Throne Speech Debate (4 December 2024)

From Hansard (4 December 2024)

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Throne Speech Debate

Blaine McLeod: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is indeed with a grateful heart that I rise today in what I call a very sacred House, having secured the confidence of the citizens of Lumsden-Morse in the recent election. And I will never, never lose sight of this amazing privilege that each of us in this House enjoys. I will never tire of walking up the stairs in awe of the building that I am about to enter.

In the 16 months since winning the by-election for LumsdenMorse, this is my second reply to the Throne Speech, not my 22nd like the member from Saskatoon Willowgrove. I have absolutely no chance of attaining that length of service, but I do thank you for your continued faithful and excellent service. I only see engaged, motivated, and very hard-working. Keep up the good work, my friend.

And now an acknowledgement of the Speaker himself. Well done in terms of obtaining the confidence of this House. You are a man of integrity and great character, and I am very happy to see you in the Chair and very pleased to be able to support you in that role as Deputy Speaker of the House, having gained the confidence as well of this House.

I will serve with the attitude of constantly listening and learning, and I’ll aim to contribute renewal in this House. “A New Beginning,” which is the title of the Speech from the Throne that opens the first session of the thirtieth legislature of the wonderful province of Saskatchewan. We have been given a majority mandate to govern and a message to listen carefully and respond to the needs of the people of Saskatchewan that we all collectively serve.

Often stated that no one serves alone. That fact is even more indelibly pressed on my mind as I recognize that I’ve spent most of the last 20 months in election mode — first to win the nomination, then straight into the by-election of August 2023, and then 13 months later, this general election. There has been very little time to catch my breath. But honestly I have enjoyed every minute. It has been the honour of a lifetime to serve the people of Lumsden-Morse, and I commit again to listen and hear all the voices and to faithfully represent all my constituents.

And I need to say a thank you, Mr. Speaker, to all the participants who allowed their names to stand to run in the general election in Lumsden-Morse. Six candidates in total, and to each and every one, thank you. It is an impressive thing to stand for election, and it’s opening yourself up to a whole bunch of analysis and criticism, but you have all done it faithfully, and we thank you for your involvement.

I was recently asked if I would engage in some of the same political activities of my predecessor, Mr. Lyle Stewart, who was laid to rest in the Cottonwood Cemetery north of Pense on August 7th, 2024. Tell me more, I asked. I was thinking they might mention the 23 and a half years of service as an MLA, possibly one of the best Agriculture ministers this province has ever seen. No, they were thinking about something a little bit different. They were wondering if maybe I might wrestle a steer at Agribition, or perhaps make a citizen arrest of a would-be carjacker. I assured them that I wouldn’t be wrestling steers. Carjacker, maybe. We’ll see. That’s never happened. But I could milk a cow if they needed me to.

An Hon. Member: — I hope so.

Blaine McLeod: — I hope so as well. But I do trust I will bring my own unique passion to the legislature, knowing that no one, no one can exactly fill the shoes of a predecessor. But we each chart our own course and seek to leave our great province better than we found it. May you rest in peace, Lyle.

In terms of never serving alone, I have many people, many people to thank. And I want to start with my dear family. My wife of 43 years, I love you more now than I ever have, and your constant love and support has continued to sustain me and our family. Proverbs 18:22 says, “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favour from the Lord.” Marlie, you are perfect to me, and I thank you for always being in my corner.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I haven’t spoke often in regards to our children, but I just want to briefly bring the House up to date. Our oldest son, Michael, has really stepped up to allow me to fulfill this role here. Involved in our dairy farm in the business, and Michael, I know you’ve learned first-hand what it means to always be on. Because you are on a dairy farm, there’s never a moment where you can say, I’m leaving this job and I’m going to take a break. You’re always on. And I need to tell you, Michael, that it’s really the same as an elected MLA, not with the same type of work, but you are always on. You’re always in the public eye and you need to be available at all times. And I commit to do that. Absolutely.

Michael’s wife, Chelsea, is a substitute teacher, HR [human resources] involvement in our farm, and the mother of three lovely children as well. I’ll get to them a little bit later.

Our next son, Mark, we call him the big guy. I know I’m a little tall but he’s taller. I feel a little bit small beside him. Thank you, Mark, for your iron-sharpens-iron kind of an approach to me as a father. I love that. Keep it up. He’s helping his brother on the farm and also helping to manage their household while his wife teaches school. Speaking of Stephanie, a kindergarten and grade 1 teacher and I’m sure having a wonderful year with such delightful young people in the school at Mortlach.

