Despite multiple reports saying the 2025 wildfire response in Saskatchewan was lacklustre, Premier Scott Moe is expressing support for former Public Safety Minister Tim McLeod and SPSA President Marlo Pritchard.
In an interview with Global News, the premier once again committed his government, and the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA), to better preparing for and managing wildfires moving forward.
“The government is going to work in supporting the SPSA on a number of fronts. One is to be better prepared each and every year,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told Global News.
Another step the province is taking includes rejigging how communications are handled at the agency, as well as how the SPSA works with fire-struck communities, the premier said.
His comments come following two reports, one from the provincial auditor general and the other from an accounting firm called MNP. Both found the SPSA was unprepared for the 2025 wildfire season that saw millions of hectares burnt.
Neither report explicitly called for changes in leadership, but both found the lack of preparedness was partly the result of conflicting instructions from higher-ups.
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Tim McLeod is currently Saskatchewan’s attorney general, but he served as the minister responsible for the SPSA last year.
Calls for his resignation have come from a resident of Denare Beach, which was ravaged by fire last year, as well as the provincial Opposition.
“Year after year the Sask. Party failed to properly fund wildfire response, failed to properly plan and failed to properly prepare. At some point, accountability has to mean something. Tim McLeod should be removed from cabinet,” Carla Beck, the leader of Saskatchewan’s New Democratic Party, wrote in a news release on Tuesday.
Moe disagreed with the NDP. He said McLeod has served the province well as justice minister, a position that he will remain in.
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“McLeod is an extremely competent minister, and an extremely competent MLA,” the premier, and leader of the Saskatchewan Party, said.
“It’s only the NDP that are calling for him to be removed. And in all fairness, it’s really an unserious ask.”
The president of the SPSA, Marlo Pritchard, will also remain in his position, Moe told Global News.
“He provides great leadership at the SPSA, and we’ll continue to work with him on implementing the responses that the SPSA has, as well as the government responses that will support the SPSA,” Moe said.
“It’s not particularly about people. It’s about us working together to ensure that we are in a space where our communities are better protected than before.”
Late last week, Steve Roberts, the agency’s vice-president, revealed he is moving his retirement date up to the end of June.
SK is a very large area that’s sparsely populated, probably around 500K tax payers (guessing). The NDP love making pie-in-the-sky promises, then become lame horses once elected. Albertans found that out the hard way.