Saskatchewan NDP promises $1B for health care; Moe proposes disability help

REGINA — Saskatchewan NDP Leader Carla Beck has promised to invest more than $1 billion into health care to help a system struggling with staffing shortages, while Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party has proposed help for those with disabilities.

Beck made the pledge Tuesday in Regina as her party campaigns to win government in the Oct. 28 election.

Beck said her plan would aim to reduce wait times for treatment by focusing on hiring, training, recruiting and retaining front-line health workers.

“Our health-care system needs change,” she said.

“We know that when you staff up, you take the pressure off the system. This is how we’re going to cut wait times. This is how we are going to save lives.”

Beck pointed to a briefing note last month to the government from the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees’ Union.

The note highlights concerns that staffing shortages in cancer care are creating dangerous domino effects of staff burnout along with delayed and cancelled tests, putting patients at risk.

The note contains comments from unnamed front-line health workers.

“Patients have died waiting for treatment due to overwhelming demand and lack of available staff. Treatment delays and errors are common due to the high workload,” one nurse said.

Another said, “Due to staffing shortages, chemotherapy treatments have been delayed or cancelled and errors have occurred, raising ethical and moral concerns about patient outcomes.”

Beck echoed those concerns.

“Clearly, this is absolutely unacceptable,” she said.

Beck said she would first work to retain the province’s current health-care workers, followed by determining which areas need the most help.

“We’ve got concerns in diagnostics, we’ve got concerns in pathology, we’ve got concerns with family doctors,” she said.

“There are a lot of fronts that this has to be fought on, and the scope of these changes aren’t going to be made in small rooms in the legislature. These are going to be built with those on the front lines.”

Moe has said his government’s health-care plan, announced two years ago, is working.

He has said the province has hired more than 1,300 recent nursing graduates, but added more work is needed.

Earlier Tuesday, Moe announced in North Battleford a re-elected Saskatchewan Party government would increase a set of tax credits for persons with disabilities.

The plan would see a 25 per cent increase in the Disability Tax Credit for adults, the Disability Tax Credit Supplement for children and the Caregiver Tax Credit.

Moe said it means $286 more for each credit per year, on top of other tax reductions announced last week by the Saskatchewan Party.

Also Tuesday, Beck received an endorsement from a former opponent.

Former Saskatchewan Party member Randy Weekes, who was Speaker during the last legislative session, said in an interview he’s voting for Beck’s NDP.

Weekes had cut up his Saskatchewan Party membership card earlier this year, accusing those in the government caucus of bullying him.

He also said Jeremy Harrison, the trade and export development minister, had taken a gun into the legislature nearly a decade ago.

Moe backed Harrison, who denied the gun incident but later said he remembered it had happened. Harrison was removed as government house leader but kept his cabinet position.

“It’s time for change,” Weekes said in an interview.

“I think there’s a serious problem with the leadership of Premier Scott Moe. If he did not know about these issues that I brought up, he should have, and he has never dealt with these individuals, starting with Jeremy Harrison.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 8, 2024.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press