. And how does one encapsulate six years in a 15‑ or 20‑minute speech, let alone 25 years like some of our members? So I can’t imagine the task that is to put that all together into one speech. But I do want to congratulate the members from Biggar-Sask Valley, Indian Head-Milestone, and Humboldt-Watrous on their exceptional careers.

Now I struggled with this for weeks to the point that I wasn’t even going to do a final speech, but I thought, you know, you owe it to yourself and so many others to put something on the record. And I want to focus mainly on the positive aspects of my time here and leave the perpetual negativity to team NDP, but we’ll see how that goes.

Now I’ve always struggled with speech writing, and so I found this one especially difficult. Often I think politicians talk for the sake of talking, and that’s just not in my bag. So I had a real tough time getting started on this one because I really didn’t have a theme. And so I thought, what a better place to start than the theme of team.

I’ve been on many teams in my 56 or 57 years. I’ve always been most comfortable in a team environment, whether as a follower or as a leader. Team settings are where I think I’m perhaps the most valuable and definitely the most content. And I can’t say enough great things about this team and how meaningful it has been to be a part of it. Just quality people from top to bottom. And I honestly feel I have made such good friends in this building from my time here, from colleagues to building staff, ministerial staff. It’s the people and relationships I’ll miss the most.

And in case any of you weren’t paying attention, my mission was to make you laugh and maybe think a little bit at the same time. But be assured our group does not always agree or always get along, but we openly discuss the issues, and we get to have input as members. And you can’t come into this House or this job expecting all of your views or ideas to be openly accepted. But what I found most impressive is that you always had the opportunity to speak, to be listened to, and to be valued as an individual.

And that, Mr. Deputy Speaker, was my intent when entering politics, to bring an unapologetic rural, ag, energy, and business perspective. And perhaps an element of humour, dash of sarcasm to the public sector that historically is perceived to be a bit stuffy and too serious at times and can often cater to urban issues because that’s where the population base is. But I endeavoured to ensure rural Saskatchewan remained heard and represented.

And what I found during my time here is whether you’re rural or urban, male or female, young or old, no matter your background or experience, you have a say on this team and the opportunity to be heard. The Premier often said that he considers this the strongest caucus in the nation. Teams are strong when every member is valued, and that can get tough as governments age. But that cohesion remains, and that’s because of his strong leadership and the strong leadership in the party.

So over my time here many people back home have asked me many, many times, can a person actually make a difference in government? And my answer was always the same — absolutely. At times the differences are very small and hard to measure and not very visible, but they add up.

And it’s definitely a place of process. This place has a lot of process; analysis to the point of paralysis is what I kind of like to call it. That’s one of my biggest frustrations, but I knew that coming into it. It certainly isn’t like private business where you have an idea, you draft it, implement it in short order, and you live or die with your decision.

But I really grew to love and will always appreciate the duties bestowed upon me by the Premier for my time as Legislative Secretary for Trade and Export Development under Minister Harrison, and as an advisor for Energy and Resources to Minister Eyre and Minister Reiter.

The members of Last Mountain-Touchwood and Cannington, or Daryl and Travis, as we like to call them — my other brother Daryl — they are very capable and excellent choices for those roles, and I’m happy to see them in them.

And the last part of that transition will take place this summer as I step down as vice-president for PNWER [Pacific NorthWest Economic Region] on the board of directors, and Last Mountain-Touchwood is going to take over the reins. So PNWER is a very good organization and I enjoyed being a part of that very, very much. My background in energy and agriculture has given me lots of opportunity to give input and advice at times, and I hope that was helpful.

This caucus continues to have very strong representation in these most important sectors. And even though we are losing some very experienced and knowledgeable people, I’m very confident that the new group elected this fall will be equally as strong.

And I’ve said it numerous times before, and it sounds a bit crazy, but I honestly loved being on treasury board. Lots of time and effort required but of the utmost value to the province and especially the taxpayer. And I’d be remiss not to thank the Finance minister for her leadership.

And also a big thanks to my colleagues for the honour of electing me deputy caucus Chair a couple of years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed that position and felt maybe I should’ve looked at that a little bit sooner. But I hope the Chair, the member from Saskatoon Westview, enjoyed it as much as I did. We tease each other about who runs the most disorganized caucus meetings, but we’ve come to the consensus that the member from Rosthern-Shellbrook is the common denominator. With the Premier on one side and me on the other, the Chair really did not stand much of a chance. But he handled it very well and I think we made a good team, as did our entire caucus management committee and of course our caucus staff over the years.

Six years ago it was John and Karalee were kind of the go-to people when I first started. And they were a great resource to me, as are the current staff now to all members: Troy, Kim, Mykola, Shelby, Marita, Cienne, Mat, and especially . . . Where’s our head zookeeper? She’s up there? Oh, my tired old eyes can barely see Ang at the top there. A big thank you to Ang for supporting me and the other members of caucus over the last several months. The caucus is in great hands moving forward with Ang in charge and the great staffing complement she has assembled.

So many great relationships struck with my colleagues, too numerous to mention. I’d love to mention them all, but for the sake of time I do want to note a few. My very first room 140 group: the members from Cypress Hills, Canora-Pelly, Estevan, Kelvington-Wadena, Regina Harbour Landing, and Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood. Can’t thank you guys enough for showing the new guy the ropes back in 2018.

The majority of that group moved on to other offices, but I was happy to keep my Saskatoon Churchill-Wildwood and Regina Harbour Landing friends right where I wanted them. And I always liked my end-of-the-hall, non-flyby, off-the-radar location which I was very happy to keep my whole time here.

