Saskatchewan New Democrat Leader Ryan Meili was in La Ronge Saturday to announce his party’s commitment to immediately invest in healthy and safe northern communities.

Meili noted that the Saskatchewan NDP platform includes a $5 million commitment to a Suicide Prevention Strategy that supports young people struggling with mental health and addictions, an issue the NDP say has reached crisis proportions in the North, where suicide is the leading cause of death for people age 10 to 49. The add Indigenous girls in the province are 29 times more likely to die by suicide than non-Indigenous girls.

Saturday NDP candidate for Regina Douglas Park, Nicole Sarauer, promised that a New Democratic Party government would stand up for the people of Regina and put an end to what they call the SaskParty’s string of scandals in the Queen City.

Sarauer announced a platform commitment to end commercial development in the province’s urban parks and reverse the SaskParty’s takeover of the Provincial Capital Commission, which she says silenced the voices of the Wascana Centre Authority.

The NDP say Between 2007 and 2019, the Wascana development’s proponent, Brandt, has donated over $231,371.10 to the SaskParty.

Sarauer adds the NDP have already committed to calling a public inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub and Regina Bypass scandals, introduce stronger conflict-of-interest rules for MLAs, close the lobbyist registry loophole and require all lobbying to be made public and end the influence of big money in Saskatchewan politics by banning corporate and union donations and bringing in a cap on individual donations.