Len Taylor

Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly

Hansard

November 30, 2009

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

New Saskatchewan Hospital Requested

Mr. Taylor: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because of the Sask Party’s mismanagement of Saskatchewan’s finances, Saskatchewan people are seeing the financing of health projects being set aside. While this is happening, the Minister of Health needs to keep a few important things in mind.

A couple of weeks ago I reported to the Legislative Assembly that a rally was held in North Battleford, a rally that was called Shovels Here, New Beginnings, a rally that brought together community leaders, mental health advocates and families, and ordinary people who wanted to raise awareness about the need to get construction started on a new Saskatchewan hospital.

I’ve now received petitions and letters signed by hundreds of residents of the province of Saskatchewan that I would like to deliver to the Minister of Health and the Saskatchewan Party Government of Saskatchewan. The petitions are not in the proper legislative format but state that the petitioners believe that mental health matters, that a new mental health facility is a critical component in the continuum of provincial mental health services. And the petitioners believe that the government of Saskatchewan should proceed with building a new Saskatchewan hospital in North Battleford.

Mr. Speaker, today I will be turning these petitions and letters over to the Minister of Health so that he and his colleagues in government can see that people right across this great province want him to act — want him to act quickly — to get started on this promised and much-needed project. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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.”

The following statement was made by Len Taylor, MLA (The Battlefords) in the Legislative Assembly on November 17^th. It follows remarks he made at the Remembrance Day Banquet held November 11^th at the North Battleford Legion (Branch 70).

Lest We Forget

Mr. Taylor: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. November 11th for the past 90 years in Canada has been, and I hope always will be, a time of remembrance. The words we heard last week repeated in communities right across Saskatchewan, “lest we forget,” must remain meaningful.

But members of the Royal Canadian Legion have always told us, in words and in deeds, that we as individuals and as a society need to do more than just remember. We need to understand, we need to teach, and we need to learn.

Although armed conflict is closer to today’s young people than it has been at any time since the Second World War, there are still far too many young people who admit that they don’t know what to think about during the two-minute silence on November 11th. This year, at Remembrance Day services across Canada, the Legion has challenged provincial and territorial educators and governments to put an increased emphasis on Canadian history and to include Canada’s military history in our classrooms.

At a time when Canada’s young people are participating in Canada’s military in a much more dramatic way than ever before, maybe it’s time that we here in Saskatchewan took up the Legion’s challenge to help more people in a more formal way to understand and to learn so that we have more to remember in a more meaningful way.

Lest we forget, Mr. Speaker, lest we forget.

From Hansard

As spoken in the Legislative Assembly

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

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

Our Children Are Precious

Mr. Taylor: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our children are precious. We need to do all that we can to keep them safe. I want all members of the Legislative Assembly to know that I was very much moved by the September visit to Saskatchewan of Rodney Stafford of Woodstock, Ontario. Rodney is the father of Victoria Stafford, a sparkling eight-year-old girl who earlier this year went missing and later was found to have been abducted and murdered. Rodney, in this time of tremendous grief, was cycling across Canada to raise awareness of child safety and the plight of missing children.

Every citizen and community leader needs to take to heart the message of Rodney Stafford and Child Find, the organization helping him with his Kilometres for Kids campaign. What Rodney Stafford is telling us is that his tragedy could happen to anyone. As parents, teachers, neighbours, friends, we need to keep our eyes open. We need to talk to our kids. We need to look out for them. We need to rely on each other to keep our kids safe.

As community leaders, we should make the issue of child safety a priority, and we should in all ways support Child Find Saskatchewan as they work to provide preventative education and awareness programs to decrease the number of children who go missing every year in our province. As the organization says, together we can work towards the goal of bringing our missing children home. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.