Budget Debate (26 March 2024)

From Hansard (26 March 2024)

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 Budget Debate

Hon. Mr. T. McLeod: — Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m once again honoured to have the opportunity to rise in the House and address the Assembly. And I do so today in support of the 2024-2025 provincial budget as presented by our Minister of Finance and seconded by the member from Saskatoon Willowgrove.

It continues to be my privilege, Mr. Speaker, to be here on behalf of the constituents of Moose Jaw North. This year’s budget is filled with benefits for everyone from my community, and I look forward to touching on just a few of those here today.

But before I do, I want to take a moment to thank some very important people in my life, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, my family. To Tenielle and our children Presley, Kingston, and Lauchlan, I quite literally wouldn’t be here without their love and their support, and certainly their understanding, Mr. Speaker. So I thank them sincerely for that.

A huge thanks is also owed to the wonderful people who surround me and support me in this role, Mr. Speaker, starting firstly with my constituency assistant back in Moose Jaw, Jacqui, who remains to be the best constituency assistant in all of government. And I’d also like to thank, Mr. Speaker, all of the amazing staff here in the building, starting with my chief of staff, Elias, the rest of the team — Cole, Savanna, Nolan, Stephanie — and the newest member of our office, Franz. Mr. Speaker, a special thanks also goes out to the incredible team in the Health minister’s office: Clint, Cheyenne, Angela, and Lisa.

Mr. Speaker, these are truly incredible individuals in their own right, but when you unite them into a single team, they are truly an unstoppable force and they make it a pleasure to come to work every day. So I thank them for that, Mr. Speaker.

I also want to recognize and thank our Minister of Finance. Mr. Speaker, I’ve had the honour to serve on treasury board for the last two years, and I am absolutely in awe of her leadership at that table. The depth and understanding of all the inner workings of our provincial government is truly profound, Mr. Speaker. This Minister of Finance has a grasp on the finances of this province better than anyone else in this building.

Watching her thoroughly and thoughtfully analyze the budget proposals from every ministry, gradually and methodically crafting a provincial budget that meets the many diverse needs of our province, is how I imagine it may have been like watching Rembrandt or da Vinci paint one of their masterpieces, Mr. Speaker. It’s truly remarkable to see, and I feel fortunate and blessed to have had a front-row seat to watch that process. And for that I sincerely thank our Premier for allowing me the honour.

Mr. Speaker, as I listened to our Minister of Finance deliver the budget, I heard her say that this was the 17th budget that she has been a part of, the 17th budget presented by the Sask Party government. And that fact, Mr. Speaker, gave me pause to reflect — to reflect on where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re headed. Mr. Speaker, 17 years ago the Saskatchewan Party government faced an NDP opposition that tried to prey on people’s fears. Well we all know and remember well, Mr. Speaker, that hope beat fear.

The NDP viewed Saskatchewan as a wee province. They said it was farcical to believe that we could grow our population beyond a million people. The NDP actually tried to convince us that we should be happy being a have-not province, Mr. Speaker.

The Saskatchewan Party government 17 years ago, including our Finance minister and many other members on the floor today, had a very different vision for our province. They saw the promise of Saskatchewan and the great potential that it had to offer. When the Saskatchewan Party formed government, they had a dream for this province, Mr. Speaker.

The NDP said it wasn’t possible, which reminds me of a scene from the movie The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith. For anyone who may not have seen the film, it’s a true story about a man named Chris Gardner who is determined to make a better life for himself and his son despite the very difficult circumstances that they faced in the beginning. There’s a scene in the middle of the movie where Chris tells his son, “Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something, not even me. If you’ve got a dream, you have to protect it.” And here’s the important part, Mr. Speaker. He goes on to say, “People who can’t do something themselves want to tell you, you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.”

Well, Mr. Speaker, that’s precisely what this government has done. When the Saskatchewan Party formed government, they had a dream to grow our province, to build our economy, and to protect our people. The NDP said it couldn’t be done because they couldn’t do it themselves. They still can’t, Mr. Speaker. But the Saskatchewan Party did it, and our government is still doing it. Our government continues to protect the growth and success of this province from all of the negativity and pessimism that we hear from across the aisle.

Our province will reach 1.25 million people this year, Mr. Speaker. We have one of the strongest economies in the nation, and projections are it will just keep getting better. We have more hospitals, more schools, more long-term care homes, and tens of thousands of new or resurfaced roads in this province. We have 5,000 more nurses, over 1,000 new physicians since forming government 17 years ago, and we just keep adding to that, Mr. Speaker.

Yet still the NDP stand up day after day claiming it can’t be done. Well, Mr. Speaker, this Sask Party government doesn’t pay much attention to those cries because we’re too busy actually doing what they say can’t be done. And that’s the record of our government, Mr. Speaker, growth and investments in classrooms, in care, and in our communities.

I was actually a little surprised last week when the member from Regina Walsh Acres openly admitted that the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. I agree, Mr. Speaker. I wouldn’t have expected the NDP opposition to highlight that for us, but I’m sure glad they did. In fact I hope they campaign on it, because what’s their record, Mr. Speaker? When they had the privilege to govern this province, they closed 176 schools, 52 hospitals. They decimated our rural communities. The NDP allowed our roads and highways to crumble, and they crashed our economy, Mr. Speaker.

The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. Since forming government 17 years and 17 budgets ago, this government has made record investments in education, health care, communities, and transportation infrastructure right across our province. The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour, which brings me to this year’s budget, Mr. Speaker, where we continue to see those significant investments into critical areas that will ensure the ongoing and future success of our province.

