Sask. Premier Scott Moe discusses upcoming election with Evan Bray

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe joins Evan for a check-in on the province after the introduction of the new K-12 classroom cell phone ban as both a rail strike and a provincial election now loom.

Have you had a summer at all, or has it been all about getting ready for the election? 

MOE: We’re very much getting ready for the election. I’ve been from corner to corner in communities across the province. And it’s just a wonderful, wonderful time of the of the cycle for me personally, because I get to just meet so many people in in so many various communities across Saskatchewan. And so it’s been a busy summer, but a wonderful summer nonetheless.

What are your thoughts, your concerns with this rail stoppage, which looks inevitable at this point?

MOE: Yeah, it is inevitable. And I would say there are two concerns that we have as Saskatchewan people.

One is our exports. We export $50 billion a year, and much of that goes out through our rail.

There are various imports that we bring in that are critical to us. For example, municipalities import chlorine. We don’t produce chlorine here.

Trains coming into Canada, are starting to ramp down for what seems to be inevitable. That’s so very unfortunate.

A couple of days ago, our three ministers went out with organizations that will be impacted in Saskatchewan, to ask the three entities involved.

The federal government has some tools at play. The rail companies, CNCP, KC and the union do as well. We’ve asked all of them to work together and stay at the table to ensure that there isn’t a stoppage that will impact Canadians.

I don’t think the Union and rail companies want a stoppage. I know Canadians and Saskatchewan residents don’t either.

And so there aren’t a lot of options left, except for the federal government to step in with abiding arbitration mandate or something of that nature.

But in saying that, we want to ensure the folks who are working on the rail line are being treated fairly as well. But we do need the service, and we need it desperately.

What would you say are the biggest issues heading into the election on the shoulders of people in the province?

MOE: Affordability is on people’s minds.

Just this morning, the latest inflation rates are out. Saskatchewan has the lowest inflationary rate in Canada. We are the most affordable place to live in Canada.

However, we understand costs are going up in our province.

Healthcare is on people’s minds.

We have the opportunity to discuss the impact of the urgent care center that’s open here in Saskatoon. One in partnership with the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation in Regina and another in Saskatoon.

Quality of life is on people’s minds, including community safety.

We’ve been in active discussions with Rhonda Blackmore and our municipal chiefs about ensuring families can go out and walk in their neighborhood in the evening.

Our focus going into this election and for the past couple of years is continuing to ensure that Saskatchewan is the most affordable place to live, focusing on our access to health care in this province and our investment in health care, both infrastructure and the people offering the services, and then the quality of life and the safe communities that we strive to have in this province.

In regards to health care, do we ever get to the point where we have to review the system to see if there’s a better way to do things? There was a letter from a 32-year-old doctor and she decided to leave based on a few things.

MOE: That needs to be happening in an ongoing fashion.

I read that letter. We have an interim agreement with our physicians as we work towards some type of blended capitation model.

We just signed an agreement with the Saskatchewan Medical Association.

It’s part of our over $100 million that we’ve invested in what is the most ambitious Health Human Resource Plan for nurses, LPNs, nurse practitioners, physicians, all of those CCAs, and everyone who works in our healthcare system.

We’ve expanded the training opportunities, recruitment and retention efforts. Recruiting healthcare professionals is not an exclusive issue in Saskatchewan. It’s a Canadian challenge.

The urgent care center is reducing some of the pressures in our emergency rooms here in Regina and will be in Saskatoon shortly.

It is a tremendous capital and resource investment that is starting to work a little bit differently at delivering healthcare. We need to be looking at being innovative in our public healthcare system every day that it’s operating.

Has the government ever considered a secure treatment facility program in the province?

MOE: We have some folks that have entered a life of addictions that are in danger of harming themselves or harming others they need to be detained for a period of time, and they need to have health care in that period of time as well.

The provincial government, in conjunction, again with Saskatoon and Regina police services and their municipalities has moved into the initial steps in that space to provide safe places with nurses on duty, and physicians available. Public safety in those particular spaces when those individuals do need to be detained for 24 hours or 72 hours.

The most important part is trying to link them with addiction support or mental health support on their re-entry into the community.  And that I can say is going reasonably well.

This government needs to focus on providing those recovery opportunities.

If we can all agree on this, when someone, unfortunately, may have entered a life of addictions, the street is the most vulnerable place for that individual, we need to ensure that that’s not the most comfortable place for that individual.

We need to make a provincial recovery bed, the most comfortable place.

Enforcement is part of that, and that links back to our conversations around the marshals supporting our existing police forces, and our conversations around expanding the RCMP by well over 100 members.

Recovery opportunities and the capacity to keep our communities safe are the two focuses that our government has when it comes to addressing the mental health challenges that we have in our community and often in our families.

What are your thoughts heading into this election, the strategy that you’re planning in terms of trying to appeal to the people in the province?

MOE: Recent polls show two parties can form government in this province.

When I look at our party, and I look at the individuals in our party, there’s no doubt that we’re not perfect as people, and we certainly have been imperfect as a government as well.

But elections are not about perfection.

Elections are about a choice, and if two parties can ultimately form government, the question is, who is better to continue to ensure that we have a strong, growing and vibrant economy in this province.

The strength of that economy, we’re able to keep our future bright by investing in those very health care opportunities that we had discussed, by investing in a children’s hospital in Saskatoon, by investing in these urgent care centers and the people that are offering the services in and this is a government, I think, and we have a Record, and the opposition has a record as well.

This is a government that, most certainly, when faced with challenges, has been there to take action and action with the direct intent of getting results.

When you compare that to the opposition party’s time in government, their time was mired in at. Time of decline loss and closures. We lost people, we lost jobs, we closed schools, we closed hospitals. And so the contrast is quite great when you look at it from that perspective, and when the question is, who is best to keep the economy strong and our future bright? Saskatchewan party fares very well with that question.

Are you worried about vote splitting, given Sask United occupy the same side of the political scale?

MOE: If you look at the recent elections in Alberta, where votes have been split, it hasn’t worked out very well, and it ultimately elects an N.D.P. party. We saw that most recently with a reform vote split in the UK, where they elected a Labor Party by splitting their vote.

We’re on the doorsteps across this province daily. Now, many 1000’s of doors are being knocked each day. That’s the pole that we’re paying attention to, and that’s the engagement that we’re paying attention to, and those are the people that we are listening to.

There are two parties that can ultimately form government in this 2024 election

We very much look forward to putting that ballot question of who is best to keep our economy strong and our future bright for that next generation, for our children, and give them the opportunity to have a career in this province and maybe in the community where they’re raised.

That is the focus of this party. It’s a growth-focused party, always has been, and that is the value proposition that we will be putting forward before the people of Saskatchewan this election, understanding that no government is perfection, but that is perfect, but that is not the measure.