YORKTON — Jared Clarke, MLA for Regina-Walsh Acres and Shadow Minister for Municipal Affairs and the Environment, was in Yorkton March 24 to meet with city council.
Clarke, who has been touring cities and towns across the province on behalf of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party, emphasized the importance of connecting with municipal leaders to understand their priorities and work towards solutions.
"As part of my municipal affairs portfolio I am here to connect with the mayor and council," said Clarke in an interview with SaskToday.ca.
"There's a lot of different issues across the province but a lot of similarities," added Clarke.
"Things I've heard from other cities and towns is definitely an infrastructure deficit and looking to the province to make sure that they don't continue to offload responsibilities—that the province should be taking care of—on to municipalities. That's certainly a big one," said Clarke.
Healthcare remains a critical issue, with Clarke highlighting the mental health and addictions crisis, homelessness and the strain on emergency rooms due to a shortage of doctors, nurses and lab technicians.
"Of course healthcare is another one. Homelessness and the mental health and addictions crisis that we're certainly seeing all across this province is a hot topic too. It's important to build these relationships and to hear from council," said Clarke.
Clarke criticized the provincial budget for failing to allocate sufficient funds to retain healthcare workers and improve working conditions.
"The big thing is always the budget. We saw the budget was released last week by the province. In it we hoped that there would be increased money for healthcare—specifically around retaining health care workers and really improving working conditions for front line healthcare workers."
"We're losing more doctors. We're losing more nurses. We're losing more lab techs because of so much pressure being put on those individuals and the problem is getting worse," said Clarke.
"As opposition members we ask questions and try to hold the government to account but also propose solutions that will try and solve some of these issues," said Clarke, adding, "the budget is a great place where that can be done and unfortunately what we saw with the budget was pretty disappointing though."
Economic uncertainty, including tariffs from China on canola products, has added to the challenges.
"Over the last three months there has been a lot of uncertainty in terms of the economy when we're looking at the potential for tariffs. And now we do have tariffs from China on canola products," said Clarke, adding, "there was no mention in the budget of tariffs and a contingency plan. There's no plan for tariffs."
Clarke outlined proposals to counter economic challenges, including investing in infrastructure projects such as doubling the Trans-Canada Highway, increasing rail capacity and expanding port access. He also advocated for pipelines to transport oil safely and transmission lines to facilitate electricity flow between provinces.
"We're trying to be propositional—harness this moment and think big and how can we actually use the challenge in front of us as an opportunity," said Clarke.
As part of the Saskatchewan NDP's expanded presence following the election, Clarke emphasized the importance of listening to residents and proposing solutions that support local industries and address community needs.
"After the election we as the Saskatchewan NDP have 27 MLAs now and a much larger capacity to be out and across the province and so we really want to fous in on Yorkton. This is a vibrant community. There's a lot of industry around the community," said Clarke.
"We want to make sure that this part of the province is thriving too."