And our daughter Jessica and her husband, Nathan, from Saskatoon. Jessica is a registered nurse at RUH [Royal University Hospital], and I would have to say that she has the best job in the world working in labour and delivery. Her kids often ask her, Mom, did you bring any babies home? And yes, she has brought some home — three of her own.

And I’m going to make an attempt here, Mr. Speaker, of listing all my grandkids from oldest to youngest. I may have to refer to my notes at one point in time, but here we go: Jordynn, Elliott, Levi, Evander, Eleanor, Kynleigh, Owen, Piper, Orson, and Ezra, from almost age 15 to age two and a half — we are a blessed family — all unique in their own ways with special gifts and involvements in their lives.

But I saved the best . . . No, my wife’s the best. I’ve saved a very important person for last in terms of family, my mother-in-law. Now it’s been said in this Assembly by a number of people about the butter tarts that the member from Carrot River, former member from Carrot River used to bring, and they were good. Honestly they were good. But Fred, I’ve got to tell you, my mother-in-law makes the best, absolute best.

Best mother-in-law I could ever have. For my birthday and a Christmas present, always butter tarts. And they’re actually what I call selfish butter tarts. I don’t want to share them with anybody but occasionally I do. Thank you for your love and support, Peg. You are indeed a great, great mother-in-law.

And I also need to thank those that worked with me hard on the campaign just recently passed. This year a little bit differently, we had Co-Chairs of our campaign team, Brandy and Shannon, both with very different roles and solid involvement in what we were doing.

Brandy, you did take the lion’s share of the role, and we thank you for keeping us all on track and making sure we knew what we were doing day by day.

And Shannon, as we moved into a new area of our constituency, having roots in that area was a logical person to help us open the doors. And we’ll speak a little more about that later. And then, Loree, our financial agent, thank you for keeping us all on track. We’ve got a little work yet to do to get it all finalized, but we’re well on the way.

No team is complete without door knockers. Thank you to Kelly who also serves as CA [constituency assistant] along with Brandy in our office. Kelly, Michael, Dan, Lisa, Leah, Greg, Paul and Esther, Loree, Glynn, Carol, Lance, Theo. And I tell you, in our constituency there’s lots of up and down on the lakeshores of Regina Beach, Buffalo Pound. We got our exercise in, let me tell you, for sure.

And our sign crew, very important: Dan, Carson, Steve, Randy, Greg, Cody, Jim, Doug, and Grant. Thank you so much for all the work and the hard work that you put in in making it all happen. Mr. Speaker, we were able to place 60 4-by-8 signs, all with permission, on private land. The permission of 40 landowners is so appreciated. It makes a real statement in my eyes.

Now the member from Canora-Pelly talked a little bit about some wind damage that signs took this year, and we were no exception although I’ll have to say that I think I might have beat you on that one. We only had three signs that needed help after horrific windstorms. The rest weathered the storms rather well. And I think I’ll give my dad and my uncle a little credit in regards to that. They taught me well the ways of carpentry, and you can never brace well enough. I always thought Dad was overdoing it but he was right.

Now rural constituencies are different than city constituencies, and I just picked out a few differences. You’re really working with the same wonderful people anywhere you are in Saskatchewan, but rural people, there are some differences. And there’s differences in how you approach what you do.

The first difference is there’s absolutely lots of travel, and we’re going to talk about that a little bit more. The second is the family relationships run very deep and very strong and very tight in rural communities. And one of the biggest things I see is the sense of community spirit and volunteerism and the knowledge that if things are going to get done, we all have to be a part of it.

And, Mr. Speaker, probably the favourite thing that I saw in regards to rural constituencies, and have enjoyed it for a very long time in my life, is fall suppers. There were many of them, and I’m proud to say that even though I consumed . . . [inaudible] . . . amounts of food over that time period, I actually lost weight — five pounds over the time of the election.

So let’s take a quick tour of the Lumsden-Morse constituency. We’re going to start with Craven in the northeast corner. First of all I have to drive an hour and a quarter to get to Craven. This small but mighty village hosts the Country Thunder music festival, where over 25,000 people attend over a four-day event. And our team confirms that Craven might win the award for the scariest dogs in our constituency. I’m not sure what that means, but there definitely were some scary dogs there.