[15:45]

And our newest additions to room 140: Riversdale, Prince Albert Northcote, Melville-Saltcoats, and Moosomin. All class acts, led by our government wimp. Did I say wimp? I meant Whip. The member from Yorkton, what a guy. As far from a wimp as you can get actually. As tough as they come. He considers himself a Chuck Norris but is often confused for Rob Norris. And yeah, we tease him a little bit about his small stature, but no one has a bigger heart or stands taller when it comes to faith, family, and life.

Now there’s a couple others that are awfully close, and they’re the members from Melfort and Riversdale. Could talk about these two for an hour each, but they’re just simply exceptional humans. This caucus in government is very fortunate to have these fellas in their lives. So thank you, gentlemen.

And the members from Moose Jaw North and The Battlefords, these young and up-and-comer rising stars, super proud of you two. I already touched on Slick there so we’ll leave him out. But you guys have carried a lot of water for this government, especially on very, very tough files. So thank you, gentlemen, for that.

Now we’re going to have a little bit of a reunion here, back to the original 140 crew. We, in 2020 fall session, the Hanson Brothers were put back together on a line and strategically located right over there adjacent to the opposition during the pandemic. Now that was weird on so many levels. I think there was a dozen of us over there, government members placed over there, for social distancing reasons. But no matter how bad it was for us, it was really, really bad for Ryan Meili.

Canora-Pelly became the Brad Marchand of the legislature. Unfortunately for the mask mandate, he wasn’t able to lick Ryan in the face, but he literally ran Meili out of the rink on a daily basis. And a frustrated Meili told him, Terry, you’ll never amount to anything. And which Terry said, I bet you a hundred bucks, Doc, I’ll be here longer than you. And he was right. Just like Brad Marchand, you’d rather play with Canora-Pelly than against him.

And myself, I’ve never been more excited to wear a mask because I was in Ryan Meili’s camera shot for question period. Talk about awkward. Fortunately I can communicate effectively with eye rolling and body language. I had so many people back home ask why I was sitting with the NDP. My answer was, well, we elected so many MLAs that we had to get some of that unoccupied, vacant Crown land they were just wasting over there. And also that I had secret aspirations of joining team Meili. Yeah, right. Right. Anyway we survived over there and Ryan Meili didn’t, so all’s well that ends well.

And I must say I’ve enjoyed my time, especially with my seatmate here, the member from Lloydminster. I feel my suits will fit a lot better when I can get away from her for a period of time. But also the ladies that sit in front of us here. I’m not sure why they put me with them, but it’s been a fantastic time, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

But back to my thank yous. To my current CAs — Rita, Maxine, Cathy — and past CAs, Judy and Crystal, thank you so much. These gals have always been the heart of our constituency office, and their efforts are appreciated more than they know. And to the great people across the Kindersley constituency who were gracious enough to elect me twice, thank you. I’ve endeavoured to represent you to the best of my ability. You have a great representative in the nominated candidate, Kim Gartner. He will undoubtedly continue in the same fashion, looking out for our ag and energy sectors well into the future.

And of course my family. They’ve sacrificed so much in allowing me to serve here. It’s difficult to be useful for me at the best of times, let alone four hours away from home. But they managed well and I’m not sure they’re ready to have me home full-time. We’ll see.

But now in closing, I wish to offer a bit of unsolicited advice to all members. You can take it or you can leave it. But I felt it important to say, as a member who maybe isn’t really a definition of a politician, just more from a Joe Public point of view, a large and growing segment of the population does not like or respect us or what we do — any of us, either side. Can we blame them?

The saying goes that rising tides lift all boats, and falling tides sink all ships. That’s usually a reference to the economy — free markets, capitalism — but the reference I want to make is regarding us as political people running a political system in a hallowed House of government. And in my opinion that perception is not good. It’s maybe as bad as it’s ever been. And we can blame Trump, Biden, Clinton, Trudeau, Singh, Poilievre, and the like as they have undoubtedly made it worse, not better. And of course the mainstream media loves to dump gas on every fire they can see. But I’ve said it before: look in the mirror first. Again on both sides, but especially members opposite.

Now a few on that side, and now their leader, are starting to resort to personal smear campaigns instead of a platform. And the only thing resembling a platform that I’ve heard in the past while is to suspend the fuel tax to help with affordability, yet they want us to balance a budget. Sounds like a cut to the highways budget to me.

Their messaging is confusing, to say the least. Saying we’re wasting taxpayer dollars with out-of-country travel and foreign trade initiatives, knowing full well their federal leaders are failing miserably in that space. Quit using out-of-province contractors for construction projects or surgical backlog catch-up. Would you just want to quit building things? Do you want people to suffer in pain longer? Is that the option you want? The NDP continues to be all over the road and has no idea what direction they’re going in, Mr. Deputy Speaker.

Small-minded short-term thinking, but at least that’s an attack on policy. It’s the personal attacks that are most sickening, Mr. Deputy Speaker. And they go far beyond the planting of negative ideas, often leaping over the line of defamation and slander, in my opinion, and are a disgrace to this House. Attacks on personal beliefs, ethics, intelligence, physical appearance, you name it. Gross at times, Mr. Deputy Speaker, but it’s all fair game in an election year, the ruthless pursuit of power.

And I’ll be the first to admit, we retaliate. And I’m probably the worst, maybe second-worst offender. I get sucked into the trash talk almost daily. I don’t think I usually instigate it, but I certainly have no problem engaging. And I know that’s not a great trait.