I want to spend the time that I have left highlighting some exciting investments being made in the areas of mental health and addictions, seniors, and rural and remote health. Starting first with mental health and addictions, Mr. Speaker, another recordsetting investment of $574 million, further expanding our network of addictions treatment spaces across the province. We’ve announced 183 so far and now funding for another 150 this year as we rapidly progress towards our target of 500 new spaces within five years.

Development of a central intake system that patients can contact directly for self-referral. This new approach to accessing addictions treatment space will allow people to connect with the services they need when they need them, Mr. Speaker. Our focus is on getting people the treatment they need and helping them overcome addictions so that they can live healthy, safe lives in recovery. Making it easier for people to access treatment and having more spaces available will significantly improve a person’s ability to choose the path to recovery.

Mr. Speaker, we’re also transitioning to a recovery-oriented system of care, or ROSC model, which will help people stay on that path to recovery. The ROSC model moves away from the traditional 28-day model, and it wraps supports around a person, the individual supports that those people need specific to their position, Mr. Speaker. It’s a more targeted, more holistic approach to addictions treatment.

We’re also adding funding through this year’s budget to support the development of a province-wide program that will offer rapid access to legitimate addictions medicine like Suboxone and Sublocade, Mr. Speaker. This approach helps individuals overcome their addiction to illicit drugs.

We’re also offering funding to continue supporting programs to protect people from the harms of illicit drugs and save lives, Mr. Speaker, programs like the take-home naloxone kits. Through this program, we have seen 10,000 overdoses reversed. That’s 10,000 lives saved, Mr. Speaker.

We’re continuing to support the provincial drug alert program that sends out warning messages to anyone who has subscribed, advising them of toxic drugs that may have been found in their area. Mr. Speaker, we’re also introducing community wellness vans and community wellness buses that will connect with individuals experiencing homelessness or addictions, providing them with the supports and services they need to live healthy, safe lives, offering them hope for recovery and help through treatment.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to touch on the investments we’re making for seniors. Continuing to support and invest in our seniors is a key piece of this government. One of the most obvious and direct impacts that will be seen through this budget, Mr. Speaker, is the increase to the personal care home benefit. This is the second consecutive increase to the personal care home benefit, now reaching a maximum of $2,500 per month.

Long-term care investments also remain a focus of our government and can be found in multiple lines of this budget. With new funding this year, our affiliate long-term care providers will receive a $40 million funding boost. These new funds will support those providers as they continue to offer essential care to their residents. We’re also adding new long-term care spaces in Saskatoon and Regina, and we have funding to continue to advance work on the 240-bed specialized long-term care facility right here in Regina.

On the rural and remote health side, Mr. Speaker, this budget offers significant supports. We’re increasing our funding for a rural and remote recruitment incentive that has seen tremendous success filling hard-to-recruit positions. Through this program we’ve filled over 300 positions in nine different health care designations in 54 of our communities across Saskatchewan.

We have $6.7 million of additional funding committed to continue building upon these successes, and that’s on top of the additional million dollars that we’re also investing to further incentivize more physicians to work in our rural and northern communities. With the expansion of another eight seats to our SIPPA [Saskatchewan international physician practice assessment] program this year, that will bring us to 53 more international physicians into our Saskatchewan communities this year alone, Mr. Speaker.

We also have funding to create 25 more nurse practitioner positions in rural, regional, and northern communities. These additions will enable our care teams to see more patients and offer better access to health care for people in every corner of our province.

I also want to point out that we are funding phase 3 of our rural EMS [emergency medical services] enhancement initiative, adding upwards of 40 additional EMS staff in our rural and northern communities this year, Mr. Speaker. Last year we added more than 30 new positions in 31 different communities. The year before that, it was 70 new positions in 15 different communities. Mr. Speaker, we are seeing huge successes with our health human resources action plan, which remains to be the most ambitious plan of its kind anywhere in Canada.

Mr. Speaker, all of these investments in all of these areas and so many more are only made possible because of the growth and strength of our economy. We are a government that has, for more than 17 years, believed in this province, Mr. Speaker. We have always believed and continue to believe that hope will conquer fear. And since being given the honour to form government, we have relentlessly pursued growth and progress in the face of an NDP opposition that spends all their time and effort trying to convince the people of this province that it can’t be done.

Mr. Speaker, Benjamin Franklin once said, “Without continual growth and progress, words such as ‘improvement,’ ‘achievement,’ and ‘success’ have no meaning.” On this side of the House, we strive for that continued growth, which allows us to experience improvement, achievement, and success.

We have seen this repeatedly over the past 17 years, and we will continue to see it with this budget, Mr. Speaker. New hospitals in Weyburn, Prince Albert, Yorkton, and that’s following up on hospitals we’ve already built in Moose Jaw and Saskatoon. We have new long-term care centres coming in Grenfell, Estevan, La Ronge, Watson. Nine more new schools announced in this year’s budget alone, Mr. Speaker, and that’s in addition to the 60 new schools and 30 major renovations projects that we’ve already done, not to mention the countless other investments that we’ve made in highways, public safety, agriculture, and so many other areas, Mr. Speaker, as we continuously strive to make things even better.

Mr. Speaker, as Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho said, “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” We understand that the job is not yet done, Mr. Speaker. There’s still more work to do, but as each of us on this side of the House strives to improve this province, there is a positive cascading effect on those around us.

Coelho also said, “You are what you believe yourself to be.” Well, Mr. Speaker, our government believes that Saskatchewan is the greatest province in the nation; that we can lead the rest of the world in sustainable production of food, fuel, and fertilizer; and that we are the number one destination to live, work, and raise a family. And with the investments being made in this budget, Mr. Speaker, we will continue to be so for generations to come.

Once again, Mr. Speaker, I support the budget presented by the Minister of Finance and seconded by the member from Saskatoon Willowgrove, and I do not support the amendment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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