Riders look to end seven-game slide in showdown against Stamps
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Riders take on the Calgary Stampeders for the first time this season on Friday.
With the rain dripping down and bobcats and backhoes working outside, the provincial government celebrated the new Regina General Hospital Parkade being almost finished.
On Wednesday afternoon, with three ministers, the head of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, and the head of the third-party project manager, Premier Scott Moe touted the project being 80 per cent complete.
“A couple of years ago the conversation around health care in Regina was people that are working in that facility (the Regina General Hospital) or visiting a loved one were having to walk out into one of these streets, sometimes two and three blocks away every two hours and move their vehicle,” said Moe.
The lack of parking around the hospital has been a source of frustration for health-care workers, patients at the hospital and the community for years. In 2020, the provincial government announced a parkade would be built.
As of Wednesday, the parkade was 80 per cent complete, with electrical and interior finishes still to be completed. The structure is expected to open for parking later this year.
Despite the seemingly early celebration and a provincial election coming up fast, Moe said the event wasn’t about campaigning.
“This is our record of investing, of creating, doing what we can to work with industry partners across this province to ensure that we have a strong and vibrant economy so that we can make investments just like this,” said Moe.
“If you let that strong and vibrant economy slip, and I would suggest that’s what a federal Liberal and NDP government are doing from time to time and what an NDP government would do in this province, would let that economy slip and these investments would no longer be available.”
Premier Scott Moe says the Regina General Hospital parkade project is about provincial government investment. Aug. 29, 2024 (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)
The Sask. NDP panned the parkade event, saying it was the third public event for the unfinished parkade and that Moe cared more about photo-ops than health care.
The NDP held its own pre-campaign campaign event on Wednesday, accusing the current provincial government of not fighting for Saskatchewan manufacturing and jobs.
The party, in a news release, pointed out that the government’s Expression of Interest for the project originally said a parkade would need 1,928 stalls. The finished project will have 1,005 – an increase of 686.
They’ll be split between employees and the public, but Andrew Will, Sask. Health Authority CEO, said since employees don’t all work at the same time he believed more than 900 staff would be able to have stalls.
Moe refused to say when he’s planning to drop the writ for the election. It has to be held on or before Oct. 28.