REGINA - 2023 was the first full year for Carla Beck in the role of Leader of the Opposition, and she points to a year of accomplishments for her party, but also frustrations about the direction of the province under the Sask Party government.
SASKTODAY.ca caught up with Beck following the end of the fall sitting for a year end interview, in which she talked about the issues facing the province in health care and education, affordability, and some of the hot issues seen at the Legislature this year.
On where things stand for the Opposition
It’s been an exciting year — coming up to 18 months as leader of the Party. Really excited about the work we’ve been able to do, not the least of which has been adding two new MLA‘s to our ranks. Winning three out of the four by elections in the last year and a half I think has provided us with a sense of momentum, but also with new MLAs to take on the work and there’s a lot of work in front of us right now.
On the increased size of caucus to 14 members
To have 14, the largest number we’ve had since 2011, it feels great because of the momentum, but in terms of the work as the official opposition and holding the government to account working within those critical areas, it really does allow us to dig to the work even more. It also allows us to have more staff on hand, and if I characterize the last year, or year-and-a-half, it has been a period of building for our party.
On having half their candidates nominated for 2024
It’s been exciting to see the number of people putting their names forward and the work that they’re doing out in communities. We’ve got nominees who have knocked on thousands and thousands of doors. And it’s going to take that work. We know we have momentum, but there’s still a lot of work in front of us. I think where we have been successful, it’s been where we have put in the work, connecting with people on the doorstep or in communities across the province, connecting with industry, businesses, stakeholder groups, and really going that extra mile putting in that work and focussing on the things that not only we think are important, but the people that we hope to represent tell us are important as well.
The top issues for the NDP
The top issue is affordability, is the need for jobs and the economy. At the household level it really is the number of people who are struggling to pay their bills.
…When we were on the doorstep in Coronation Park and Lumsden-Morse and in Walsh Acres, I was really struck by the number of people who became emotional when they talked about things like going to the grocery store, or not being able to afford to take their kids camping —- something that they really looked forward this year, they weren’t able to do that.
The situation within healthcare — last year we had 37 different communities that had services or their emergency rooms closed at different times during the summer. This year, it really has been around the services whether it’s diagnostics, surgeries, even the ability to get into an emergency room in our largest cities. That really, really has intensified.
The other thing, and it doesn’t matter really which sector we’re leading with or which areas of the province: the number of people who tell us they feel the government isn’t listening. Sometimes we use the phrase to describe this government as being “old and tired.” I certainly believe that, but that’s something I hear so often from people of this province that this is the government that would rather distract, divide than focus on getting to the table and finding the solutions that people of this province, quite frankly, need them to be working on, and all of the leaders of this province, need to be working on. Whether that’s healthcare, whether that’s education, whether that’s around housing or addictions. I do see so much potential and when you talk to people that want to talk to you about their problems, but they also have ideas whether we were out in Radville talking about healthcare, or in the North talking about the possibilities for labour force development. People want to be part of the solutions, and we get better solutions as leaders when we take those meetings, when we don’t just show up for photo ops but we actually sit down and do the hard work, delivering results for people in the province. That’s the approach that we’ve taken, that I’ve taken as a leader, and that’s the approach that I’m hearing from so many people that they want their leaders to take.
On the special sitting at the start of October on the Parents Bill of Rights Act
The first time in a quarter century in this province that the legislators were called back early for an emergency session. It was to deal with an issue that we didn’t hear once on the doorstep. An issue that the Premier couldn’t point to a single instance of actually happening.
And an issue that was very divisive, which saw the human rights of vulnerable kids in our province stripped away, And the Premier used the notwithstanding clause not once, but twice. Once the emergency session was over, the Premier didn’t want to talk about it anymore. That was incredibly frustrating, and I think reckless on the part of this government.
There’s no doubt that parents want to be involved with their kids’ education. Educators want parents to be involved with their kids’ education. As a former school board trustee, as a parent who is very involved in my kids’ education, I know that kids do best when there’s good communication between home and school. School boards have been doing this work. Teachers have been doing this work for years. But that’s not what we saw from this government.
… Underfunding, the number of kids who are coming to school not ready to learn, falling test scores, falling reading rates. That’s not what we saw the government focus on. We saw them coming out of a by election, coming out of an election in which they lost over 20 per cent of the vote in Lumsden Morse, bringing this forward as the issue in a quarter-century that was most important and I think most people in this province saw through that.
The acrimony of the fall sitting
It was a session where our strategy was to bring forward the concerns that we were hearing from people, certainly not only the concerns that we see as the Official Opposition, but people have concerns about the state of healthcare. We saw nurses protesting on the steps of this legislature. We’ve brought forward concerns about housing, about over billing in social services. We brought forth proposals to suspend the fuel tax on gas and diesel for six months to give a bit of a break.
But what we saw from the government was a focus on distraction. You know, some of the more notable moments in the last session would’ve been one of their MLA’s being kicked out of caucus for being caught up in a sex trafficking ring, something that is appalling, but even more so when you look at the history of domestic violence and sexual assault in this province.
And then, of course, there was the issue when we had people at the legislature who are protesting in the gallery, the session being suspended, losing Question Period that day. This is definitely an issue in which emotions are very high. And there are people in this province, who have family members in Israel, in Palestine, people who are watching horrible horrible images on their televisions. And as leaders, I think when you have a situation with such emotions, such a terrible event… leaders have an opportunity to lead for all people in the province to try and find common ground, ratchet down some of the heightened emotion, and that’s what we tried to do.
… Honestly, I think that it provided an opportunity for the government, for the House Leader (Jeremy Harrison) to launch into this hyperbole, this division and distraction technique that we have seen them use before. Certainly they were looking to distract, when we saw the Minister get up and talk about this. That day (Nov. 20) was right after one of their members was criminally charged in a human trafficking sting operation.
You know, I understand that there is an increasing willingness by political parties, by politicians not just in Saskatchewan, but unfortunately, across the world to engage in that type of divisive politics — distraction versus results-oriented. I think people are tired of it. A lot of people are tired of it. That’s what I hear from people. That is not a trend or a path that I want to see this province or politics more generally continue to go down. We have tried to set a course towards looking at common sense solutions, looking at delivering — not just rhetoric, but delivering results and building solutions with all those who have an honest goal to improve things for people in the province. And it’s difficult, but it is what I hear from people they want to see and that’s what I want to see. It’s the kind of province that I want to leave for my kids as well.
On the deficit situation
For a government that talks about balanced budgets this was the eighth time in the last nine years when supplemental estimates come in that have shown us to be in a deficit situation. We’ve increased the debt over the last number of years to the point we’re $30 billion in debt. And unfortunately, not only does the government have a terrible record when it comes to social issues, this is a government with some of the worst job growth in the country over the course of Premier Moe’s leadership. A province that is one of the only two in the country who have actually seen the GDP shrink over the last five years…
And again, part of the issue is, this is the government that refuses to listen, likes the fight more than results, and has refused to develop all of the potential that we see here in the province. And unfortunately, it’s the people of this province who are paying the price.
It is unfortunately more of the same from this government, and as I’ve said, with the potential that we have in this province, this is the government that is actually just simply failing to deliver, failing to do the work to ensure that this province and the people in our economy meet the potential that is really there, whether it’s in mining, the tech sector, value added Ag. And I think we see the results in communities right across this province.
