Saskatchewan NDP leader Cam Broten says the party will focus on long-term care for seniors during the fall session of the Saskatchewan Legislature which begins tomorrow.
Broten says over the summer he traveled around the province to find out what were the pressing issues for people and, time and again, inadequate care for seniors topped the list.
He says a prime example what he is talking about came during a meeting with a senior in Melfort.
“And the woman looked across at me and said if it gets to the point where I have to go into long term care I want them to hit me over the head with a shovel and she wasn’t saying it as a joke, it was a dead serious statement because of the experiences she knew about and because of the experiences of her family,” he says.
The NDP leader says he will also be pressing the government to implement the recommendations of a joint task force on Aboriginal education and employment.
He says the Aboriginal community needs to be equal partners in Saskatchewan’s economic growth.
However, the NDP leader could not state what his party’s policy is on a resource revenue sharing deal with First Nations and says this policy is a work in progress.
“I won’t give you an ETA now but this is the kind of work we are doing and it really is the question of what kind of future and what kind of province do we have,” he says. “Whether we want to have an approach of dividing folks, a very negative approach, or whether we want to have a discussion about having a shared future in the province where everyone benefits.”
Last week, Premier Brad Wall told a chamber of commerce luncheon in Regina that the government’s focus during the upcoming session would be on managing the province’s growth, saying there is work to be done to meet the challenges.
The organization that handles residential school survivor compensation is taking steps to crack down on lawyers who are trying to take advantage of claimants.