Budget Debate (25 March 2024)

From Hansard (25 March 2024)

 

Budget Debate

Mr. Jenson: — Thank you, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees. It’s great to be on my feet and be able to enter in some of my own personal thoughts and remarks as it relates to this year’s budget. And I’ll be talking a little bit about what’s happening in the constituency of Martensville-Warman and some of the people there as well, and also how the budget is affecting that area of the province. And we’ll also maybe do a little history, too. I think I’m going to pick up where the Minister of Government Relations kind of left off, and I might visit that at some point.

You know, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, the budget theme is classrooms, care, and communities. I can’t think of three more appropriate and terrific pieces to be focused in on in this budget. You know, it’s no surprise to my colleagues in caucus I have two kids. They’re both in school. And one is going to be graduating in June, and the other one, my daughter, just turned 10. So now she’s in double digits, and we’re having fun with that, trust me. She’s at that age.

So when I look at this budget and I see the record operating increase that we have, and I think about my kids in school and what that means to them — and what it means to their classmates and what it means to the rest of the kids in their schools and kids around the province for that matter — I’m very proud to be able to stand here tonight and say thank you to the Minister of Education for this. It’s important. It’s needed. And as a parent, I think most parents will agree with me that this is a good thing.

You know, as MLAs, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, it’s our job when we’re back home in our constituencies to listen to parents. We listen to constituents. We listen to community members. And I think this budget, with this increase in the education funding, is a result of those conversations that we’ve had at home with these parents, with these teachers, administrators, and other educators.

This side of the House sometimes get a bad rap, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees. We get a bad rap because we’re not caring, we’re not compassionate people for some reason. And I totally disagree with that. Everybody on this side of the House, we stepped up to do a job, and that’s to represent the communities that we come from. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t want to make things better. And we make things better by having dialogue with the people in our communities.

So you know, for us to be characterized as a government that isn’t compassionate; isn’t caring; is old, tired, out of touch, whatever, I think is completely wrong. We have so many members on this side of the House. The ideas are terrific. Yeah, we might have the odd older one, elder ones. But I think, you know, we have a lot of energy on this side of the House, and when we see a budget like this that has record investments in education, record investments in health care, you know, record revenue sharing for our communities, it’s things like that that keep us energized.

And when the province is growing like it has been over the past 17 years, 16 years, you can’t help but come to work feeling energized and wanting to keep that momentum going. So I think we’re in a very, very good place as a province, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees.

So when I also look at the challenges when it comes to health care delivery in our province, a lot of those challenges are associated with growth. We have more people than we’ve ever had. We’ve grown by almost 225,000 people since we formed government. It’s a much better record than what the other guys can say on the other side when the population of this province declined under their watch, right?

We have a health human resources plan that is second to none in the country, and the work that our two Health ministers have been doing on that plan — recruiting, retaining, incentivizing — the work that they are doing as Health ministers is paying off. And we’re starting to see that, with nurses coming from the Philippines, where we’ve hired over 1,000 nurses to work in our system from Canadian schools. These are all important things.

And one that I’m going to really point out is, because it affects my constituency directly, and that’s the nurse practitioner program that we started up last August. We cut the ribbon on the Warman primary health care clinic. Three nurse practitioners are doing excellent work. And I’m happy to say for my colleagues that are here, we’re hoping that we can cut the ribbon on the Martensville nurse practitioner clinic here in the next few weeks, you know, heading into the spring.

So we made a further announcement a couple of weeks ago in Warman where we’re going to be training an additional 25 nurse practitioners, increasing the number of seats by 25. We’re also going to now allow nurse practitioners to operate independently in a publicly funded system. This is a game changer, I think, especially in rural Saskatchewan where nurse practitioners can set up, and they can take on new patients and be really no different than a family physician. So this is very important work that’s happening.

Some other really neat things that are happening in my constituency over the past, you know, three, four years, and I’ll even go back all the way to 2007 because I think it’s important that people remember all the good things that have been happening. So we also have in Warman, Martensville, Osler, and the surrounding rural area, we’ve got some new facilities. The Martensville recreation centre, construction is under way. If you’re heading north on Highway 12 past Martensville and you look on the west side of the highway, this big, beautiful new building is going up. That’s going to be open this fall. It’s a new hockey arena, indoor soccer pitch. It’s going to be an absolute wonderful facility. Forty-four million dollars, and that came together through the ICIP [Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program] program. The people of Martensville have great reason to be very confident in their future there.

