Healthcare & less debt highlight of budget for northwest Sask.

By Miguel Fenrich Staff Reporter

The Battlefords Chamber of Commerce held the first of six Chamber on Tap events in the Battlefords on March 30, at the Co-op Marketplace, with Hon. Jeremy Cockrill, (MLA for the Battlefords) and Ryan Domotor, (MLA for Cut Knife-Turtleford) discussing how the recently passed budget will affect north west Saskatchewan.

“We are in a pretty exciting time in the province,” Cockrill said, speaking at the event, adding that, “our province is growing faster than it has in over a century. That is incredible when you think about it.”

Cockrill cites a ‘fairly large legislature as proof that there were expectations that Saskatchewan would be home for millions.

“We have some really exciting days ahead of us … When you have a strong economy, it enables us to invest in services, in the key areas that we all use each and every day, and it allows us to pay down provincial debt,” Cockrill said.

Healthcare was top of mind for Cockrill who cited additional training opportunities, nursing incentives, increased security funding for Battlefords Union Hospital, and new fulltime physicians arriving in the Battlefords this year due to the Saskatchewan government’s 2023-24 budget.

“We’ve come out of a difficult number of years in terms of what the healthcare system looks like,” Cockrill said, who mentioned nearly $4,000 worth of money in the budget to improve security at BUH.

Cockrill also touched on early conversations centred around rejuvenating the Battlefords District Care Centre, which began with informal conversations with Battleford mayor Ames Leslie.

But Cockrill also noted that besides paying for services, the government is focused and mindful of paying down the debt.

“At the end of the day, there is a cost to borrowing money … over the pandemic, we had to take on some extra debt to ensure services can continue as much as possible,” Cockrill said.

Cockrill believes that the retirement of two billion dollars of debt between this budget and the next saves the provincial government $44 million a year in debt servicing costs and allows the province to put money into healthcare, education, highways, public safety, or various other services.

“I won’t speak for our federal counterparts … but certainly in this province, it’s a priority,” Cockrill said, noting that they’re only able to pay down debts to the strength of Saskatchewan’s economy.

“I think it’s a pretty exciting time in the

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Beth Walls, vicepresident of marketing and community relations with Discovery Co-op, presented the first of five payments to the division as part of a $10,000 commitment the Co-op has made to the fund over the next five years, earmarked for the advancement of cultural learning projects.

“At Discovery Co-op, we recognize the importance of acknowledging and addressing the historical injustices that have affected First Nations people. Through this donation to the Living Sky Innovation Fund, we are proud to support the healing process and work towards a more inclusive and respectful future for all. We look forward to the impact this partnership will have on our community,” said Walls.

Innovation Credit Union also committed $500 to the fund. Vice president of member advisors, Chad Gartner, said, “One of our

Ronna Pethick accepts a donation to the Living Sky Innovation Fund from Beth Walls from Discovery Coop. | Photo submitted mandates is to be involved in the community, not because we have to be, but because we want to be ... to be able to provide the opportunity for our students to have equitable growth in areas that will be supported by the Living Sky Innovation Fund speaks to how we want to support our communities. We are very happy to be a part of it.”

The release says that the vision for the fund is to be innovative, encourage creativity and support projects and initiatives that will better serve students now and in the future.

This year several projects ran pilot programs that, with support from the fund, could be scaled to include more schools. One project looked at several schools who had lost over 15 days of learning the past year due to extreme weather and asked, ‘what if we could make learning happen everyday - despite the weather.’

Another looked at creating spaces for students to celebrate and connect to their culture through the creation of a Cree kindergarten program. Supported by the Living Sky Innovation Fund these and many projects like them could be established and rolled out across the division. For a deeper glimpse into the winter learning project at Luseland, Maymont, and Cut Knife, read the full story.

“We are so grateful to Discovery Co-op and Innovation Credit Union for being the first to see the potential we see in the Innovation Fund. This is our way of growing and being able to provide growth without limits, learning for all, for our students. The support of these two businesses is the kick-start we needed for the launch,” said Christeena Fisher, LSKYSD executive assistant and project lead for the fund.