REGINA - As debate continues on the Parents Bill of Rights legislation during the special sitting of the Legislature, the opposition New Democrats have been devoting much of their attention elsewhere.
This week, the Opposition’s main topics during Question Period have included hospital overcapacity and service disruptions at health care facilities; the bargaining impasse with teachers; and the cost of living and affordability issues.
On Wednesday, the NDP focus shifted to two more issues: the closure of Regina Lutheran Home and pending move of 62 seniors out of that facility by next April; and issues faced by childcare providers in retaining staff and keeping their doors open. Those individuals impacted were on hand in the gallery to advocate for their issues.
From the outside, it may seem unusual the Opposition is devoting so much attention to issues that have little to do with the main topic of the special sitting: debate of the Parents Bill of Rights legislation which requires schools to seek parents' consent for gender based name changes of students under 16.
But it underscores an underlying theme being communicated by the NDP throughout this special sitting: their belief the Sask. Party government should be dealing with more pressing issues facing Saskatchewan residents, not names and pronouns of students in schools.
“Instead of calling for an emergency debate to fix our healthcare system, the Sask. Party has decided to focus all their time on pronouns in schools,” Opposition Rural and Remote Health Critic Matt Love said in an NDP news release Monday on the health care situation. “The only way we’re going to fix healthcare in this province is with a new government.”
“Sixty-two seniors are essentially being kicked to the curb and the Premier has called an emergency debate over the names kids use at school,” Opposition Leader Carla Beck stated in an NDP news release Wednesday about the Regina Lutheran Home situation. “After our parents and grandparents built this province, the least they deserve is a government that will make them a priority.”
Beck spoke some more to reporters about the party’s approach during this week’s sitting.
“As long as we’re here, as long as the government has called us back for an emergency sitting, as long as we have the opportunity to bring people into Question Period to talk about the things that they are experiencing in their lives that’s urgent … we are going to use this platform to do that. We think all along that the government should have been focused on the priorities that people in the province have described repeatedly are most important to them, and we will take this opportunity while we're here to continue to highlight that and show how off-track, how old and tired and out of touch this government is.”
As for what has been happening during the second reading debate on Bill 137, where NDP MLAs have been standing for hours on end to speak in opposition to the legislation, Beck praised her MLAs for a “masterclass in what public officials, what leaders should be doing. They should be doing their homework, as our Education Critic repeatedly pointed out. They should be focused on the things that matter to the people of this province.“
Regina Lutheran Home issue raised again
At the legislature on Wednesday, Rural and Remote Health Minister Tim McLeod faced questions in the House and from reporters on the Regina Lutheran Home situation. He explained that the closure of Regina Lutheran Home was a decision of third party provider Eden Care, who ran the facility.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority were approached about taking it over, as they had for some of the other long term care homes in Regina that had been run by Extendicare.
“SHA took a close look at it to see if it was a viable option for them to continue to operate in this location, and made the determination it was not,” said McLeod.
As for the criticism that the government could have done more to keep the facility operating, McLeod noted this was not a facility SHA owns. On claims that it wasn’t being funded enough by the government to make it viable, McLeod pointed to the “largest ever long term care investment in the history of this province to open 600 beds in the city of Regina. That work is in the Planning and Development stage.”
Those supporters of keeping Regina Lutheran Home open made clear they were not happy with what they heard from McLeod in the Assembly that day.
“I came here with a speech prepared,” said Val Schalme, who has two relatives living at Regina Lutheran Home. “But after sitting in and listening to the Minister blame Eden Care for the closure of Regina Lutheran Home, I’m disgusted. Eden Care has been running that facility on bare-bones support from the government for many years. They are closing because the government did not provide the necessary financial support to keep this home open. It’s the government that’s closing this home. They took over the Extendicares, they can take over this home as well.”
Child care issue
Several child care providers were also on hand at the Legislature Wednesday to speak on the issues they were facing. In particular, the NDP have expressed their frustration that government announcements such as signing on to a deal for $10 a day child care have not been matched with enough child care spaces or workers to keep up with demand.
In response, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill had told reporters that the government had opened 2500 spaces in the last month alone, including 450 in Regina and 300 in Saskatoon.
“Obviously, we know there’s more work to do. We’ve got a goal of creating 28,000 new childcare spaces in the province,” said Cockrill.
But Beck said that “the rhetoric, the goals, the stretched targets” from the government “simply don’t meet the lived reality of people in this province.” She pointed to one example where one provider had 90 spaces in their centre there’s a waitlist with 1900.
“This is, again, it’s a story that keeps on being repeated by this government. They make announcements, they like to get up on talking points, But when it comes to delivering… they don’t do that.”
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