Sask. Party plan fertility treatment tax credit, HPV screening, while NDP target $203M payroll system
NDP will launch accountability commission to investigate what went wrong with AIMS
Health care was the focus for the Saskatchewan Party and the Saskatchewan NDP as the provincial election campaign entered its second week on Monday.
Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe was joined by candidates Laura Ross and Sarah Wright for a news conference focused on women's health.
Moe told reporters that if the party forms government they will introduce cervix self-screening as an alternative to the Pap smear. It will also provide a 50 per cent refundable tax credit for the cost of a first fertility treatment.
"This is just simply trying to support not just families, but individuals across Saskatchewan as they are making decisions, and often this is part of those decisions and how they can grow their families," Moe said.
The tax credit would help cover the costs for fertility treatments and related prescription drug costs to a maximum of $20,000, which would mean a $10,000 health benefit.
The self-sampling kit will screen for the human papillomavirus (HPV), which is the leading cause of cervical cancer.
Wright, who is running as the party's candidate in Regina Lakeview, is a breast cancer survivor. She believes the at-home testing kit adds "dignity" to the process.
"If you can find the cancer, remove the cancer, you're then cancer free and that's what this is all about," Wright said.
Moe confirmed the party had budgeted the tax credit at $3.5 million to $4 million.
NDP candidate Meara Conway, who attended the news conference at Kiwanis Waterfall Park in Regina, questioned why the Saskatchewan Party was making the announcement about fertility affordability during an election.
"This is something that the Saskatchewan NDP has been calling for for years," Conway said.
Moe admitted fertility affordability had been raised by the NDP on "50 different occasions in the legislature."
- Watch more Sask. election coverage, including full news conferences, on CBC Saskatchewan's YouTube page.
However, he maintained this is part of the party's commitment to expand women's health in Saskatchewan. He dismissed any concerns the NDP might raise on the topic.
"[Parties] all have their commitments, and there's gonna be some choices and differences, but there will also be some points of alignment — maybe this is one." Moe said. "I don't know, you'll have to ask them."
NDP say they'll create accountability commission
Just an hour later, NDP candidate Nicole Sarauer announced the party's plan to create an accountability commission to investigate the troubled launch of the province's health-care payroll system.
The Administrative Information Management System (AIMS) was rolled out this summer but was criticized by health-care workers who were struggling to be paid on time or at all as a result of system errors.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority has already apologized to workers who have been affected by the system.
Sarauer says problems over pay continue to persist and issues around procurement — which AIMS also handles — are now causing headaches.
"This accountability commission's ability will be to look into the complete picture of what actually went wrong here and how that happened, how much it cost and how it can be improved in the future," Sarauer said.
The NDP candidate for Regina Douglas Park stopped short of guaranteeing an NDP government would axe the troubled AIMS system, but said it's important to understand what happened.
Sarauer also released a memo obtained by the party through a freedom of information request that shows that as of June 2024, the province had spent $203 million on AIMS.
"This is money that could have been invested to fix health care. It could have been invested to hire more nurses, doctors and paramedics. It would go a long way to improving care at the hospitals here in Regina, in Saskatoon and right across the province," Sarauer said.
The document is the first to confirm how much the province has spent on AIMS. However, the province's auditor already projected the system could cost as much as $240 million.
A total cost of the AIMS project won't be available until the entire system is rolled out, according to the memo. There is no timeline for when that process will be completed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
