Province includes plans to build new urgent care centre in Prince Albert as part of Throne Speech

Herald file photo. The Saskatchewan Legislature.

Premier Scott Moe said the provincial government needs to do better in health and education, and part of those efforts involved opening a new urgent care centre (UCC) in Prince Albert.

Moe made the promise during the 2024 Throne Speech that opened the new session at the Saskatchewan Legislature on Monday. Moe also promised the province would open urgent care centres in North Battleford, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, and Regina.

“Many Saskatchewan people voted to re-elect our government to keep our economy strong and our future bright, while many others voted for change,” Moe said in a press release. “My government will deliver both.”

The promise to build more urgent care centres was one of seven healthcare items in the Throne Speech. Newly elected Saskatchewan Rivers Sask. Party MLA and cabinet minister Eric Schmalz said a new urgent care centre would take the pressure off other medical facilities.

“That’s going to help take the burden off of our hospitals and provide timely access to mental health and addictions services,” Schmalz said during a phone interview Monday afternoon. “It’s all-round a good thing for the City of Prince Albert, as well as the region.”

Saskatchewan opened its first urgent care centre in Regina on July 2, 2024. The Saskatchewan Health Authority touted the centre as an alternative to emergency departments for those experiencing non-life-threatening illnesses, injuries, and mental health challenges that require treatment before the next day.

The original plan called for the Regina UCC to begin accepting patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week by the fall. As of Monday, it only operates seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The Regina UCC provides mental health and addictions services (including screening, assessment, counseling and referrals), injury care such as suturing services, sprains, and casting, on-site basic diagnostic imaging and laboratory services, and treatment for minor ailments such as fevers, flu symptoms, rashes, dehydration, and mild to moderate asthma.

The SHA hired 58 new staff positions for the Regina UCC, including 16 new nursing positions.

In the Throne Speech, the Saskatchewan Party also pledged to shorten surgical wait times by ensuring 450,000 surgeries are performed over the next four years. It also pledged to engage with nurses by creating a “patient-focused nursing task force,” and working to ensure everyone has access to a primary health provider (doctor or nurse practitioner) by the end of 2028.

Other promises include plans to expand glucose monitoring to seniors ages 65 and older, and adults ages 25 and under, and plans to provide women with options to do cervix self-screening at home for the human papillomavirus (HPV).

In education, the government pledged to expand specialized support classroom pilot projects to 200 additional schools around the province, focus on improving reading levels, especially for students from Kindergarten to Grade 3, provide funding for 12,000 more childcare spaces, and increase funding to school divisions to add more teachers and support staff.

On cost of living, the government pledged to remove the Carbon Tax on home heating for another year, double the Active Families Benefit, which currently sits at $150, increase the Graduate Retention Plan benefit by 20 per cent to a maximum of $24,000, and introduce “the largest personal income tax reduction since 2008.”

“It (Throne Speech) is echoing what was promised on the campaign trail,” Schmalz said. “It’s a positive message. It’s a hopeful message for the people of Saskatchewan. It’s something that we need going into the future.

“(For) building our future, what we’ve outlined there is going to be not only helpful to the province, but helpful to the Prince Albert region and the constituency of Saskatchewan Rivers in particular.”

The provincial NDP blasted the province’s Throne Speech as the “same old throne speech from the same old Sask. Party”. Schmalz said the Throne Speech outlines an agenda that will maintain Saskatchewan’s growth, while making sure services continue.

“I don’t think it’s the same old throne speech at all,” he said. “I think there are quite a few measures in there that are expanded and broadened to help make life more affordable for the people of Saskatchewan.”

NDP leader Carla Beck criticized the Throne Speech is a sign the Saskatchewan Party had no new solutions on critical issues like affordability and healthcare. She said Saskatchewan residents need help now, and the government promises will take too long to implement.

“People are tired of the same old song and dance from these guys. They want better than this,” Beck said in a press release.

“Scott Moe suggests he’s heard the message from the people of Saskatchewan that they want change, but he offers nothing of the sort.”

Beck argued the government Throne Speech provides no new affordability measures until tax time next year. She also argued the province shouldn’t make more healthcare commitments when their current plans, like a pledge to have the Regina UCC open 24-hours-a-day by mid-November, are failing.

Beck also pledged the NDP would bring forward an emergency motion on Tuesday to immediately cut the Gas Tax.

-Advertisement-