I spent the summer travelling across Saskatchewan and everywhere I went I saw evidence of tradition, hard work and pride in community and the land. I also heard stories of hard working rural families unable to make ends meet.
Whether it was Maple Creek, Engelfeld, Foam Lake, Consul, Leader, Wawota or North Battleford, the same story is being told, the Brad Wall government is failing Saskatchewan rural families.
Communities are being pitted against each other in bidding wars to attract doctors, spending hard earned dollars that should be used for snow removal or garbage pick up or road maintenance, to get doctors to their communities.
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Many rural families are being forced to do without emergency hospital services and ambulance services all because the Wall government failed to properly fund health regions.
Some seniors who toiled on the land and built rural Saskatchewan are being separated from their spouses of 40 or 50 years, their children, grandchildren and their friends. Why? Because the Wall government is cutting long-term care beds in communities like Wawota and breaking his promise to build 13 long-term care facilities in communities like Tisdale.
Rural families whose lives and livelihoods were literally washed away by floods this past summer are still waiting for the Wall government to give them the Provincial Disaster Assistance money they were promised. Many of these families need that money so they can replace water heaters or buy new furnaces or repair their homes. …
Friends, I encourage you to speak out and let your local MLAs and MPs know what your concerns are. By speaking out and letting the government know that rural families need and deserve proper health-care services, long-term care facilities and fair and timely support for grain and cattle producers, you can and will make a difference.
Dwain Lingenfelter,
Leader of the Official Opposition, Regina, Sask.
