More money for health care and crime reduction: Sask. premier teases provincial budget

Premier Scott Moe says next week's provincial budget will focus on health care, education and crime, with more money targeted at reducing surgical wait times, giving everyone access to a primary health care provider, improving student reading skills and hiring police officers.

Moe made the comments at the annual Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) convention in Saskatoon on Wednesday.

He said the March 19 budget will follow up on the government's throne speech promises, which focused on health, education and public safety.

"We're using all of the opportunities, all of the tools that we have," Moe told the crowd, saying that the province is paying for private surgeries with public money to help chip away at wait lists.

"We're going to ensure that not only do you have access to a health-care provider where you live in this province, we're going to ensure you have access to surgery right here in Saskatchewan."

Moe's government has been under fire recently for burgeoning wait lists in breast imaging and diagnostics.

The province is currently paying a private Calgary clinic to perform mammograms and biopsies for urgent cases that would otherwise be waiting months in Saskatchewan.

Moe said this year's budget will have money dedicated to making sure everyone can see a family doctor or nurse practitioner, and reiterated previous promises to open urgent care centres in Saskatoon, North Battleford, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw. 

He also said the province is setting aside more money to focus on kindergarten to Grade 3 outcomes.

"If a child can read, write and add at a Grade 3 level … grades 4 through 12, success becomes entirely more possible."

NDP says government has had years to act and failed

Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck also attended the SARM convention and said the province has to make sure everyone, regardless of where they live, has access to health care and education.

"We've seen a lack of willingness from the provincial government to make investments. To work with those local voices. To make sure wherever you live in this province people have access to health care."

Moe said the government is also focusing on public safety in the budget, with plans to add 500 additional police officers and 500 drug treatment beds to help combat the drug crisis.

"That didn't just happen in the last three months," Beck said, referring to increased drug overdoses and related crimes.

"We've seen the overdose and addictions crisis go unchecked in this province for over a decade."

Beck also noted that while it's important to deal with health and education, Saskatchewan needs to put money toward trade infrastructure including pipelines, rail lines and highway twinning for long-term solutions to the current trade crisis.

"We cannot be overly dependent on the United States. We need to get east-west trade moving."