Down the road to Lumsden. This tight-knit bedroom community of 1,800 hosts many events, including the Lumsden Duck Derby — my duck didn’t win this year — and the Scarecrow Festival and other . . . lots of events there. Proceeds from the Duck Derby, which is really, really significant here, fully supports the operation of their rink. And they as well will benefit from the increase in rink funds this year that was contained within our Throne Speech.

Up Highway 11, Regina Beach and Buena Vista host over 2,000 residents, but not all of those can vote in our constituency because there are a lot of summer homes. So it makes door knocking very interesting, but ice cream at Sara’s on Centre at the end of the day was 10 out of 10.

Next we have to take the grid road to Grand Coulee, and if you’re a little bit troubled by gravel roads, don’t take on a rural constituency; there’s lots of them. Grand Coulee, sitting close to the outskirts of Regina, hosted a great parade this summer that I was a part of, and it’s also home to Warren Steinley, the former member of this Assembly from Regina Walsh Acres as part of our government, now sitting as a Member of Parliament for Regina-Lewvan.

Next we travel just a little ways to the west to Pense, home to 600 constituency. This small town made it so close to becoming Kraft Hockeyville in 2020. Despite being the runner-up, this community still raised $300,000 for their arena upgrades. Go Flyers. Pense Flyers senior hockey team. Go Flyers.

Travelling south on the next grid takes us to Rouleau, population of 505. This small town is the home of Dog River and Corner Gas and the NHL [National Hockey League] defenceman Keith Aulie. Leafs, Lightning, and go lawyers . . . Lawyers, we’ve got enough lawyers. Go Oilers. And Keith to this day is farming with his dad in Rouleau, Bill Aulie. Great supporters of what I’ve been doing. Thank you.

West to the town of Briercrest with a population of 155. This community gives my constituency office weekly calls about the shape of Highway 339. And yes, we hear you and we will continue to work on the solutions.

Heading north to Moose Jaw takes us to . . . And then north of Moose Jaw takes us to the new part of our constituency that used to be represented by the best-dressed and hard-working MLA from Arm River, Mr. Dana Skoropad. And, Dana, thank you. Thank you so much for the area that was now brought into our constituency. You clearly did some good, hard work in that area and brought us some very fine supporters.

Sun Valley and South Lake, they’re communities on the shore of Buffalo Pound, are typically vacation homes to 500, but more people are living year-round as well. This area is heavily populated by Moose Jaw residents. Therefore, MLAs from Moose Jaw North and Wakamow, you may have benefited from these door knocks, and you’re welcome.

Tuxford, Marquis, Brownlee, Eyebrow, Tugaske, Central Butte, and Riverhurst — all new communities to this constituency — warmly welcomed us, and we attended many fall suppers. And it’s a good thing we had door knocking to work off the calories.

A quick mention of Central Butte, Mr. Speaker. This full-service town is a service hub for the area. I was impressed with the Iver Main care home when I visited them this fall, especially with one individual who is a new resident at the Iver Main care home, Mr. Galloway, who was a pharmacist for over 70 years in their town — 70 years. The local fire department is also fundraising to build a new fire hall to meet the needs of the community and the surrounding area — beautiful, big fire hall.

Riverhurst, known for the Riverhurst ferry which transports 30,000 across Lake Diefenbaker every year. And then to get to the next part of our constituency, you’ve got to go west on the winding grid roads — a wonderful hunting area — and you come to Stewart Valley. It’s the most western stop on this tour, just north of Swift Current by 25 minutes. Then back east on Highway 1 is Waldeck. Elon Musk, little piece of trivia here, he worked on a farm near Waldeck after coming to Canada from South Africa in the 1980s.

Herbert, home to 770 constituents, hosted the 37th Herbert Stampede this past August, hosting the Canadian Cowboys Association Finals Rodeo, a real feather in their cap. And for us, as in lots of rural communities, a really special spot that we like to eat, and I highly recommend it, is Kitty’s Kitchen in Herbert. Best Chinese food by far that I have experienced.

Further east is Morse, where I’ve had the pleasure to meet lots of people at the Morse Museum and Cultural Centre fundraisers. A great, old brick schoolhouse turned into a museum. It’s worth a stop if you’re heading west in our constituency.

Chaplin. The mine at Chaplin is known for its high-quality, natural sodium sulphate plant producing for nearly 75 years, and there’s some really great potential investment happening and is happening as we speak. Chaplin also has an active rink as well as an outdoor swimming pool. Great little community.

