Health, education and policing top of mind for NDP’s Carla Beck in 2023

“A sense that people are, well, not only feeling like they’re further behind, by the time they pay their power bill or pay their bills at the end of the month, a lot of people report that things are more difficult this year than they were the year before or the year before that,” the MLA for Regina-Lakeview said.

“In fact, in Saskatchewan more people than any other province report that they feel that they’re not better off this year than they were the year before and that really is something that we’ve heard right across the province – including in the Battlefords and Meadow Lake area.”

Another area the NDP leader said was a major issue was health care.

“The Meadow Lake Hospital…had some of the most days of service disruptions at the hospital dating back to 2019,” she said of the more-than-700 lost health care days.

“We’ve seen this culminate with women having to give birth on the side of the road,” she said, noting there have also been disruptions in the Battlefords.

“We’ve had the opportunity to meet with health care workers in the Battlefords who express those concerns, patients in the Meadow Lake area who are very troubled by the lack of service,” Beck added, noting the priority is getting to the table and hashing out new ideas.

The number one idea: retention.

“We certainly do have to recruit health care workers to the province – I think that is…that’s an area where everyone’s in agreement,” the New Democrat said.

“What we see on the part of the provincial government right now is a total lack of a plan for retaining the existing health care workers that we have.”

To address this concern, NDP have been developing a “grow your own” strategy that would help retain workers and recruit such as health care professionals expanding their education to help provide primary care – specifically people who have grown up in the province.

“When we were in the Battlefords last, the reason for the service disruptions last summer were largely around the lack of lab and X-ray techs,” she said.

“Getting to the table, taking the nurses up on their offer to have a nursing round table or a health round table to set aside whatever differences there are and start finding solutions that can deliver to people in this province.”

Meanwhile, Beck said she’s concerned about is the education sector. As the former education critic and a former school board trustee, she said they have seen a decline in education and a number of funding cuts.

“We have thousands of additional students in our schools with fewer teachers tight now than we did going back just a few years,” she said.

“This issue has been brought up by parents, by school board trustees, by teachers.”

Earlier this month, Justice Critic Nicole Sarauer was in the Battlefords to learn about what the communities were facing from a public service standpoint. Beck said the government’s decision to create the Saskatchewan Marshal Service came without input from other protective services.

“We need officers on the ground now, we need those services on the ground now, we don’t need more pencils and more letterhead and more uniforms to support another level of policing at a time when the existing police forces really, really could use and need those dollars today.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

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by Julia Lovett-Squires

Health, education and policing top of mind for NDP’s Carla Beck in 2023

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