REGINA — Minister of Health Paul Merriman was on the hot seat in the Saskatchewan Legislature for the second day in a row.
This time, the focus in Question Period was on surgical capacity and wait times. Merriman was grilled by the Opposition’s health critic Vicki Mowat on the issue, with Mowat asking Merriman for numbers on how many Saskatchewan people were waiting for surgery today.
Merriman responded that in Saskatoon they were at 100 per cent of their scheduled surgeries and in Regina they were at 90 per cent. Merriman acknowledged the number fluctuates and said he would get the exact number to the member as promised in committee.
Mowat responded that it was “really shameful that the minister does not have an answer to that question today.”
Mowat then mentioned a Saskatchewan resident named Theresa Rebalkin who had joined them on the floor of the legislature that day, “because she’s frustrated and she’s tired of waiting in pain for a thyroid surgery that took far too long to be scheduled because hospitals are bursting at the seams.”
Merriman pledged to meet with her after Question Period, but noted there were dollars committed in the budget and a four-point plan to bring the specialists in. “We have a plan, we have the resources, we have the funds,” he said.
That did not satisfy Mowat who said “people should not have to come to the legislature, make the trip from Saskatoon, to be able to get a meeting with the minister, to be acknowledged by this minister.”
Mowat then accused the government of having “not learned that pretending the pandemic doesn’t exist and redlining our health care system has massive impacts on people like Theresa who are in need of non-COVID care.”
Merriman responded there was never a denial of COVID-19. “The members opposite keep saying this, they keep spinning it in here, they keep spinning it on their Twitter accounts, Mr. Speaker. We have not once ever said that COVID isn’t real. COVID is real and it’s in our communities.”
Mowat then asked how many surgeries had been held back or cancelled because there was no room for patients to recover. “They act like having hospitals at near capacity as a bad thing,” Merriman responded. “That’s where we’re doing our surgeries Mr. Speaker, in the hospital.”
“That minister is listening more to spin doctors than medical doctors,” Mowat responded.
Later on in Question Period, Minister of Finance Donna Harpauer was busy responding to Regina University MLA Aleana Young’s questioning of the government over the expansion of the PST, with Young pointing to “hollowed out downtowns” and demanding why the government slapped “32 taxes and fees” on the visitor and hospitality industries.
“They’ve run out of questions because they still want to debate the 2017-18 budget,” Harpauer responded.
Harpauer said some of those fees were fines and added “it would be interesting if we asked them to table the 32 increases they are referencing, because I don’t think they could do it for Mr. Speaker.”
The finance minister pointed to the need to maintain the health care system and said “that takes a stable revenue base.”
Young pointed to record levels of downtown vacancies and demanded to know what was the plan to bring business back downtown. Harpauer responded it would be economic development that would revive the downtown in Regina and the entire province.
“When that construction starts, that’s jobs. That’s people who are going to be eating in restaurants they’re going to be buying goods and services, there’s going to be spin-off generation.”
Harpauer then pointed to a Tweet from the Opposition MLA from Saskatoon University that criticized the “greedy interests of corporate friends and donors,” and also a Tweet from NDP leadership candidate Carla Beck pledging to “stop corporate price-gouging.”
“That’s the way the members opposite work, that’s what drove economic development out of our province, and they haven’t changed one little bit!”