Travelling down the highway, we pass the home of Gainer the Gopher at Parkbeg before arriving at Mortlach, home to 275. This town is the home of the Saskatoon Berry Festival. Make sure to order your pie ahead of time if you plan to attend this June, or you’ll be sorely disappointed.

And then we come to the community of Caronport, home to 1,000. This community doubles in size when the Briercrest Christian Academy college and seminary students arrive in September. The Hildebrand Chapel, which this past weekend hosted their Christmas musical, is the largest chapel in the province with seating capacity well over 2,000.

And southwest across the highway from Caronport is where our dairy farm is located. Sometimes the wonderful smells from a dairy farm drift across the community. I just remind them that it’s really just the smell of ice cream in the making. And then we go a little further west, just a mile or so, to my home town of Caron where I live. The population is about 150, and as I spoke earlier about relationships and relatives within community, I’m related to probably close to 15 per cent of them. The local community hall is a great gathering place that hosts barbecues, bingos, and Christmas events.

Now, Mr. Speaker, it took me about roughly five minutes to talk us through that tour. But if you were to drive it, it’s eight hours — 806 kilometres. So a rural constituency contains lots of distance, and it’s my pleasure and my privilege to be able to travel and be with folks on many occasions to celebrate what they’re doing and to hear the concerns and the issues from them.

I want to move, Mr. Speaker, to a few Throne Speech reflections. “A New Beginning,” as it was titled. Thirty-one of sixty-one are new members in this House, and in my constituency, as in other areas, I know the voters delivered three very, very clear messages. Message number one is we never want to go back to the days of decline, despair, closure, and the departure of so many of our family members, but we need to do more to address the needs of a growing population. Health care and education both need to improve, Mr. Speaker. And number three was affordability.

Now our Throne Speech spoke to these areas of concerns, and I do want to highlight several initiatives that I have a very personal connection to. I want to talk about affordability to start with, and, Mr. Speaker, seniors have a very, very special place in my heart. Those who have sacrificed and birthed our great province deserve to live their lives with dignity and respect. No one knows how the last chapter in their lives will play out. The money that was saved to ensure a comfortable retirement may suddenly not be enough.

Increasing the personal care home benefit by 40 per cent will ensure that low-income seniors will be able to continue to live with dignity and respect in a personal care home. And as I explained, this increase to the executive director of a personal care home in Moose Jaw where my aunt and uncle were about to move into, he said to me without any hesitation, that’s a game changer. And I agree with him.

But practically how does that work? A senior with a monthly income of $1,500 currently receives a benefit of $1,000, raising them to the income threshold of $2,500. With the increase to a $3,500 threshold, that senior would see their benefit double to $2,000 a month. Currently 560 Saskatchewan residents receive this benefit that I’m talking about. With the changes coming, 1,500 more will benefit.

This is an affordability measure that impacts a very special couple in my life, my aunt and uncle, who have been like a second set of parents for us, who never had the opportunity to raise their own family. But they raised all those around them and helped in so many ways with what they’ve done.

They proactively moved to an assisted living residence just a little over a year ago and were set. They had the savings. They were going to be good. But no one knows what’s right around the corner, and in a short period of time the level of care took a steep climb, first with an abscess on a liver that came out of nowhere and then a broken hip. And then another broken hip — both left hips, on my aunt first and then my uncle. And the personal care home supplement that they’ve been able to obtain removes the worry of not having enough income to meet their needs, and also removes that fear of different levels of care and not being able to be together in a personal care home. Indeed it’s been a game changer for them, and I’m happy to be part of that game changer.

Mr. Speaker, affordability measures that provide a long-term benefit are what the Throne Speech contains, not temporary gas tax holidays that just come back again. And in the meantime, where does the money come from to build the roads that that’s dedicated to? We have provincial income tax reductions. That’s going to save a family of four $3,400 over four years and a senior couple 3,100 over that same four-year period. Doubling the active families benefit from 150 to 300 per child — amazing.

Another one that I have personal experience with is continuous glucose monitoring system. On an annual health checkup not too long ago, my doctor said, you’re getting close to the warning signs there; you better start changing some diet, and let’s do some monitoring of what your blood sugar is doing. And so I experimented with it. Amazing technology. It’s 24-hour monitoring of blood sugar levels, vital to providing adequate treatment regimens, to know what your blood sugar is doing.

I’m thankful to report that I’m managing to maintain good levels, largely with my change in diet. And quite possibly I may have to share more of my butter tarts in the future. But literally with the glucose monitoring system, which is expanding no-cost coverage to seniors and to young adults ages 25 and under where formerly it was those under 18, it’s literally an ounce of prevention that’s providing a pound of cure.

