NDP says documents show health care impact ignored in Saskatchewan bus shutdown

Government documents show health officials in Saskatchewan raised questions about shutting down the provincial bus company in the spring which had been used almost exclusively to ship chemotherapy drugs and blood to hospitals across the province.

The documents, obtained by the Opposition NDP through a freedom of information request, say those medical items cannot be shipped by Central Services couriers because they can’t provide the timeliness and temperature protection.

New Democrat Danielle Chartier says the information is dated two days after the March provincial budget in which the government announced that Saskatchewan Transportation Company would be closed.

Chartier says it shows the government ignored the effects of shutting down the bus company and the vital role it played in health care.

The government shut down the 70-year-old STC at the end of May as part of an effort to tackle a $1.3-billion provincial deficit in the last fiscal year.