Saskatchewan NDP take aim at healthcare, education issues over Thanksgiving weekend

The NDP candidate for Regina Elphinstone-Centre Meara Conway gathered with healthcare workers and educators outside of Regina's General Hospital. (Hallee Mandryk/CTV News)

The Saskatchewan NDP hosted a pair of press conferences over the Thanksgiving long weekend – highlighting frustration among both healthcare workers and teachers over the past several years.

Sunday saw the party hold an event outside of Regina’s General Hospital – with healthcare workers highlighting fiscal challenges they’ve faced while working in the system.

"I have coworkers that haven't gotten mileage. They're single moms. They have had to choose between coming to work, and putting gas in their car, or feeding their children,” said Lorelie Schaefer, a continuing care assistant.

"I would like to see [the government] actually listen to us. They never listen to the people doing the jobs."

Saskatchewan NDP candidate for Regina Elphinstone-Centre, Meara Conway, led the conference as she criticized Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe’s "struggle" to retain nurses, often resulting in workers being contracted from outside the province.

"Scott Moe doesn't have a plan to recruit and retain nurses. We've seen the extent to which he has relied on contract nursing,” Conway said. “That's been very demoralizing, paying double what we pay our local health care workers, then having to train them. It's only contributing to burnout."

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Conway additionally cited Regina's new Urgent Care Centre – which is not yet operating 24/7 due to short staffing.

"The urgent care center. This is a beautiful building, but there was nothing done to make a plan to staff it, to recruit and retain health care workers … We're only going to see further cuts. We're only going to see further chaos in our health care system ... including nurses," she added.

Burnout among healthcare workers has been a prevalent issue in the last several years – with the COVID-19 pandemic being a major contributor.

Schaefer expressed that she, and many of her coworkers, have faced financial stress.

"I've been with the health region for 27 [years]. In the last 24 years I've received, or my classification has received, just over a $4 an hour raise,” Schaefer said. “We have staff, within the health region as well, barely making over minimum."

Also present at the event were teachers, speaking out against the Saskatchewan Party’s record on education.

"With the value of publicly funded public education for our students and our communities. We know that to have a strong education, we need to invest,” teacher Wybo Ottenbreit-Born explained.

"The promises that we have had keep getting broken, and we're tired of that. I do not want to see another four years of Saskatchewan Party's effects on our children. They will effectively have more cuts, fewer staff, larger classes, less resources, less time for your child."

Wrapping up the event, Conway shared her party's plans, if elected, to rectify these concerns throughout the province.

"We're not here to pit health care workers against each other. What we want to see is a plan, that is going to work," she told reporters.

"So far, Scott Moe has failed to deliver a plan that is working and a plan that is fiscally responsible and a plan that is sustainably staffing. Nurses are literally showing up on his doorstep of the legislature to tell the people of Saskatchewan they cannot guarantee safe care."

The New Democrats followed this up with an event outside Regina’s Pasqua Hospital on Monday. Conway highlighted that interventional radiology services are currently suspended in the city due to lack of available doctors.

"Everyone told us this is very serious in the worst-case scenario. Physicians told us the impact could be life threatening," she said.

Conway went on to express that the number of healthcare workers leaving Saskatchewan has been a longstanding issue – and the current state of the system is exacerbating the problem.

"This is a healthcare crisis through and through,” she said. “Every frontline worker and patient we have talked to, literally hundreds of people, have said so.”

The Saskatchewan NDP have pledged $1.1 billion of their $3.65 billion election platform toward recruiting and retaining healthcare workers.

A further $2 billion has been committed towards education. According to the party’s platform, funding would be aimed at addressing staffing and support issues as well as go towards new schools in Regina, Saskatoon, White City and Moose Jaw.

In its recently released platform, the Saskatchewan Party boasted “record high” education funding – with $2.2 billion in operating funding for school divisions previously announced in the 2024/2025 budget. A total of $7.6 billion has been allocated for healthcare, according to the platform.