The election campaign is kicking in to high gear, and the NDP has unveiled a couple of plans which they would implement if elected into office. Local candidate Chad Blenkin recently spoke about what the plans would entail.
The first is called the Bright Futures fund. The proposal, based in concept on a fund implemented in Norway, would invest a portion of non-renewable resource revenue invested for future projects.
"The Sask Party has seen over 10 billion in non-renewable resources flow through their hands in the past four years, and we're concerned about that since where has the money been spent?" Blenkin says.
The fund would be independently managed, he adds, unlike funds such as the Rainy Day fund, so the government would be unable to use it to cover short term spending.
Blenkin points to the success of a similar fund in Norway to show why such a fund could benefit Saskatchewan people.
"In just over 20 years, the fund has grown to over 500 billion dollars. It's the largest fund in the world, and they only have a population of 5 million people. So in essence they have a steady flow of resources from the interest to put towards capital projects and provide long term financial stability," he notes.
The goal is to do the same for Saskatchewan residents as has been done for those in Norway, and to have funds available for whatever might affect future generations.
"The key part of this is that the government can't access the principal amount, and it can't be withdrawn for short-term spending."
The second plan is Community Access hospitals. Blenkin says that given difficulty recruiting and retaining doctors in rural areas, including in Kamsack, many hospitals are having difficulty staying open. The proposal would see hospitals unable to retain a doctor would have the hospital run by a nurse practitioner, and able to stay open for emergency care and other services.
"This has worked well in rural Ontario and we believe it will work well here."
He emphasizes that physician recruitment would remain a priority, but it would also be a way to keep rural hospitals open when a doctor is not available. The nurse practitioners would work with nearby doctors to maintain the level of care.
Blenkin says that recruiting nurse practitioners would be relatively easy. He says that there are many people applying to become nurse practitioners in programs such as those run by SIAST, and they would be willing to be move to rural areas.
"There are an abundance of nurse practitioners that are waiting to take that education," he concludes.