But I find it amusing that the members on that side insult our backbenches, calling us small, invisible, unheard, and irrelevant. Well I can say with absolute certainty, there’s more talent, knowledge, skill, and experience and integrity in the back two rows here than exists over there. And likely in our back halls has more talent than lots on that side.

Now I’m not going to single out any one member over there, because there’s several culprits. But I’ve made some observations, and I want to point out what the NDP seem to do to their members. A member can start out as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, fairly meek, respectful, small-business-minded young rising star, but through some great activist social justice warrior instruction can take the same sanctimonious, socialist, cynical path as the rest.

For example, a couple of weeks ago a member, I believe, accused me of being illiterate by heckling from their seat, asking if I even knew how to read. Now I would love to hear some clarification on that and have someone over there put it on the record if they think it’s just me that’s stupid. Or is it because I’m from rural Saskatchewan, where they don’t elect you people? Are those the stupid people, or are they the smart ones?

Last week another heckle during the 75‑minute debate asked, why doesn’t your government build any pipelines in your 17 years? Rachel Notley got one built. Oh my God. Rachel Notley did not get the Trans Mountain Expansion built. And that took me back to six years ago and my very first 75‑minute debate, when the seasoned veteran Liberal-turned-NDP member, Buckley Belanger, asked me the exact same question. And it reminded me of the Abraham Lincoln quote: “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” Of which I have plenty of experience.

I never went back to Hansard to check, but I believe my answer was or very close to this: “I would like to thank the member for giving me the biggest softball question you could ever give a rookie member. Governments don’t build pipelines; private sector builds pipelines.” Mr. Deputy Speaker, the older, more seasoned Liberal-turned-NDP member didn’t get it then, and the members now don’t either. It’s new faces, but it’s the same old out-of-touch NDP.

Now in the case of Trans Mountain, I’d like to give a little history lesson for the record. Kinder Morgan was a private company, owned and operated that main line since 1951. And they were committed to build the expansion on their own dime. But the federal government, in their immense wisdom, got in the way of it through regulation. We think on designs of killing it initially, like they had done with Energy East and Northern Gateway. Then they overpaid buying the company outright, using taxpayer dollars.

And yes, in fairness they did get it built last month, five to six years later, at four or five times the cost. Originally 7 billion. And nearly $35 billion to build a pipeline that a private company was willing to build in the first place. That is precisely why government needs to stay out of private enterprise.

But that’s how Liberal-NDP-socialist thinking works, Mr. Deputy Speaker. The NDP continues to think they know better than the public, government needs to have their hands and their noses in everyone’s business. Now I’m afraid the loud and proud antics of fear, smear, and personal attacks are likely just starting. From NDP, SUP [Saskatchewan United Party], as we hear in the Chamber, and it’s likely to ramp up in the months ahead with the Buffalo, PC [Progressive Conservative] Party, whatever the Liberals are called now in the province, and let’s not forget the Green Party — an embarrassing list of choices.

So back to my original point. This election campaign has the potential to be ugly. But please remember, tearing down others does not lift you up. You are lowering the water level, and you’re knocking holes in your own boats in your effort to sink our ship as a government. And you are degrading your own occupation and reputation in the process.

This fall Saskatchewan voters, in this overly entitled world we’ve created, have now seven parties to choose from. It makes no sense. Have we learned nothing about vote splitting? Of the seven, only two have any chance of winning seats and forming government; five are simply spoilers. So really there’s only one sensible choice to keep this province strong and growing, and it is not the NDP because all they are is Trudeau’s choice for this province.

And lastly to our members, please be true to your convictions and beliefs. Be true to our party’s guiding principles. Do not get sucked further into the virtue-signalling DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion], ESG [environmental, social and governance], climate crisis agenda vacuums. They are all woke socialist traps under the guise of making the world a better place. It’s garbage, and it’s all power-based, anti-capitalism, wealth redistribution, liberal rhetoric. Thankfully that is beginning to be exposed and beginning to unravel.

We’ve seen it with the carbon tax. What they hope to do with the clean fuel and electricity standards. The feds don’t care about energy or food security, not one bit. The NDP doesn’t either. Like the carbon tax fight when it began, do not be afraid to stand alone when fighting for what you know is right. Stand firm on bargaining. Do not sell out the taxpayers of this province by caving in to unions that are trying to help the NDP in an election year. Do not hand the province’s keys and chequebook to the organized labour wing of the NDP. Doing the right thing is often difficult and can be very costly, but it will pay huge dividends down the road.

So a final thank you to y’all. Premier and cabinet, keep up the good work. Your jobs are difficult and very underappreciated. I hope you continue to use your strength and knowledge and that of the team behind you. It has been an extreme pleasure to work with y’all. Please continue to work hard to protect this province from the NDP. That will in turn keep this province safe and prosperous.

I appreciate all the friendships. All the best to you seeking re-election. And to those of you not running for whatever reason, thank you for your service, and good luck in whatever your next chapter brings. This has been nothing short of an honour to serve. God bless Saskatchewan.

[16:00]

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

Mr. Nerlien: — Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker. It’s a great honour to rise today to deliver what’s referred to, I guess, as one’s last speech in this place. And I do want to say first and foremost I’m a little bit confused because my colleague in front of me is actually wearing a proper suit today. And I’m even more confused because I turned around a few minutes ago and I happened to notice the Minister of Agriculture’s socks, and they’re shocking — shocking.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, I have a few thank yous. I’m going to be quite brief today. I think most of you know what my position is on a lot of things and it just . . . The member from Kindersley spoke most eloquently about a lot of the same feelings as I might have, and I truly appreciate that.

