Carol Thomson, Saskatoon Media Group

It was announced during Question Period on Wednesday that the Official Opposition had formally requested two conflict of interest investigations into two Sask Party MLAs who, through their private businesses, appear to have benefited from government contracts.

The President of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses hopes everyone will thank a nurse this week for National Nurses Week.

Tracy Zambory says with the lack of healthcare workers in the province, the workplace can be quite chaotic. She estimates the health system is about a thousand full-time equivalent jobs short right now and says when you are so busy, it can affect safe patient care, which leads to moral injury and burnout, with some nurses mid to late career deciding to quit.

The provincial government has proclaimed this week as Emergency Preparedness Week, and one of the actions as part of that is a SaskAlert test tomorrow (Wed, May8th). A test of the provincial emergency alert system is scheduled for 11:55 a.m., and will be distributed through SaskAlert via the federal public alerting system Alert Ready. It will be on radio, television, compatible electronic devices and through the SaskAlert app.

BHP says construction at its Jansen potash project in Saskatchewan is nearing the halfway point. A news release from the international mining company says up until now, the Jansen site’s electricity requirements have been supported by a temporary feed from SaskPower, but they are now at the point where more power is needed to support what’s happening on the surface and underground.

Spokesperson Sabri Hamida, says in the culmination of years of planning and months of dedicated support from SaskPower, the potash project’s own 230 kilovolt substation is now supplying power.

On Sunday, the Battlefords RCMP Gang Task Force executed two search warrants at homes in North Battleford as part of a drug trafficking investigation. From these warrants, officers seized about 1,700 grams of meth, 28,000 illegal cigarettes, five firearms, ammunition, and other drug trafficking paraphernalia.

Last Sunday night Prince Albert RCMP responded to an attempted break and enter on Cote Drive in the RM of Buckland and ended up with damages to a police vehicle after it was rammed several times, followed a few hours later by an arrest.

Canada’s Health Minister has signed two agreements alongside Saskatchewan’s Health Ministers which means over a half-billion dollars in federal funding to improve health care. Minister Mark Holland says close to $391 million over three years will support the Working Together agreement  It’s for improving access to family health services and acute and urgent care.

It was a volley of statistics during Question Period Wednesday. With the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention in Regina this week, the Official Opposition touched on jobs in rural Saskatchewan during Question Period. 

Jobs and Economy Critic, Aleana Young stated that since the Premier came into power, 40,600 jobs have been lost and 860 businesses have closed in rural Saskatchewan.

The provincial government has unveiled a strategy to increase business investment to further advance the goal of reaching $16 billion in private capital investment annually. Trade and Export Development Minister Jeremy Harrison told a business crowd that private capital investment in Saskatchewan rose by nearly 25 per cent last year and is forecast to increase by over 14 per cent this year, and the goal is that the new Investment Attraction Strategy will help build on that momentum.

During Question Period on Tuesday, the Minister responsible for SaskPower was asked why he was at the tourist sites of Arc de Triomphe and Napoleon’s tomb in Paris, when he was supposed to be touring pavilions at the World Nuclear Expo which would have been about an hour’s drive away.