Len Taylor

Hansard

Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly

Monday, November 23, 2009

Len Taylor, MLA

The Battlefords

Hon. Don McMorris

Minister of Health

The Speaker: — I recognize the member from The Battlefords.

Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford

Mr. Taylor: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Saskatchewan Party government has made promises and commitments to the people of Saskatchewan, and one of those promises was to build a new mental hospital in North Battleford. Two years after the Saskatchewan Party came to government, the people of North Battleford, the Saskatchewan and Canadian mental health associations, the members of the hospital family council, and the people of Saskatchewan who care about vulnerable people in our care, are still waiting for a new mental hospital.

Through the government’s own mismanagement and incompetence they are running a $1 billion deficit and we are seeing 95 million cut from the children’s hospital in Saskatoon, 32 million cut from the health sciences centre, and no action on the Moose Jaw Union Hospital. To the minister: when will construction begin on the Saskatchewan Hospital at North Battleford?

The Speaker: — I recognize the Minister of Health.

Hon. Mr. McMorris: — Mr. Speaker, the North Battleford provincial hospital is like many other facilities in the province. That facility is 100 years old. It’s been through many administrations and really should have been replaced many years ago — many, many years ago.

Our government has asked the Prairie North Health Region, along with the Ministry of Health — along with Corrections and Public Safety because it’s a multi-use facility — to look at what needs to be done there. There’s some scoping going on there, Mr. Speaker. Some plans are being developed as to what that facility should look like as we move forward, Mr. Speaker. But you can see by the line of questioning — and I’m sure there may be more to come — about the deterioration of our infrastructure in Saskatchewan, it has been left in a terrible shape, Mr. Speaker. As money becomes available, we will get the projects done.

Comment: (by Len Taylor)

It is now quite clear that the Saskatchewan Party government will not be funding a new Saskatchewan Hospital at North Battleford before the next scheduled provincial election in 2011.

The key words in the answer from Minister McMorris to the question are “as money becomes available”.

The question was asked in the context of the Saskatchewan Party’s bungling and mismanagement of provincial finances. The Saskatchewan Party government’s budget for 2009/10 now shows a $1 billion deficit, and $300 million in spending cuts. Health projects expected to be funded in 2009/10 have now been cut or deferred. These projects include the Saskatchewan Children’s Hospital (Saskatoon), the Health Sciences building (University of Saskatchewan), the day surgery centre (Regina), and 13 long-term care homes for seniors in rural Saskatchewan (including Meadow Lake). If none of these announced and previously funded projects are not now going to happen in 2009/10, one can only expect that they will be first to be funded “as money becomes available”, and projects not yet announced such as replacement of Saskatchewan Hospital, or even the replacement of Battlefords District Care Centre, can’t possibly be funded until 2011/12 or even later.

It is therefore, in my opinion, highly unlikely that funding will be available for the replacement of Sask. Hospital in the near future.

This didn’t need to happen. If the Saskatchewan Party had managed the budget process better prior to announcing its budget in March 2009, this would not have happened. The government is now scrambling to make the best of a bad situation, and by deferring health projects already on the books they are making it more difficult to fund other projects, some of which could be a higher priority than those currently underway. The Saskatchewan Party’s mismanagement of the province’s financial resources has put new, much needed health facilities in significant jeopardy.

And, let’s not forget that funding (up to $40 million) was available to the Saskatchewan Party immediately following the November 2007 election. It was left over along with $1.3 billion that the NDP left in the province’s savings account (The Fiscal Stabilization Fund) after that election.

The Saskatchewan Party has an obligation to produce a five year capital plan for health projects so that communities and the people most affected will have some real idea of what the health capital priorities are for Minister McMorris, the Ministry of Health, and the Saskatchewan Party government.

There are now nagging concerns that if the Saskatchewan Party continues to mismanage the financial resources of the province that necessary funding for valuable and essential projects like the replacement of the Saskatchewan Hospital may never “become available.”

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