I want to thank first and foremost my wife, Giselle. Today is our 47th anniversary. I’ve been blessed with those 47 years. We have three fabulous children, all extremely successful in their careers. Angela — and I’ve talked about the kids before — Angela is a hazardous waste manager north of Fort McMurray. Erik is in the audio-video tech industry in downtown Vancouver. And Mitchell works in Calgary in the industrial products world and is doing extremely well. He also has a second job working with Bret “The Hitman” Hart’s bar environment so he’s pretty excited about that, I can assure you. He’s kind of living the dream these days and one of these days age is going to catch up to him in a big way.

I also want to thank my siblings and my wife’s family as well. They’ve been incredibly supportive. My sister and her husband in particular, they’re always following and asking good questions. My brother keeps me on the straight and narrow. He and his wife are both challenging me at every turn on some of the things that we may or may not be doing, and I truly appreciate their input, and their families as well who have very much contributed to making this a special, a special opportunity, and I truly appreciate their input.

I do want to just take a moment to say thank you, and we all do, to our constituency assistants. And I note with some concern with, you know, I think the member from Kindersley just listed off like seven or something that he’s had. I don’t know. Like one constituency assistant has looked after me quite well, so I’m a little concerned about that.

But Chris Grisdale has been with me since day one, and she has done just a phenomenal job in working with the constituents. And we all know and appreciate, I think, that case management is truly a challenge, and she’s done an exceptional job in working with our constituents on so many different case issues that come up.

And some of them are, you know, as we all know, some of them are quite simple and we can move forward quite quickly. But some are very, very complex and in fact, you know, the odd one lasts for years. And we’ve worked with some situations for a good length of time, and those become very personal in our lives and they matter. They matter. And what we do with those folks matters a great deal, and we owe a great debt to our constituency assistants in what they do each and every day for our constituents.

I want to thank my executive. They’ve been extremely supportive throughout the years, and not only of me, but they’ve been extremely supportive of the party and have always looked to give more than they’ve gotten from the party. And I think we all appreciate that. I know that they’ve stepped up to help some of the other members of the legislature get elected through some, you know, cash or whatever they could do to help out. And I truly appreciate the executive for their role in keeping the party strong and moving forward.

I want to thank a couple of people specifically. June Draude, who many of the members worked with over the years, but June was the member from Kelvington-Wadena prior to me, and served with great honour and distinction and was an outstanding mentor and help to me in getting my feet on the ground in this role. And I truly appreciate everything that she did.

And Bonnie Wallin. And I did a member’s statement a while ago about Bonnie. She served the constituents in our area for over 40 years, most recently as our membership Chair. But Bonnie was an exceptional — and she moved out of the constituency a year or so ago — but Bonnie was just an exceptional mentor as well, helped us a great deal to work through a lot of, sort of the early days to make sure that we were well-grounded. So I really appreciated both June and Bonnie.

And I also want to just briefly mention Pamela Wallin, Bonnie’s sister. Pamela was instrumental in helping me sort of get my first speech together, frankly, for my nomination meeting. I had written it all out and I thought, you know, I know somebody that could probably help me a little bit. So I fired it off to Pamela, and within hours she was back to me with a couple of little suggestions that I think made a great deal of difference. And so I just want to say I appreciate Senator Pamela Wallin for her contribution as well. And we’ve stayed friends ever since, so I truly appreciate her.

When I first got here, I want to say I was particularly honoured. The member from Carrot River Valley would invite some of us over for supper once in a while, as we all know. And in those early days there was a small group of people that got together — June Draude as I mentioned, Doreen Eagles, Yogi Huyghebaert, and Fred, and Dan D’Autremont, and a few others — and I can tell you how important that was . . . I can’t tell you how important that was in terms of sort of providing sort of that early sense of family, that sense of belonging to something bigger than you. And I truly, truly appreciated that group of people. And of course all of you who have been around for a while remember well Yogi’s stories, and Doreen’s Doreen, and it was just an awesome environment. And of course the member from Carrot River Valley is an exceptional cook, and we truly appreciate everything that he’s done.

Meagan Rumbold. Meagan was my campaign Chair throughout, and I truly, truly appreciate everything that she did. And she’s got an extremely busy business and farm and family, but she’s always been there for me. And I truly appreciate everything that Meagan did for us.

I want to thank the constituents obviously of Kelvington-Wadena. You know, June and I are very different, very, very different. And some of the members are smiling, so . . . But I appreciate that the constituents were, I think, appreciative of both of our styles of serving them. And I truly appreciate the interactions I’ve had across the constituency over the years.

In particular I want to highlight, you know, some of the absolutely incredible conversations and work that we’ve done with some of the municipal governments. And I think how often and how important that is to successful governance in the province. We have to work together, and we can do it so well. And those relationships are extremely important.

I really have to say a few words about my colleagues. I just have to. That’s all I’ll say. No, it’s been, you know, such a great honour to serve with this group on this side. I can’t say enough about . . . Some of the friendships that we’ve developed are just beyond words. And obviously we’ll take them with us for the rest of our lives. And you know, I was trying to think of how to frame this. Every single person on this side of the Chamber has contributed to my character. So I am a result of you. So take that for what it’s worth.

But I want to talk for a minute about some of the work that I had the opportunity to do with some of the ministers. When I first walked in the door, Brad Wall obviously was the premier of the day. And Brad asked me to work with Don McMorris right off the bat. And I walked in, and we had a tremendous working relationship on doing some work around the modernization of the liquor industry because I had some experience — not on the drinking side, but on the business side — in that industry. And I truly appreciate that first opportunity and learned a lot from that.

