The Leader of the provincial NDP says the Sask Party government had the opportunity to tell people its priorities and instead it glosses over the realities of what Saskatchewan residents are facing. Ryan Meili points to a growing backlog of surgeries and therapies with no plan on how to deal with that once the health care system can bring them back, and the cost involved.

He suggests Saskatchewan’s reputation has been damaged nationally and around the world, and it will be extremely expensive and take a huge amount of time to deal with the mess from not having any public health orders when medical experts called for them in the summer and into the fall. He notes as well that no new support for small businesses and families struggling to make ends meet through the fourth wave of the pandemic were announced. Meili says people are hurting, some are out of work, trying to cope with the rising cost of living, and too many are dealing with illness and the inaccessibility of health care or mourning the loss of a loved one.

The provincial government has committed to adding 60 new police positions in an effort to reduce crime. Meili believes that the funding would be better served by getting to the root of the problem – poverty and homelessness.