Cabinet faces infrastructure and health care concerns in Bear Pit meeting

REGINA – One premier, 17 cabinet ministers, and a room packed with municipal politicians made up the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association’s (SUMA) Bear Pit.

For 75 minutes mayors and counsellors from across the province had free reign to ask cabinet anything they wanted. A wide range of concerns were brought to the table, but two main issues emerged; health care and infrastructure.

“How much money can the province borrow to keep our economy going?” asked a delegate in regard to jump-starting building projects.

Aging infrastructure is an issue affecting towns and cities across the province, so it was no surprise pleas to finance these upgrades arose repeatedly.

Each community has their own projects they say are shovel ready, like Weyburn’s water reservoir. However, they’re all still waiting for money, mostly for water and sewage projects.

“We know that there’s about 170 communities across this province that are at capacity for one or the other of those, and those are the key things that we’re pushing right now,” said SUMA President Debra Button.

Both municipalities and the province are waiting to learn more about reported infrastructure funding in the federal budget, which is expected next month.

Button said contracts will need to go out soon in order to make the 2016 construction season.

Premier Brad Wall said that while the money would be a major help, he encouraged local leaders to consider other funding options like public-private partnerships.

“If we chose the conventional way it’s going to take even longer frankly for us to close the infrastructure gap we’ve been working on since,” he explained.

A range of health care concerns also came up including balancing front line and senior management costs and nurses in rural areas.

A delegate asked how the province can justify cuts at the front line, while health region CEO’s and vice presidents make upwards of six figures in addition to bonuses and raises.

Health Minister Dustin Duncan acknowledged there is work to be done in that area, but they need to keep management pay competitive with other jurisdictions.

He added they have frozen the management “pay for performance” program and out of scope wages for now to save money.

Duncan also addressed challenges of recruiting nurses for rural areas. He said the amount of nurses isn’t an issue, it’s a matter of filling rural positions. The province offers incentives for full time rural positions, but they can still be difficult to fill.

“Some of the positions that are open are not as desirable as others,” said Duncan. “So there’s always a big rush for new nurses to try and fill positions in Regina and Saskatoon.”