Saskatchewan NDP focused on government’s pandemic response during fall sitting of legislature
The Saskatchewan NDP used the fall session of the provincial legislature to scrutinize the government’s pandemic response, and opposition leader Ryan Meili was unimpressed with what he heard.
The fall sitting of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly took place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 10, and Meili held an online media briefing on Dec. 11 to reflect on the session.
“The pandemic is what should be on people’s minds and what we see is on people’s minds,” he said. “That was our main focus in this session, just pointing out the shortcomings and trying to encourage this government to take some action. So far, they remain pretty reluctant and we did our calls to action through November and now we’re seeing the results. Outbreaks in long-term care, outbreaks in prisons, in hospitals and just growing numbers of deaths.”
The fall sitting was the first session of the legislative assembly after the provincial election on Oct. 26. There were eight sitting days, which Meili felt was insufficient.
“We asked for more time,” he noted. “We do think that would have been appropriate, as this is an extremely challenging time and there’s a lot of questions. The 25 minutes a day of question period is really very limited in terms of what you can actually accomplish, what you can ask in this short amount of time. We’re going to continue to press for opportunities for accountability and there’s some discussion about what those avenues could be, but certainly eight days was not enough.”
He felt the government’s approach to the pandemic was highlighted on the final day of the sitting, when Minister of Health Paul Merriman referred to a public opinion poll as a measure of his government’s success in dealing with COVID-19.
“That just to me exemplified how this government put politics and political actions ahead of the safety of people,” Meili said. “We’ve seen that when it comes to the mixed messages from them when it comes to anti-maskers, being really reluctant to discourage that very unhelpful activity. We’ve seen that when it comes even to floating this idea of Christmas holidays, which makes people second guess whether the measures are necessary as even the government is questioning whether they’ll continue.”
The NDP was in favour of more severe COVID-19 measures during a three-week “circuit-breaker” as a response to the second wave of the pandemic in the province, and it criticized the government of Premier Scott Moe for a lack of decisiveness in implementing stricter public health measures.
“The approach that they’ve taken has been to put us in a really dangerous situation when it comes to the economy, because by allowing the case numbers to rise, by not taking quick and decisive action, they’re putting us at a risk of serious lockdowns in the weeks ahead,” Meili said. “If we had taken that short, threeweek circuit breaker early on in November, we’d be looking in the rear-view mirror and saying the case numbers hopefully would have dropped, businesses could be welcoming people much more than they are now, and instead we’re headed towards more serious restrictions that may last much, much longer.”
He therefore felt the government was making the situation worse for the economy, because it was worried about the political fallout from implementing more significant COVID-19 measures.
“This government has made it pretty clear that they’re putting businesses in the worst possible situation,” he said. “They’re telling businesses that they need to stay open, but that their customers need to stay home. That leaves businesses in a terrible situation where they’re ineligible for the much more generous federal funding and all they’re getting offered is very anemic, difficult to access provincial supports. So I’m not impressed at all with this government’s commitment to supporting small businesses.”
The new session of the legislative assembly started with the Throne Speech, which Meili felt was a missed opportunity to take urgent action against the second wave of COVID-19. The NDP expressed concern during the session about the outbreaks and deaths in longterm care facilities in Saskatchewan.
“It’s not even just in these last months, not even just during COVID-19 that we’ve raised concerns about long-term care,” he said. “The people working on the frontlines, the families of residents have identified problems in long-term care for years. We have a system that is underfunded and unsupported by this government to the level that it should be, and as a result, even the government’s own internal documents have identified this as a situation of inadequate care and unsafe facilities.”
He criticized the government for an inability to recognize and acknowledge its shortcomings, and for its unwillingness to take steps to implement measures that can improve the situation in long-term care facilities.
“They could say we’re going to try and do better, but this government is so committed to this notion that they’re perfect, that they’ve got this, that they’re missing the opportunities to improve,” he said. “That’s why we still need an independent investigation into the truth in long-term care and we need significant investment now, staffing of long-term care, keeping people safe, making sure that those frontline providers are safe as well as the residents they take care of. Today we’re seeing the results of not just bad planning for a pandemic, but decades of failing to take care of seniors and keep them safe.”
He felt the government is in a similar way not dealing with longstanding issues in the education system, which is of even greater concern during this pandemic.
“We’ve got overcrowded classrooms and again, as in long-term care, these are issues that have been raised for years and years by the parents, the teachers on the frontline of this situation,” he said. “Now in the midst of a pandemic we’re still sending kids into crowded situations. We saw Regina have to shut down schools early because they didn’t have enough subs to keep classes open, because they didn’t have the resources in place to operate safely.”
The details of Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 vaccine delivery plan were announced on Dec. 9, and Meili was
happy about the availability of the vaccine in the province in coming weeks.
“I’m very hopeful for the vaccine and really excited that we have a vaccine coming,” he said. “To go from identifying a new disease to a vaccine to prevent it within a year is unbelievable. We’ll be looking very closely at the plan and urging both the province and the federal government to do what is necessary to get that distributed.”
He emphasized that it is still important to keep the government accountable for keeping people safe against COVID-19 during the coming months when the vaccine delivery takes place.
“The thing that I need to make clear though is that the vaccine, as great as it is, isn’t going to bring back anyone who doesn’t make it through this period,” he said. “What I worry about with this government is that they’re talking so much about the vaccine, because they don’t want to talk about their own shortcomings when it comes to the actual prevention of COVID-19 and the protection of people in this difficult time. …We need to not take our eye off the ball and we need to support people, keep them safe, until the vaccine is fully available.”
There is an anti-vaccination sentiment in the province, and Meili therefore felt it is important for the government to have a clear message to the public about the vaccine.
“One of the things we’ve called on this government, actually since the beginning of COVID-19, was to have more clear public communications to promote the understanding of COVID-19 and the best practices,” he said. “That’s something that they promised to do but never have.”
He is therefore concerned the government will not be doing enough to provide information to Saskatchewan residents about the vaccine.
“When we asked about this in regards to the vaccine, this government said that’s not really our job, we don’t need to promote the vaccines, why doesn’t the media do that, and that to me is just way off the mark,” he said. “This is a government that knows that some of the people who are out there promoting anti-mask sentiments and anti-vaccine sentiments are their supporters, and I think they’re reluctant to address this, because they don’t want to alienate supporters.”
Meili said the NDP will continue to look for ways to speak up and to hold the government accountable during the current adjournment of the provincial legislature.
“That’s our job as official opposition,” he noted. “We’ll be making sure that we’re watching really closely what’s happening with COVID-19 in particular, both on the health side as well as the economic side, and speaking up about that.”