I worked with Kevin Doherty, then the minister of Finance, and worked very, very closely with him on some very important issues around negotiations with the employees of the government. And I found that to be tremendously interesting work and truly appreciated that opportunity.

I had the opportunity obviously to work with the fossil at the end down there, Don Morgan, and as his Legislative Secretary working on the connectivity file. And I’m going to touch back on that in a minute, but through that file I got to meet a lot of incredibly interesting people across the country and in fact across North America. And I think we did some really good work in that opportunity.

And right now I’m working with Minister Hargrave on the Builds file, and that is probably . . . I’m finding to be, you know, truly, truly rewarding work because I think we have an opportunity to grow this province in a really constructive, positive way. And it’s very exciting work for me and I truly appreciate that opportunity.

Informally I’ve worked obviously with so many others like Minister Cockrill, Minister Duncan, Minister McLeod, and of course the Minister of Finance. I truly, truly appreciate those opportunities. And, Minister of Finance, you’re a rock star. Thank you so much for your service.

I think the most important thing that we get to do as MLAs, as ministers, whatever, is the people that we meet not only in our constituencies but across the province, across Canada, and around the world, and we get a chance to work with them. We get a chance to engage with them on opportunities that lay before us. And I’ve been so fortunate through working as an MLA, but throughout my life, to work with people around the world on really, really important issues. And I think, you know, in some small way we can all make a little bit of a difference somewhere in the world, and I’m really pleased to have had that opportunity.

In particular, as members on this side will know, I’ve been involved with MLC [Midwestern Legislative Conference], the Midwest legislative conference. I’m on the Midwest-Canada Relations and the BILLD [Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development] committees. Very much appreciate those opportunities. I’ve attended some of the PNWER conferences and truly appreciate the leadership there. And I think that those relationships really matter. It’s about the relationships on the ground. It’s not about the big-picture politics. It’s about relationships on the ground and that matters.

[16:15]

I’ve also served on the Canadian parliamentary association and really appreciate that, and some of the other boards and committees that I’ve had the opportunity to work on. Truly, truly appreciate all of that.

I want to say thank you. I see some of the staff members are here today. Thank you to all the staff of the building who I’ve had the great pleasure to work with. And some of my favourites are up there, I see. But I truly appreciate all of you for what you do. It makes a difference for us. If you’re responsive to the people of Saskatchewan, it really, truly matters, and we thank you.

At my nomination meeting, which was a huge, huge event, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people . . . Truly appreciate. It was a very strongly contested nomination. But at my nomination meeting, I spoke about three things that matter.

The first was I talked about the people of Kelvington-Wadena constituency and the people of northeast Saskatchewan and the role they played in building Canada. If you look back through history, we spent an awful lot of time sending our human resources to northern Ontario or to northern Manitoba or northern Alberta or to British Columbia to build the rest of Canada. Today those people are staying home and they’re building Saskatchewan.

And that was one of the things that I really wanted to pay some attention to and hope would come to fruition over the years, and I think we’re doing a marvellous job in doing all of that.

The other two things were a little more practical, a little more, you know, I think important obviously in the short term for the people of the Kelvington-Wadena constituency, and they were connectivity and highways. And for all of us, on both sides probably, connectivity and highways matters a lot because it’s about how you live each and every day.

And I’ve been very fortunate to have quite a bit of work done on the highways in my constituency, and there are various ministers of Highways in the room today that I want to say thank you very, very much, and to the staff, the chiefs and so on, for helping us make that happen. It has truly made a difference in my constituency, and I absolutely appreciate it.

On the connectivity front, at the time, if you go back eight years to . . . Actually it’s closer to 10 years ago when the nomination meeting was. The whole conversation was around cell towers. And we had at the time about 900 cell towers. We built in my constituency 12 cell towers during my term. So I truly appreciate that. We still have one more to go, but I truly appreciate that we made significant advancement in that field.

But the other thing that we’ve done is we’ve moved on to the whole conversation around 5G and fibre and connectivity in a much different way than we did 10 years ago, and probably 10 years from now it will be something entirely different again. But I think that connectivity has advanced a long ways.

So I think I’ll just wrap by saying, you know, we are in a . . . Other members have touched on it already, but the opportunity in front of us is just, I frankly think it’s staggering. I think it’s literally unbelievable when, you know, we get so many opportunities to meet with the leaders in industry and the leaders in business across this province. And their belief in this province is amazing. I hear it every day, and I’m so pleased with the attitude that is permeated across this province today that we can, we can do. This isn’t a “can’t” anymore. This is, we can do whatever we want.

And we have the food, fuel, and fertilizer. We keep saying that, but we have it. We have it all. We have to believe in ourselves. We have to believe in the opportunities in front of us. We have to believe in each other. We have to be positive. We keep doing the right things and this is going to be and continue to be an amazing place to live.

Thank you all. Thank you so much for the opportunities we’ve had. Thank you to the two premiers that I have served under. I truly appreciate it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The Deputy Speaker: — I recognize the Provincial Secretary, the member for Saskatoon Southeast.

Hon. Mr. Morgan: — I realize I’m standing between my family and Jollibee, so Fred, I’ll be as brief as I can. I’ve wanted to use that, and I’m so disappointed that Randy wasn’t here because I wanted to say, “Randy, thank you.” So please pass that on to him.

