NIPAWIN — The rural doctor shortage was one of the topics that dominated discussion during a visit to Nipawin by the leader of the Saskatchewan NDP.
Ryan Meili, who himself was once a rural doctor, said that while incentives to attract doctors to rural areas are important for the short term, solving the problem will take longer.
“Really, this is a long term health human resources [issue] where we need to put in place a recruitment program that gets people from smaller communities into the health professions, trains them in the smaller communities so they maintain connections and they have the confidence to work in what is a challenging environment,” he said after a local NDP fundraiser April 28. “Then they are more likely to stay, be part of the community and put down roots.”
Meili said as doctors stay in the community, it will be easier to recruit more, as having a solid core group of colleagues to work with is something that attracts new doctors.
A few days before, the Saskatchewan Health Authority told Tisdale residents to expect longer wait times as they recruit a new doctor, who is expected to arrive at the end of June. That is the second time within a year the health authority has made such an announcement.
If he got into government, Meili said he’d work with the College of Medicine to broaden their approach to having more recruitment of people from rural areas and provide more training in rural areas.
“I have to say the College of Medicine has been working on that, but you do really need the provincial government to be strongly supportive in making sure it’s effective.”
Carbon tax
Not mentioned during the fundraiser – but something the governing Saskatchewan Party wants to talk about – is the province’s constitutional challenge to a federally-imposed carbon tax.
Meili said that since the province is in a situation where the federal government’s going to impose a price on carbon, the choice is to enact that plan or develop something that’s made in Saskatchewan.
“I would rather that we have Saskatchewan people, leaders in agriculture and leaders in industry, doing the work to design a program that works for us, that makes life affordable for Saskatchewan people, that increases opportunities for green jobs, protects agriculture and protects industries rather than have something designed in Ottawa,” he said, “which is where the approach of this provincial government is going to land us.”
For their part, the Saskatchewan Party said the NDP is raising the white flag prematurely on the issue.
Budget
The NDP leader also spoke about the provincial budget. Comparing last year’s budget to a dumpster fire, he said this year’s budget did nothing to stop the flames.
Meili said the budget doesn’t make improvements on training programs to employ people, doesn’t fight inequality and doesn’t make progress on climate change.
He added the social services budget is reaching record levels not because the benefits are being increased, but because there’s more people using that system.
“The recent budget really did nothing to undo the serious damage that was done last time and, in fact, worsened some of it, but probably the bigger thing is it just lacks any vision or any plan,” he said. “This is a government that is tired, it’s out of ideas and doesn’t really have an idea of what they want to achieve in the years or decades to come.”
To end his interview with The Recorder, Meili said his party is interested in the Northeast, as he feels it’s an area that’s been taken for granted by the Saskatchewan Party. He added there’s lots of opportunity to improve economic opportunities and services within the Carrot River Valley.