And, Mr. Speaker, the favourite thing that I want to talk about is eliminating the Trudeau-NDP carbon tax on home heating, savings of $420 a year. Earlier this week the carbon tax fairness bill, extending that benefit for another year, absolutely the right thing to do. Absolutely. But when we get to April 2025, what’s going to happen? It’s going to increase again 20 per cent. Not here in Saskatchewan, thankfully. Now the member from Regina Mount Royal made reference to not supporting the carbon tax. Music to my ears actually. But your eastern cousins clearly haven’t heard that message. Maybe let’s get a hold of them if we can, and tell them the carbon tax is not wanted, not needed, and regressive in every way.

Saskatchewan made the investment in rural gasification in the 1980s. That transition from home heating oil to much cleaner natural gas was visionary and made a real impact by almost eliminating our reliance on home heating oil. Now here’s the reality: that fantastic investment is now — was; we changed — it was being penalized by a regressive tax that increases the cost of everything that we purchase, either directly or indirectly. There are alternative ways to reduce our impact on the environment, and it is time, high time, that that is acknowledged and moved on. I am proud and thankful to be a part of a government that will continue to protect our citizens from the reckless policies of the federal NDP-Trudeau coalition.

Health care, Mr. Speaker. One moment. Getting a little dry. Not the speech, just my throat. The completion of the Regina Urgent Care Centre has had a significant, significant impact on addressing pressures on Regina’s emergency hospital rooms and the emergency wards. And I’ve heard this first-hand from EMS [emergency medical services] workers, who honestly have said to me, call it a game changer. Offload times have dramatically improved. Additional urgent care facilities will be opened in five more communities, and the Saskatoon location is being developed in partnership with the Ahtahkakoop Cree Developments. It’s a great partnership, and it will be a welcome and needed addition in all of the locations where they will be built.

Every Saskatchewan person having access to a primary health care provider is a goal we aim to meet by 2028. And we will meet that goal by continuing to implement our aggressive human health resource plan, where we recruit, we train, we incentivize and retain health professionals. Record investment in all of that. Engaging in a patient-focused nursing task force will also help our government deliver on our campaign commitments. Constructive engagement with all partners is essential as we move towards solutions that will deliver results and efficiency in health care delivery that all Saskatchewan residents want and need.

Now just a few more points, Mr. Speaker. Education: expanding the specialized support classroom model. Now when you have a pilot project in eight schools and it’s showing such positive results, the best thing to do is to make sure that more schools can benefit from the very same thing. And so that’s what we’re doing. We’re expanding to 200 more schools across the province over the next four years of our term.

Much has been said about improving reading levels in kindergarten to grade 3. And as you saw in my list of children, there’s a lot of grandchildren. There’s a lot in that group right there. Much has been said about that. Educational success comes with a solid grounding in the ability to read, and I love reading to all of them. And sometimes it’s like if you don’t have an hour, you’d better not start because that’s how long you’re going to be there.

Our children deserve a solid start in education, and so more teachers and support staff will be added to deliver the expected results. And the pressures of a growing student enrolment will be addressed with increased funding to school divisions. And we will continue to build more schools to be sure that a growing population receives an excellent education.

Mr. Speaker, to that end, here’s the list: 14 new or consolidated school projects along with three major renovations, and planning started for nine new schools and two major renovations. And how will we deliver this aggressive plan without going deeper into debt? It’s only with a strong and growing economy that the dollars needed will be available.

We must defend, nurture, and protect the investment climate that has brought a flurry of new projects and investments to Saskatchewan over the last decade and a half. Our government has a solid vision for a growing and prospering economy, a vision that is being fulfilled as we reach the growth targets — and exceed in many cases — that have been set in the past.

Mr. Speaker, the world needs more of Saskatchewan. We have the food, the fuel, and the fertilizer that is needed everywhere. And it is the most sustainably produced food, fuel, and fertilizer anywhere in the world. Saskatchewan is never going back to the days of have-not, and never going back to an attitude that says we will never grow and never be a have province. We will proudly take our place on the world stage and continue to grow and expand with the bountiful natural resources that we have been blessed with.

Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting the motion moved by the member from Kindersley-Biggar and seconded by the member from Saskatchewan Rivers, and I will not be supporting the amendment from the members opposite. May God bless Saskatchewan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.