Some of my colleagues here have talked about the NDP and tried to give them a message and tried to explain things to them. In 20 years, if I’ve told them once, I’ve told them a thousand times what they needed to hear, and frankly they don’t listen.

Fred, I have to tell you . . . I love saying that. I really do. I love being an MLA, but some of the things that I won’t miss are icy roads or 5 o’clock alarms. I used to dress like a firefighter — tie tied, cufflinks on the shirt, belt on the pants, socks next to the shoes — coffee in the machine, so I’d just get up and press the button and get out the door. As the years went by, in spite of the fact that we spent millions of dollars on the road between Saskatoon and Regina, I swear that road got longer, colder, icier, and darker, and of course I got a little bit older and whinier.

The best part of it, about this whole job, is the people that are in this building. And I’m not going to talk about politics or anything, but I just want to talk about the people for a few minutes. In the building there was people like Steve, Jeff, and Ralph that look after the building. I regard them as friends. I love the visits and the banter. Steve had been for a while on a big diet, lost a huge amount of weight. He put a fair bit of it back on and his line was, “My fat wardrobe is saying welcome back.”

Linda and Jackie and Syed in the cafeteria put up with my jokes and humour, and they’re some of the best people you could want. I’m going to really miss Ray and his mail cart that he pushes around. He’d leave it in the hallway and I would hide it. And that’s a game that you should probably outgrow by the time you hit grade 3, but my level of immaturity is such that I’ve been doing it for 20 years and I’ve got a few months left to continue doing it.

I’ve had some really great people at home in Saskatoon Southeast. I’ve had three CAs over the years: Rita Flaman Jarrett; Gordon Rutten; and Angela Knoss is there now.

Gord Rutten was kind of an interesting person. He was a retired school administrator, and at that time he was also on Warman town council. He came to me one day — and this is absolutely true — he said would it be okay if he ran for mayor. He was a councillor there. So I checked with the conflict folks, asked around, and they said, yeah, you’ve got to maybe build some firewalls, whatever else. But yes, go ahead.

So I asked Gordon and I said, does this mean as you go into this that I’m going to have to campaign for you? And he looked at me and said, no thanks, I’d rather win. A few weeks later, he came back to me and said that nominations had closed and that he was acclaimed. So I said congratulations and I asked him, I said, do you expect me to call you Your Worship? He paused and he said, yeah, I think that would be the right thing to do. I asked, do you plan to start calling me minister? And he said, why would I want to start that nonsense now?

Our caucus office here has some great folks: Ang Currie, Kim Stoker, Troy Buechler, and a number of others. The admin person is from Ukraine, Mykola Perun, sometimes pronounced “Ricola.” They told me I wasn’t going to do that. Anyway he’s been teaching us some Ukrainian phrases — slava Ukraini. And we, in turn, have been teaching him some English phrases. We’ve been going back and forth. We don’t always teach him the precise meaning, but he wants to use the phrase. He’s learning them. So a few days ago — as you will recall, Fred — Fred walked in, and Ricola said to him, and I quote, “Good morning, Fred. I’m having a carnal thought.” Fred looked bewildered, and he didn’t make me any butter tarts that week.

I’ve had some great supporters, some great presidents: Eugene Paquin, Chrissy Magneson — who now thinks we should call her Christine. Whatever. I’ve also had some great workers, some great volunteers and good friends: Neil Wylie, Earl Priddle, Gene Humenny, Tim Rickard, Brian Bitz, Clive Head. Wonderful folks. Many others. I don’t want to name them all, but they’ve been just great to work with and made my job wonderful.

I need to mention Chief Darcy Bear from Whitecap First Nation. Whitecap used to be in my constituency, and I struggled to get votes there. But I got along well with Chief Bear so I made him go campaigning with me at Whitecap. We would knock on a door, Darcy would introduce me, and I would say, “I know Chief Bear is popular and well liked, but if you like Darcy, you should also like me. A lot of folks don’t know that Darcy is my brother from another mother.” The people would usually laugh. It was a great icebreaker. We would chat, and I would, as often as not, get their vote. And I won the poll in the next election. Don’t use that story; it’s mine.

In this building, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the staff. Sandy and I don’t have children, so we pseudo-adopted them. Some of them seemed to like the idea of having me as a parent; some of them were repelled and nauseated at the thought. Trent Blezy got his hair cut like mine just so he’d continue the . . . [inaudible].

Anyway I’ve had some really great and interesting chiefs of staff. My first chief of staff was Denise Batters, now Senator Batters. She treated me like she was my boss: very blunt. She gave strong directions and was very, very direct in how she said things. She gave similar directions to Executive Council, who wasn’t nearly as compliant as I was. Now that she’s a senator, I still get directions from her by email. But seriously she’s a great friend, a great political strategist.

I also had Drew Dwernychuk. He ran my 2016 campaign, very successfully I might add. His mother was a constituency . . . He recruited her to work. His sister was a teacher. He tried to recruit her.

Also Clint Fox, or Flint Cox as it’s usually pronounced — hard worker, hilarious, great guy, good friend.

And then Molly Waldman, usually referred to as Wallace Maldman — brilliant, ran my 2020 campaign. Her parents and her family lived in my constituency so she recruited the family, including the parents and grandparents, to come out and knock and walk. At that time we were using an app where she could see where I was knocking in real time. So sometimes in the afternoon about 4 o’clock I’d be finishing a poll, and I was thinking I might sneak home, have a snack or a nap or maybe pee. But Molly would be watching, and I would get the dreaded text that the next poll had been loaded up.