We have lots of other things. We’ve got 24-hour dedicated ambulance service now for our area, also based out of Martensville. When it comes to health care and recreation, this government has been responsive to the needs of not only of people in Martensville, or not only people in Warman, but across the province. And we can only do that because we have such a strong economy. We have sectors that are growing. We have emerging sectors that are coming out. We’ve done several announcements over the past few weeks, and the future is absolutely looking bright.

Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, through my work as Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Immigration and Career Training, I get the opportunity that not a lot of people get to see regularly — like usually about once a month — and that’s to participate in citizenship ceremonies in Saskatoon. And you know what? It’s something that everybody should go to at least once. I’ve been able to shake hands and meet, it’s in excess of now 2,400 individuals, newcomers to Canada that are now Canadian citizens.

And when I talk to them, they’ve made Saskatchewan their home. They’re confident in what we are doing in Saskatchewan. And they are going to play a big role in our future success, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees. So those citizenship ceremonies are incredibly important, and they’re absolutely wonderful.

I also get the chance to meet with the different community groups, whether it be the Filipino community, the Bangladeshi community, and listen to what they’re telling us and things that they would like to see improved. And so we have those conversations. And so my work as Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Immigration and Career Training is absolutely rewarding, and I absolutely love what I do.

So just going back to my constituency of Martensville-Warman for a minute, you know, we go home on weekends when we’re in session. And it never ceases to amaze me; I go home and there’s always, you know, at least one new basement — if not two, three, or four — being dug in the city of Warman when I go home. I drive past them. The amount of growth that we’re experiencing . . . And I know on the other side they keep talking about oh, this many jobs were lost and all the negative stuff.

Well come to Warman. Come to Warman and you will see job creation like you’ve never seen it before. Come to Warman. You will see growth like you have never seen before. 2006, when I first moved to Warman, population 3,200. Today that population is edging 14,000 people. Okay? Yeah, it’s hard to explain. In Warman we’re seeing expansion to the Warman Home Centre Communiplex, another ice surface taken on by the city. We’ve got, like I said before, the dedicated ambulance service based out of Martensville.

We’ve seen skate parks built. We’ve got BMX [bicycle motocross] and pump tracks that have been built, new walking paths, path lighting, baseball and softball diamonds, soccer pitches. The list goes on and on, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees. And a lot of that is through programs — whether it’s MEEP [municipal economic enhancement program] through the provincial government or ICIP or through municipal revenue sharing, which is up 14 per cent this year. So we’re doing good things for the communities that we serve, and it’s all tied to a strong and growing economy.

So I’m just going to go through a couple of thank yous, and then we’re going to maybe delve into a bit of a history lesson, but we’ll see. The first thank you I’d like to give a shout-out to is my constituency assistant, Whitney Friesen. He celebrated his 30th anniversary as a constituency assistant in December. You know, it’s a long time. He loves what he does. He keeps me on task. He keeps me organized. And you know what, I’m absolutely thrilled to work for him, so it’s wonderful.

Another person who I’d like to give a shout-out to is our Premier. Our Premier shows great leadership. He’s got an equally great vision for the province, and I can’t think of anyone better sitting in that chair than the guy that we have right now. So I’d like to give a shout-out to the Premier.

I’d also like to give some congratulations to our Minister of Finance. You know, being involved in 17 budgets, being the signatory on seven of those as the minister, what an incredible, what an incredible person. You know, she’s given so much, and I think all we can do is say thank you for everything she’s done for our province. She’s an amazing lady, and you know, hopefully we can all glean a little bit of knowledge before she goes.

My colleagues, we’re like family. We really are like family. You know, we cheer together, sometimes we commiserate together, and you know, sometimes we even laugh at the member from Saskatoon Southeast’s jokes once in a while. So it’s all good. It’s all good.

And I’d also like to say thank you to the caucus staff and the staff in the ministries and executive council. They’re some of the hardest working people I’ve met. They’re intelligent, intuitive people. They know how to get things done, and we’re all the better for it. And the people of this province are all the better for it as well.

And I guess I’d better mention my family. My wife, Angela, and I don’t know if many know here, but she was my high school sweetheart. I’m not going to sugar-coat it. She’s a wonderful lady. We’ve been married almost 19 years now, and I didn’t have to stop and pause to think about that. And she takes care of things at home, and for that, I’m so grateful because it allows me — and by extension, us — to do the work that we do here.

Like I’d said earlier, my son Asher, who’s going to be graduating in June . . . [inaudible interjection] . . . No, I don’t think he’s going to be following in his dad’s footsteps. He’s got designs on joining the Canadian Armed Forces.

