REGINA — Even without Premier Scott Moe in the legislature Tuesday, it was another raucous Question Period.
Various government ministers had to fend off Opposition attacks on wait times, education and economic numbers, among other issues. As Question Period went on the tone got nasty, with Speaker Randy Weekes forced to interject and ultimately warn members over their behaviour. This all went down while Premier Moe was out of the country on a trade mission to the United Arab Emirates.
Hip and knee surgery wait times lead off Question Period
Opposition leader Ryan Meili led off Question Period by roasting the government for “the worst surgical wait times in the entire country.”
He was referring to the Canadian Institute for Health Information report released that showed Saskatchewan as the place where residents were the “least likely” to get their surgery or hip replacements on time.
Minister of Health Paul Merriman responded the CIHI report was time sensitive between April 2020 and September 2021 “when we had severe challenges in the health care system.”
But Merriman noted surgical capacity is up. He noted from January to April this year they were averaging 7,300 surgeries a month, which compared to 7,500 a month pre-COVID-19. He said they were only 200 surgeries away from meeting their pre-COVID-19 levels.
“We are on track to be able to meet those targets and exceed them and get our surgical capacity up to 97,000.”
“The pandemic was everywhere, but the numbers were worse right here,” Meili responded.
Meili then noted only 43 per cent received their hip surgeries within the three-month benchmark, and it was 30 per cent for knee replacements. The national average was twice as high. “We’re not even close,” Meili said, pointing to Merriman and his government’s “incompetence.”
Merriman responded that surgical capacity was identified as an issue in this year’s budget, “which they voted against.”
He also pointed to adding privately funded surgeries, and on that point noted the MLA for Regina Lakeview, Carla Beck, who was running for NDP leader, “is actually wanting to cancel it.”
Meili pointed out the report captured only the period before September 2021, before “this minister’s abominable mismanagement of the fourth and fifth waves” leading to “hundreds of avoidable deaths and hospitals that were completely overwhelmed.”
“This minister was already, before the pandemic, the worst health minister in the entire country,” Meili said. He demanded to know how much worse the surgical access numbers were.
Merriman responded that they were transparent and were communicating that with the public on a daily basis. They had done all of their public measures and consultation with Dr. Saqib Shahab, said Merriman, adding “I know the leader of the Opposition doesn’t like Dr. (Saqib) Shahab’s advice, but we’re following his advice.”
Education a focus of demonstration
After Meili’s opening remarks, it was the turn of Opposition critic Matt Love to focus on education issues. Earlier in the day, the steps of the Legislature had been the scene of a protest by education workers, many of whom were in the gallery that afternoon.
“They’re tired of seeing year after year of cuts," said Love, who added the workers “see right through the spin that comes from that minister," referring to Education Minister Dustin Duncan.
“If they thought that the 200 (education assistant) plan was enough ... they wouldn’t be here today.”
Minister Duncan responded by noting the budget did provide $1.99 billion in operating funding for school divisions, and noted they would build up with more EAs. He noted there were 449 more EA positions over the last five years, and that they had said there was another $7 million to hire 200 more positions.
“More dollars for supports for learning, and more funding into the classroom,” Duncan said.
“He just can’t let go of that same old tired spin,” Love responded. “It’s not sticking with the workers who are here today.”
Love then accused the government of not keeping up operating funding with the Canadian Price Index which was up 14.5 per cent.
Duncan responded “often we have to correct numbers from those members opposite.” He pointed again to comments from Lakeview MLA Beck who had said there were 21 per cent fewer EAs working in schools. Those numbers were not accurate, said Duncan; they had seen a 13 per cent increase in the last five years and they were going to add 200 to that.
Exchange on economy draws heat, heckling
Discussion in Question Period turned particularly nasty when Minister of Trade and Export Development Jeremy Harrison was grilled by Opposition critic Aleana Young.
Young pointed to 900 jobs lost the previous month and 4,500 lost the month before. "The worst jobs losses in Canada,” she said.
“They cherry-pick stats to talk down the economy,” Harrison responded. The reality, he said, was they had among the lowest unemployment rates in Canada, had created 18,000 jobs over the last year, wholesale trade was up 37 per cent, manufacturing trade up 40 per cent, and exports were up 25 per cent.
“What do we hear from the NDP? Constant negativity,” said Harrison, who noted they “don’t like the energy sector, they don’t like pipelines, they don’t like trade agreements, they don’t like uranium, they don’t like nuclear, they don’t like mining, they don’t like forestry,” Harrison said. He added on his side of the house they had “48 very positive members.”
“Let me be clear,” Young said. “We don’t like people working full time and living in poverty. We don’t like people working day in and day out, honest work, who have to rely on food banks to feed their families.”
Harrison responded by again accusing the opposition of “trying to talk down the economy” and accused the opposition of having a policy for the last year to “shut down the economy.”
That drew heckles from opposition members prompting Speaker Randy Weekes to interject. As Harrison resumed his remarks, he received further heckling from opposition members including Opposition Leader Meili.
Harrison then accused Meili of a “complete lack of class from the leader of the Opposition”, pointing out he had “six days left in this chamber, demonstrating the complete lack of class that he has demonstrated throughout his entire time here, Mr. Speaker.”
The heated exchanges prompted Weekes to take to task members for unparliamentary language and “personal comments” aimed at members opposite.