So I want to mention the passage of time, and I see some of the folks who are up there. So there was a group of them — Tessa Ritter, Drew Dwernychuk, Matt Glover, Morgan Bradshaw, Trent Blezy — and they were all 26 years old at the time when they worked in my office. They liked to refer to themselves as Team 26 as if they were like some kind of comic book heroes. Sadly — maybe not sadly so much — Team 26 is actually now Team 40. I found a picture of Team 26 taken at the time, and I have to tell you guys, you’ve aged. Time catches up to all of us.

During the time they worked for me one of them snuck into my office and hung a 5‑foot-high Sting poster behind my desk, ugly as all get-out. I don’t know which one did it or why. I’m not a Sting fan, but the bizarre thing was I walked in and I sat down without seeing it. I didn’t intend to ignore it or out-cool them by ignoring it and whatever else, but it was like that for the better part of the day. And I guess people just don’t check what they’ve actually got on their walls. They don’t inspect their walls to see whether they’ve been tampered with.

It’s sort of a bit like Morgan Bradshaw. And I know he’s your son. Fred. Fred, I know he’s your son. He had a degree from U of R [University of Regina] that said Morgan Bradshaw. And I always called him Bradley Morganshaw which I thought was quite appropriate. Anyway Matt Glover stole it and rewrote it as Bradley Morganshaw. Got it done up. Put it behind the frame. Put it up on the wall, and it was up there for months before somebody had to tell him about it.

[16:30]

So anyway I had the CIC portfolio for the last number of years, and I had a series of chiefs who quit, moved on, came back, left again, quit some more. These were people who were really floundering with their career choices, or possibly they missed me. They are Jared Dunlop, Charles Reid, Morgan Bradshaw, David Keogan, pronounced Keogan. And I see them up there, all sitting there smirking. But they’re the ones that are the rather pathetic lot that have had career failures. Mike Aman was the only one that had any sense of loyalty and stuck around.

I had some great admin staff also that I see up there: Jean Watts, Darlene Larson, Cindy Chamberlin, Michelle Chyz. And two of them I want to pronounce, and I want to pronounce their names carefully: Emni Eltassi, which is pronounced “em-nasium,” and Amy Spelliscy, which is pronounced spell-check. Those two were workaholics, did not want to have a junior admin in the office, and went around closing files. So over a period of months, they literally finished everything they had to do in the office and then they probably got transferred to clean up another office. So anyway I thank them for making us look competent.

There’s also Robyn Lekien, who is the master of casework and has worked in several different offices. And I think everybody on this side will know, if you had a problem, go and see Robyn, and you’ll likely get it fixed.

Jim Reiter’s office was across the hall from mine, and the desk layout was the mirror image of mine, and our staff knew each other fairly well. So before cabinet, I’d sometimes knock on his door. The staff would answer and I would say, can Jimmy come out to play? And we would walk off to cabinet together like we were grade 1 BFF [best friend forever].

One day Jim comes over to see me. Our staff was watching. So we were in the office only about five minutes. The door was closed. Came out and they had switched: his office in mine; my office in theirs. Completely different round of faces came out there. Jim looked quite bewildered. I think he was thinking that maybe there’d been a shuffle that he didn’t know about.

And I have to tell you about his sign. Jim is from Rosetown, and Sandy’s family is there, so we would quite often go to Rosetown. And there was a large four-by-four sign in a field near Zealandia, and I had to look at it every time I went to visit. So it actually bothered me. So I took one of my four-by-four signs, a drill, screws, and I covered it up with my sign. It actually looks great. I think it increases the value of the land. The landowner has left it up now for over three years. Jim, being somewhat stubborn, says, I’m not taking it down. It’s still up now. There’s an election coming. I think Jim’s going to have to take it down. I win.

I worked with many others, and they all worked hard. The MLAs on this side and on that side have worked hard, and I think they all want to make this a great place. And it’s also this building has been a fun place to work.

I’ve worked with three leaders. Elwin Hermanson was the best premier we’ve never had. He worked hard, he recruited people, and he recruited me to run for the party.

Brad Wall was a boss in the true sense. He gave direction; he had high expectations. I was his deputy premier for several years. He was very strict but hilariously funny and meant incredibly well. But usually when you got called down to his office it was because you’d done something wrong. Sometimes that happened and sometimes there was going to be a cabinet shuffle. Like all of a sudden you went from being the minister of Advanced Education to the minister of Education and wondered what hit you.

During that period of time when Scott Moe was in the run-up to becoming premier I was called DoMo. And I’m still called that and I answer to it. Scott Moe was called ScoMo. So it was ScoMo and DoMo, and we had to drop that when he became premier. It was something about respect or something. And I think Shannon and some of the others came and said you can’t call him ScoMo anymore. Tough. I’m doing it anyway.

Anyway Scott Moe was collegial, collaborating, not the biggest fan of my profession. And for Tim I’ll give him that advice as well. Don’t talk about what lawyers say or anything about lawyers. But the Premier’s been a great guy, huge team builder, master prankster. He’s got an incredibly powerful vision for the province. He’s not willing to let Trudeau destroy our province and our nation, nor are any of us.

I have to mention Donna Harpauer. I call her Mrs. H. or Mother Harpauer. We usually agree and we’re usually pretty much in sync. For years she and I were the longest serving cabinet ministers in Canada. She’s a good friend, a great minister. But one day in a meeting we did disagree fairly strongly. We argued briefly. Paul Merriman said, “This is not good. I don’t like it when mom and dad fight. It scares me.” Paul, the matter was resolved. You don’t need to be scared anymore.

