Members of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association got their chance of the final day of their annual convention to directly ask questions to the provincial cabinet, and health care was one of the issues brought up. La Ronge Mayor Colin Ratushniak said the Minister of Health had stated the the Saskatchewan Health Authority is still fairly new with five years under its belt, and the SHA needs to crawl and walk before it can run. Ratushniak wanted to know how much longer that would take, noting there is burnout for those in the healthcare sector delivering their services.

Health Minister Paul Merriman responded that 150 new nursing seats, new doctor positions and new surgical initiatives were announced in the budget. He thanks health care workers for all of their efforts during the pandemic. Merriman says he has also asked senior SHA managers to visit facilities like those in La Ronge to talk to health care workers to work towards solutions.

Education Minister Dustin Duncan fielded a question about the importance of investments in services in children from birth-to-six-years, and he pointed to the Canada-Saskatchewan Early Learning and childcare agreement. He answered that the budget provides for funding for 61-hundred new positions, new spaces for childcare across the province. That’s on top of the 16-hundred new spaces announced since December.
The target for this year is 61-hundred this year and 28-thousand over five years, as per the agreement with the federal government. (CKRM)