Today NDP Health Critic Vicki Mowat called on the Sask. Party government to reverse recent cuts to addictions counselor training at Saskatchewan Polytechnic in light of new numbers from the coroner’s office showing an increase in the number of deaths from overdose.
This morning, NDP Education Critic Carla Beck called on Premier Scott Moe to take responsibility for the Sask. Party government’s failed back-to-school plan and take real action to address class size in September.
“The Premier has called on teachers, parents and children as young as six, to take responsibility for their own safety, while taking no responsibility himself for the chaos his government has caused. He has no plan and no clue what to do – and families are paying the price,” said Beck. “The medical consensus is clear: smaller class sizes will be necessary in this unprecedented school year. Passing the buck to school divisions doesn’t cut it: the Premier must act.”
Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili called on Premier Scott Moe to apologize to Saskatchewan families for the anxiety and stress caused by his failure to plan for the safe return of kids to school in September, and act quickly to address the resulting chaos.
“Parents deserve a real plan that lets us send our kids back to school with confidence,” said Meili. “Instead of taking responsibility for his own failures, the Premier told children as young as six to take ‘personal responsibility’ for their own safety in schools. The Premier should take some of his own medicine, show some personal responsibility, and apologize for his failure to come up with a plan to safely reopen schools over the past few months.”
With schools set to reopen in mere weeks, Saskatchewan’s parents, teachers and students are still in the dark about how schools will reopen safely and school divisions are left struggling to implement the government’s unclear, inadequate and constantly changing “guidelines” and “plans.”
“The moment schools were closed in March is the moment Scott Moe and his government should have begun planning for a safe reopening,” said NDP Leader Ryan Meili. “They’ve had five months to put a plan in place. This last-minute, eleventh-hour scrambling shows how they failed to do their job. Now parents, teachers and school divisions are left scrambling at the last minute because Scott Moe failed to take school reopening seriously.”
Responding to a Saturday afternoon social media post from Premier Moe announcing that additional announcements would follow on Monday about the province’s deeply unpopular back-to-school plan, NDP Leader Ryan Meili slammed the Premier’s damage control efforts as “too little, too late.”
“The Sask. Party is spinning its wheels,” said Meili. “For months we’ve pushed for a serious plan for the safe reopening of schools. They have no plan, and no clue what to do. Now Saskatchewan families are paying the price, with widespread fear and frustration as our kids return to the classroom. It’s too little, too late.”
Today NDP Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon joined business owner and grandmother Carole Carman in calling on the Sask. Party government to fix its back-to-school plan to protect students and staff, and to prevent further damage to small businesses, workers and our economic recovery.
“Saskatchewan people have been doing their part, but the Sask. Party has been missing in action when it comes to presenting a real plan to safely get back into classrooms this fall,” said Wotherspoon. “Ensuring a safe reopening of schools is a matter of protecting lives, and livelihoods. If the Sask. Party’s worst-in-the-nation plan for schools fails the test and forces a shutdown again, thousands more jobs and hundreds more small businesses like Carole’s will be devastated.”