The provincial budget, released Wednesday, is being criticized for what is included in terms of healthcare, with unions and the opposition NDP stating it doesn’t include enough for the retention of staff, and it is spending even less money in some areas than the last budget.
Linda Renkas is the vice president of CUPE 5430. She said the numbers don’t track with what they were hearing before the budget was presented.
“We didn’t see anything for retention of workers,” Renkas said in the rotunda of the Legislature Wednesday afternoon. “Our workers haven’t received a fair wage increase for too long. We’re without a collective agreement for two years already, and we’re in bargaining.
Renkas noted the budget didn’t include anything for retention of the employees her union represents, while there was an increase in infrastructure, recruitment efforts for doctors, and more seats open at the University of Saskatchewan for aspiring doctors.
The situation in rural parts of the province, was also of importance for Renkas.
“The government needs to invest in recruiting people to that rural (area), and perhaps incentivizing workers to stay in rural (areas).”
Vicky Mowat is the shadow minister of health for the NDP. She emphasized the importance of rural healthcare as well, stating they will be watching programs such as the expansion of the virtual physician program, which is used in four communities in the southeast.
“If we can improve access to health care, that’s going to be a good thing, but iPads can’t replace the real thing,” Mowat said after the budget speech. “So, we want to make sure that we are also working to train, recruit, and retain doctors. Right now, we only retain about 38 per cent of our family doctors in family medicine and specialists that we train in this province. Thirty-eight per cent is not good enough. It’s not high enough. We need to be working on keeping those positions around, providing a good quality of life for those people so that they stick around, and are able to provide the services that Saskatchewan people need when and where they need it.”
The budget estimates for the 2025-26 fiscal year have a $28 million decline, or 3.7 per cent, from the previous fiscal year. There are also declines in the allocations for Saskatchewan Health Authority targeted programs and services, and provincial targets programs and services. The overall budget for health, however, is up from $7.59 billion in 2024-25, to $8.07 billion in 2025-26.