I was elected in 2003. Of the 2003 class, Ken Cheveldayoff — Chevy some people call him, but it’s usually Chevez in my books — been a good neighbour, a great friend, works incredibly hard in his constituency. His constituency butts up to mine. I will miss him.

Delbert Kirsch, the other survivor from 2003, has been a good friend. We socialize, go to family weddings and funerals. But it’s okay if you call him Delbrado because I do.

I’ve also had some really unique seatmates: two Ag ministers, Lyle Stewart and Bob Bjornerud. And I think there was something about, it’s that Morgan knows nothing about ag stuff so we’ll plant him next to you and see what rubs off.

My current seatmate, Don McMorris. Don’s name and mine are similar enough that people get us mixed up. And I’ll often go to the grocery store and people will ask me how the boys are doing. I’ve long since given up correcting them, and now I just say, my boys are fine. I didn’t know whether any of you would pick that up.

I’ve knocked doors for a lot of my colleagues: Herb Cox, Joe Hargrave, Greg Ottenbreit, Greg Lawrence, Ken Francis, Everett Hindley, Mark Docherty, most of the Saskatoon MLAs.

One horrible day I went to Yorkton for a meeting, not knowing that I was going to get sent outside to go door knocking. I had not planned to be outside . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . You still owe me, brother. The temperature had plummeted; the wind howled. I had no coat, no gloves. I thought I was absolutely going to perish on that day, but I didn’t stop. I came back. I thought Ottenbreit might offer me a little sympathy. He just said, you got your knock sheets? So anyway it was . . . I have not yet forgiven him.

I also knocked in the Weyburn by-election for Dustin Duncan. I was paired with Glen Hart’s spouse, Marlene, who was a very skilled campaigner. And a lot of people sort of thought, oh maybe we’ve got the wrong spouse as an MLA. So I told Brad Wall about that, sort of the comments that were being made. Brad Wall sort of said maybe he should encourage Sandy to run against me; we’ve never had a nomination between spouses before. And they actually did a bogus brochure up for her. I’m not sure who I trust anymore.

But anyway, while knocking in Weyburn, a dog came out from under the step and started baring his teeth and coming towards me. It was the last house of the poll and I’m sort of slowly backing away and looked down the street. Delbert is driving down to pick me up. He sees what’s going on, speeds up, comes up, throws the door open and I leap into the car, just ahead of the dog. Delbert says, did he get a piece of you? And I said, no. Delbert says, I was rooting for the dog.

I need to mention Gord Wyant. And, Gord, I should have cleared this with you but anyway, never mind. Gord is the other token lawyer in our caucus. Great guy but he wants to be me. I bought a Harley; he bought a Harley. I became a school board trustee; he became a school trustee. I became the board Chair; he became the board Chair. I became the Justice minister; he became the Justice minister. I became the deputy premier; he became the deputy premier. And so on. Anyway, Brad Wall told him one day, Wyant, if you want to know what you’re going to be doing next year, look and see what Morgan is doing now. Well, Gord, I’m being put out to pasture, so I’ll probably see you in the pasture next year.

But seriously, Gord, I’ve got a bit of municipal campaigning experience that I was planning to use for Gord Rutten. Be glad to use it for whatever municipal aspirations might be floating around.

The opposition members, I’m not going to mention many of them, but I do want to mention a little bit. I think they believe in Saskatchewan. They want to make it a better place. They’ve not always been BFFs. We’ve got some deep political divisions, but I certainly respect where they’re coming from.

Trent I’ve known for a long time. He’s the type of guy I’d like to have a barbecue and beer with. I don’t want him running a Crown corporation in my province, but I’d really like to have him as a neighbour at a lake.

Nicole was interim leader, competent, political, and cared deeply about women’s issues and actively supported many of our initiatives. And I thank her for that. She raised matters in a respectful, collaborative way, and I have huge respect.

Doyle and I are both the old men on the mountain in our caucuses. Occasionally our caucuses listen to us. Not always.

Carla was my opposite member in Education. She worked to make it better. During the time I was deputy premier, I worked with Carla through the passing of an MLA, serious health issues with MLAs. A friend, and I will miss her.

Sandy, ScoMo would say that we don’t do this job alone. That’s an understatement. You’ve knocked, walked, politicked. You’re a great partner. You’ve made our political events date nights. I look to spending more time with you as a family and more time having conventional dates.

I’ll close by telling you about my mom. I used to go and visit her when I would go back to Saskatoon. She was in a seniors’ facility at the time. One of the visits, she said, I saw you in question period. I asked her how I was doing and I was expecting a compliment. After all, she’s my mom. Instead she just said, I don’t know; when you come on, I just press mute. So with that, I will let the Assembly join with my mom and press mute on me.

So, Fred, thanks to all of you. It’s my privilege to move adjournment of debate.

The Deputy Speaker: — The member from Saskatoon Southeast has moved to adjourn debate. Is the Assembly ready for the question?

Some Hon. Members: — Question.

The Deputy Speaker: — Okay. It has been moved that we adjourn debate. Is that carried?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

The Deputy Speaker: — Carried. I recognize the Government House Leader.

Hon. Mr. J. Harrison: — I move that this House do now adjourn.

The Deputy Speaker: — The Government House Leader has moved that this House do now adjourn. Is that agreed?

Some Hon. Members: — Agreed.

The Deputy Speaker: — Carried. This House stands adjourned until 1:30 tomorrow.

[The Assembly adjourned at 16:43.]

Published under the authority of the Hon. Randy Weekes, Speaker

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