A wide-ranging discussion with Party Leader and Humboldt Watrous Candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan Rose Buscholl took place on Friday night. The informal information session was held at the Humboldt Gathering Place.
The party aims for a centrist position with a clear sense of fiscal transparency given what they say is the Saskatchewan Party governments use of funds in “vanity projects,” and recent inquiries into MLA’s dealings with private holdings and conflict of interest allegations.
Buscholl was also critical of initiatives that she said were likely not to achieve concrete results like the proposed Provincial Marshall Service. She spoke about the intent to see the service disbanded with the dollars redirected to the RCMP and existing municipal forces.
“For starters, the Sask Party Premier Scott Moe government just wasted millions starting it up and the public will now be on the hook for $20 million a year just to maintain it,” stated Buscholl in a previous release. “That is millions that can’t be spent on actual necessities like healthcare and education. Instead, it is going to an unneeded Premier Moe vanity project.”
When it came to health care and education, Buscholl expressed her and her party’s clear direction in terms of funding and personnel management.
“It’s very critical,” Buscholl said, responding to a question about restoring funding for education to pre-2016 levels. “We need supports for children with disabilities, whether it’s learning disabilities like dyslexia or dyscalculia. For kids who are struggling, with early detection and by having these supports in place, we can support kids with mental illness or learning disabilities which may be misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all.”
In addition to teachers and assistants, Buscholl is alarmed by the state of supports from other professionals to help kids navigate emotional and mental health challenges.
“Right now in the education system, there is one psychologist for every 2,994 students. That means a two-year wait time. Some of these kids will have graduated by the time they are called for an appointment.”
Those untreated instances, she says, lead to events like the attack in Evan Hardy Collegiate in Saskatoon where a student was severely injured. She is highly critical of the Education Minister’s response to the effect that “it could have been worse.”
Buscholl says there are a lot of students attending school whose first language is not English. Limited supports set students up for additional challenges down the line.
Buscholl focused on health care, specifically the challenges presented in rural Saskatchewan with temporary closures of emergency rooms and other service gaps. Ironically, her town hall was held on a day when Lanigan Hospital’s ER was closed.
“What we can start doing is utilizing resources we already have. Paramedics are trained to deal with trauma situations and injuries like broken limbs. Instead of having them leave the province, let’s give them jobs in the province. And if that means making up for shortfalls within hospitals to make sure ERs don’t go on bypass, why aren’t we doing this?”
Buscholl was also critical of the government’s practice of supporting private clinics with public dollars.
She also talked about the party’s support of the LGBTQ2S community and levied criticism of the government’s handling of pronoun in schools and the ensuing move to gendered change rooms based on a child’s at birth assigned sex.