COVID-19 response, changes to SIS caused a busy year for Sask. NDP leader

NDP Leader Ryan Meili speaks to media after the Throne Speech at the Legislative Building in Regina on Monday Nov. 30, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell

Frustration over policy decisions and optimism over medical advancements underscored a difficult year for Saskatchewan’s Opposition leader.

Looking back on 2021, Ryan Meili, leader of the provincial NDP, called the development of multiple effective vaccines within a year “miraculous”.

“[We] remain grateful that we have been able to have access to that help and support, but also frustrated beyond belief by the way the fourth wave in particular has been managed around the pandemic,” Meili said. “Poor decisions were made by the government.”

On July 11, Saskatchewan ended all COVID-19 related restrictions. The reopening was followed by an Autumn fourth wave where Saskatchewan was one of the hardest hit provinces in Canada. Saskatchewan’s Premier Scott Moe said he does not regret the government’s decision to open up the province in July, but Meili believes the move cost hundreds of lives.

“This summer with the elimination of every public health restriction at a time when the premier hadn't his hands the modeling that showed that if we just kept masks around, we would have had half as many cases and it is hard not to be angry,” Meili said.

“A lot of those people we lost would still be with us.”

• Sask. premier thankful for pandemic progress as 'challenging' 2021 comes to an end

In October, Saskatchewan shattered hospitalization records, taking the provincial healthcare system beyond capacity. Elective surgeries like hip and knee replacements and medical services like children’s therapies were slowed down in order to redistribute staff to aid in fighting the pandemic.

“When we saw people waiting for kidney transplants getting bounced from that surgery and now not knowing whether or not they miss the window, whether they've even got a chance, it's so upsetting and discouraging,” Meili explained.

As cases and hospitalizations trend down in December, the province released its plan for medical service resumptions and an accelerated strategy to lower the wait times for surgeries.

As Saskatchewan reports its first cases of the new Omicron variant, Meili said he hopes policy makers come better prepared to manage a potential fifth wave.

“We've got this wrong too many times already,” he said. “We cannot wait until we're in a crisis before we act. So I'm really encouraging the government to come forward with a very clear Omicron plan. That includes what are the next steps.”

RECONCILIATION IN SASK.

A Saskatchewan First Nation was the centre of international headlines in June after a discovery at the site of a former residential school. Cowessess First Nation said it located 751 unmarked gravesites on the grounds of Marieval Indian Residential School site on June 25.

• 'Truth must prevail': Cowessess chief reflects on a year of grief and prosperity

Meili said the failure to honour treaties and relationships with our Indigenous neighbours is deeply rooted in Saskatchewan’s history – and its present. He said it’s the Opposition's priority to commit to ways to provide Indigneous peoples and communities with opportunities for better education and healthcare.

“Those gaps that exist and continue to exist in income in health outcomes and education, in opportunities between Indigenous and non Indigenous people, and how do we commit as a province to making sure that we close that gap, which has to be a key mission,” Meili said.

Meili credits the leadership of Saskatchewan Centre MLA Betty Nippi-Albright, who joins a short list of Indigenous people elected to provincial office in Saskatchewan. Since she was elected in November 2020, Nippi-Albright has focussed her work on enforcing the duty to consult on the sale of Crown land, which is key to ensuring Indigenous communities are able to practice traditional activities like hunting, gathering and trapping.

Meili said her work is “key to a positive future for First Nations and Metis people in the province.”

POVERTY IN SASK.

The need for support for those in Regina experiencing homelessness was pushed to the forefront of community conversation in 2021 -- taking new heights when Camp Hope was created in Pepsi Park.

Advocates and critics, including the NDP have expressed that changes to government assistance programs have left more people out in the cold, calling the program inadequate.

In 2019, the Ministry of Social Services announced the creation of the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program, which would replace the Saskatchewan Assistance Program (SAP) and Transitional Employment Allowance (TEA).

SAP and TEA previously covered the cost of utilities for clients, but the new program puts the costs of rent, utilities, taxes and all other home-related costs under a shelter benefit, meaning a single adult will have to pay for all the home-related costs with $500 to $600 a month.

“As a result we have had to deal with the very dangerous and and really avoidably awful situation of having people living in tents as winter approaches in Regina, Saskatchewan,” Meili said. “But the truth is that they're still doing it. They're just not in that camp anymore. But there are people throughout Saskatchewan in small towns in large cities who are either homeless living outside, couchsurfing, living in overcrowded housing, living in poverty in a place of great wealth.”

Meili pointed out that advocate organizations, like the Anti-Poverty Ministry, warned that ending the direct payment of rent and utilities would result in vulnerable people losing their homes.

In an interview with CTV News, the premier said the government is looking at how to make financial assistance programs more effective.

“Listen, this is not a challenge that is exclusive to Saskatchewan in any way,” Scott Moe said. “This is a challenge across Canada and likely even across North America and it's another opportunity for us to work together as provinces to share what is working and what isn't working.”