An Hon. Member: — Good for him.

Mr. Jenson: — Yeah, I think so.

And then there’s my daughter Kolbie. She just turned 10 in February, and we’re not sure what she’s going to do. She’s an artist; she’s good at building things. She gets things out of the recycling bin and creates something and gives it to a friend. Like she’s super creative. So not really sure what Kolbie’s going to wind up being when she’s older, but she’s going to be successful. I know that.

As promised, we’re going to talk a little bit of history now. You know, we’ve talked about the growing economy and how that’s able to fund things like health, education, social services, highways, things like that.

You know, for 27 years I was an active member of the print media in this province, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, and I vividly remember the ’90s and the early 2000s. They were some of the darkest years I’ve ever experienced. I grew up in Saskatchewan. I was born right here in Regina. I never left the province. I’m 53 years old, so I’ve seen it all. I’ve experienced it all.

I watched under the NDP government back in the 1990s, or maybe it was early 2000s, the school in Conquest closed. The school in Macrorie was closed. The school in Hawarden was closed. One after another after another, I saw first-hand the devastation of those villages when they lost their schools. The look on the parents’ faces told the story.

I watched as the hospital in Outlook was closed, turned into a health centre. Doctors were let go. Nurses couldn’t find work. They left the province.

We had highways that were an absolute disaster. We had Highway 45 going north to Saskatoon; we had Highway 219. Nobody was sure which road the ambulance would take if they had to rush you to Saskatoon because both of them were in terrible shape. So if you didn’t make it because of the condition you were in, the road was probably going to do it for you. That was the running joke at the time, and it was no joke.

Population was in decline. Jobs were scarce, and our province was becoming known in other jurisdictions around the country and around the world as a great place to come from but not a great place to be. Why? It’s all because of the ideology of the members opposite.

The NDP, by its nature, are not friendly to business. That is a fact. Business owners and investors never know what they’re going to get under an NDP government other than higher corporate taxes, more government red tape and intrusion. And if you happen to be making a profit, they’re going to come for that too in the form of nationalizing an entire industry. We’ve seen it before; we’ll see it again.

And the other one is the direct investment into different industry. Direct investment — all you have to do is turn the chapter back in the book to SPUDCO [Saskatchewan Potato Utility Development Company]. I watched. I saw it with my own two eyes, mister deputy committee of chairs. I watched farmers lose everything all because of their ideology that they needed to be in business. They knew better than the business people. It’s not true.

This government will create the climate to let business happen, entrepreneurship happen. End of story. That’s why we are seeing the growth under this government. That’s why we’re seeing record investments in education, record investments in health care, revenue sharing that is absolutely fabulous for the communities that we all live in.

We’re investing $4.4 billion in capital alone, mister deputy committee of chairs — 9 new schools, 2 more to be renovated and expanded, 69 new or replacement schools, and 32 renovated schools since 2007. That never ever happened under the NDP. And dare I say it would never happen again if they ever have the privilege of forming government.

We’ve got capital funding for new hospitals in Weyburn, Prince Albert, plus capital for long-term care projects in La Ronge and here in Regina. And again we can’t do these types of things without a strong and growing economy.

The word “confidence” means everything. If you give people confidence to do what they want to do, they will go out and do it. But every time this opposition runs down our economy, runs down the people of our province, that takes away the confidence. We’re not going to let that stand. We’re going to make sure that people are confident to invest in this province, confident to start businesses in the province, and confident to stay here and get a career and work in this province and raise a family in this province.

My time is getting fairly short here, mister deputy committee of chairs, so I’m just going to leave off with this. Since we were given the privilege of forming government in 2007, we’ve been able to create that environment that I just spoke of that creates economic growth, creates the jobs, and keeps people here in our province. It allows our ministries to build higher and to make sure the facilities and services that people expect are here for them.

There’s going to be a choice later this fall. No matter what happens, we cannot let this iteration of the NDP anywhere near government for the sake of our economy and everything that we’ve built.

It’s estimated our province will collect $521 million in gas tax this year. The opposition wants the gas tax cut today. Where is that money going to come from? Are you going to fix the roads? Or are you going to tell people to go out and fix the roads like you did in the ’90s? That leaves a $500 million hole in the budget, Mr. Deputy Chair of Committees, but no solutions from the other side — none. They’re really good, they’re really good at spending other people’s money, but they have no way of accounting for it.

So with that I’m just going to wrap things up by saying, you know, I’m definitely going to be supporting the budget put forward by our Finance minister, but I will not be supporting the amendment. Thank you.

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