After touting the need for “transformational change” this spring, the Sask. Party government continues to create uncertainty for health regions, health care workers and communities by apparently reneging on its commitment to name a health commissioner to lead that change.
“First, the Sask. Party wasted millions and millions of precious healthcare dollars on failed projects and costly consultants like Lean, all the while short-changing regions,” said NDP Health Critic Danielle Chartier. “Now, they want to talk about making major changes in time for the next budget – really just a few months away. A health commissioner was supposed to be tasked with consulting people around the province and leading that change, but the government remains silent on this. It is absolutely unacceptable.”
Chartier said the government’s appointment of a commissioner to tackle this work is taking too long, especially with budget decisions just around the corner. At the beginning of June, Health Minister Dustin Duncan said he hoped the commissioner would be named within a few weeks.
“Delaying this process and shrouding it in secrecy is the wrong way to handle these new challenges that were created by the Sask. Party’s mismanagement of nearly a decade of record resource revenues,” Chartier said. “People of this province deserve to be properly consulted before the government pushes ahead with its own self-serving agenda. Why are they dragging their feet on this commitment?”
SASKATOON – Dozens of new Saskatchewan residents and young people joined the Saskatchewan NDP today to call out a Sask. Party proposal that would strip them of their voice in the political process.
REGINA – Today, the Saskatchewan NDP held a reception at the legislature to honour Brenda Reynolds, a status treaty member of the Fishing Lake Saulteaux First Nation. Reynolds is the first Indigenous person and first Canadian to receive the UN Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize which is awarded to two recipients every five years.