Teachers' strike marks opening day of spring legislative sitting in Saskatchewan

As Saskatchewan Party MLAs return to the legislature for the start of the spring sitting on Monday, they will have to pass crowds of striking teachers picketing up and down Albert Street.

The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) perhaps unsurprisingly chose the first day of the sitting to send Regina area teachers to the picket lines as talks between the government trustee bargaining committee and STF remain at a standstill.

The teachers' contract expired in August and the two sides disagree on whether a new deal should include class size and complexity within the collective agreement.

A few weeks ago, talks resumed briefly and ultimately broke down with each side blaming the other for "walking away" from the bargaining table. What followed were competing social media videos from STF President Samantha Becotte and Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill.

It has been a while since a strike involving government employees descended on the legislature during the sitting.

In October 2019, government employees of six Crown corporations ended a 17-day strike, reaching a tentative contract agreement with the government three days before the fall sitting began.

The Opposition NDP has called on the government to address issues of class size and complexity within a new agreement and NDP MLAs have walked with striking teachers over the past few weeks, so expect the issue to be at the forefront of Opposition questions during debate.

Spending on health care has been arguably the top concern of the Opposition during the last several months. This week, NDP Leader Carla Beck held a news conference highlighting retention and recruitment issues for nurses and doctors in rural communities.

Data released in late 2023 showed Saskatchewan lost a net 35 doctors in 2022 to other provinces, the second worst in the country. The Opposition also flagged a drop in 474 registered nurses in rural Saskatchewan compared with six years ago.

The Opposition has spent many days in Question Period discussing its concerns over primary care access, emergency room conditions and wait times for diagnostics and surgery.

On the latter, the Minister of Health boasted a ramp-up in surgeries over the last year that cut a wait list of 36,000 patients in 2021 to 27,000 by the end of 2023.

In response to capacity issues in Regina and Saskatoon, the Saskatchewan Health Authority launched plans in both cities to add beds to help ease the pressure. Two weeks ago, the SHA said the plan was seeing results.

"We acknowledge that our health system continues to experience difficult and varied capacity challenges, but we also know these action plans are the right work to achieve our goals," said SHA chief operating officer Derek Miller on Feb. 15.

Finance Minister Donna Harpauer will deliver her last budget on March 20, as she has indicated she will not seek re-election in this year's provincial election. A year ago, the government was anticipating a healthy surplus.