Although the Municipalities of Saskatchewan convention was virtual this year, the annual bearpit session with the provincial Cabinet and the Premier went ahead with physical distancing while municipal leaders watched online.
One of the questions was about NavCanada looking at removing control tower services in some cities including Regina, and issuing layoff notices to 100 air controllers with ten of them from the Queen City.
Minister of Highways, Fred Bradshaw says he has been in contact with the federal Minister to advocate for keeping the control tower, because losing this service would not just be detrimental to Regina but to all of Saskatchewan because this province is an exporter of many resources internationally.
Premier Scott Moe says he understands the airline industry is under pressure, but he will reaching out to the Prime Minister because economic recovery isn’t about reducing services.
What the province is doing to support those dealing with mental health and addictions was another question at the bearpit session.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister, Everett Hindley, says the government invested $435-million this year, including the funding of 20 new crystal meth addictions treatment beds in Estevan, plus and additional ten pre and post addiction treatment beds, and adding a rapid access to addiction medicine clinic in North Battleford.
Hindley says that makes four in Saskatchewan.
He adds that the naloxone kit program has seen 10,000 kits handed out since 2015 with 55-hundred in the past few months.
Because of all of the different types of vehicle builds, including electric vehicles, auto repair shops are being asked meet accreditation requirements, which some smaller communities say are a challenge.
It was suggested at the bearpit session that not having an accredited shop would mean having to take vehicles elsewhere, which means shopping elsewhere is also a possibility.
Minister responsible for SGI, Don Morgan, replied that the SGI auto repair shop accreditation is mandated by manufacturers for safety reasons.
He understands it’s an expensive process at a cost of $60,000 of which SGI has said it would pay $15,000.
Originally the mandate was to begin March 1st, but the government has asked for that to be extended to July 1st.
