NDP wants to make investments to bolster Sask. fight against COVID-19: Meili

As COVID-19 cases in Saskatchewan rise, NDP leader Ryan Meili took Thanksgiving Monday to say how his party would attempt to bolster Saskatchewan’s fight against the coronavirus.

On an early-morning Zoom press conference, Meili said the NDP plan will make investments Saskatchewan needs to keep people safe.

“By making sure with clear guidance, mask use and other ways to keep people safe and have timely access to the testing that’s crucial to manage the second wave,” he said.

Meili noted that the Sask. Party’s election platform speaks to COVID-19 in the past tense, mentioning that it is not over.

Meili said the NDP has promised — if elected — to commitments in long-term care facilities, reducing class sizes and hiring educational staff, creating new and affordable childcare spaces and increasing spending to begin clearing a $5 billion deferred maintenance backlog.

The NDP leader also mentioned the lack of definitive thresholds to introduce mandatory masking and what facilities or businesses are open.

“In government, I would work with public health so that people know not just what we’re asking them to do right now, but also what the thresholds would be… so people can plan ahead and understand what rising cases mean,” Meili explained.

In light of the Sask. Party’s COVID-19 exposure situation in Prince Albert on Oct. 3, Meili said his party is very careful with the events they hold.

“We’re very, very cautious in the way that we do all of our in-person meetings. It’s a campaign, it’s really important that we’re able to be out there reaching people,” he said.

Meili said he hopes that Scott Moe hasn’t caught COVID and stressed the importance of people in leadership roles, role model the commitment to safety.

“He was very slow to talk about masks at all. I think we saw Mr. Trump in a mask before we saw Scott Moe wear one. He has refused to distance himself from anti-maskers,” he said.

According to the Sask. Party, it has taken both Sunday and Thanksgiving Monday off of the campaign trail.

– With files from 980 CJME’s Dominick Lucyk