The Opposition NDP is urging the province not to follow in the footsteps of Alberta with the privatization of healthcare.
Premier Scott Moe says his government will use all the tools it can to provide better healthcare for Saskatchewan patients.
“We’re on track to perform 100,000 surgeries this year, the most that have ever been performed in the province’s history. Yes, part of those are going to be privately delivered but publicly funded.”
Health Critic Vicki Mowat says Moe fails to recognize that healthcare can be publicly delivered without a profit motive. Mowat added that there should be a criminal investigation held at the Dr. Goodenowe Restorative Health Centre in Moose Jaw, after a 70-year-old woman traveled from North Carolina to be cured of her ALS, as promised by the Centre’s advertisements. She later died at that hospital.
The incident took place in 2024, and a criminal investigation has yet to have taken place. Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill says patients should seek healthcare from regulated professionals. He has asked both the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan and the Financial Consumer Affairs Authority to look into the incident.
The Saskatchewan NDP also introduced a new bill in the legislature on Tuesday.
With it, the opposition hopes to establish a provincial wildfire strategy, as they believe the 2025 season was dealt with poorly and left many Saskatchewan residents hanging in the balance. NDP MLA for Athabasca Leroy Laliberte says a wildfire strategy with public input needs to be explored.
Public Safety Minister Tim McLeod that experts are and will continue to be making the decisions.
“Our province does have a wildfire management strategy, and it’s based on best practice. The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency relies upon the expertise of people who have been in this industry for over three decades.”
The NDP also continues to call on the province for an independent review into the management of the wildfire season, as it believes the Province overspent $100 million on securing 4 water bombers for $184 million.
Tuesday’s legislative sitting also saw the introduction of new provincial legislation regarding co-operatives.
The Province has introduced two new bills which aim to bring Saskatchewan co-operative legislation into alignment with other provinces. The Co-operatives Act, 2025 also combines the current Co-operatives Act, 1996 and New Generation Co-operatives Act into a single, modernized piece of legislation.
The main changes residents might notice, if the bill is given royal ascent, would be the creation of a new multi-stakeholder co-operative and revised provisions that provide all co-operatives clearer authority to raise capital through the sale of preferred shares to non-members.
Several additional changes would create clear rules around the use of electronic technology, simplify liquidation and dissolution procedures, and make co-operatives more business friendly by removing the requirement that at least 25 per cent of a co-operative’s directors be Canadian residents.
