Premier Scott Moe is known for being calm and cool most times, but that wasn’t the case Wednesday in the legislature.
Instead, Moe displayed a high level of emotion that day. He broke down as he spoke of some of the tough decisions made by his government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His remarks came during the Committee of Finance debate Wednesday afternoon on the estimate for Executive Council. The remarks are included here from Hansard.
Hon. Mr. Moe: — I think of probably one of the most difficult decisions that I was involved in throughout the course of the past year was the measures that we brought in with respect to our long-term care homes. Madam Chair, we had families that . . . We had families across this province that weren’t able to see their loved ones for months. Most certainly it’s an important, it’s a necessary decision to keep our family members safe from this awful virus. And so many that had their surgeries delayed, weren’t able to visit their loved ones in hospitals. The Leader of the Opposition is among them, and his family.
The kids, that drastically altered their sporting opportunities that they have, maybe less so here in Saskatchewan than other areas of Canada, but it’s changed. This last year has certainly changed how we all function each and every day.
We had weddings. We had funerals that have been delayed, have went on with small groups, went on virtually. We had funerals in this caucus of family members. We had rodeos, we had fall suppers, we had fundraisers in communities across Saskatchewan that just simply didn’t happen this past year. We haven’t been to a Riders game, a Rush game, a Rattlers game. We haven’t been able to . . . We have now our WHL [Western Hockey League], have been able to watch with the bubble here in Regina. We had birthdays, anniversaries. We’ve missed Easter. We missed Remembrance Day. We barely had Christmas. Can’t even go outside these doors and walk around the lake counter-clockwise.
Over the course of the past year I’ve taken part in many press conferences with our chief medical health officer, Dr. Shahab, and others. And you know, I went down and read out very significant measures, very significant measures that have been implemented in our communities, and our province, and on people.
These are difficult decisions, Madam Chair. These have been very, very difficult decisions, as they should be. Are they necessary decisions? Yes. Have they helped? Yes. But they have been difficult. And they are not decisions that we ever, ever took lightly. Nor will we in the days ahead.
Governments should only come to decisions like we have had to make over the course of the past year reluctantly because of the impacts that these decisions ultimately have: impacts on our communities, impacts on our families, and the impacts ultimately on the people that we represent.
Premier Moe regained his composure during the debate that followed, as he and opposition leader Ryan Meili exchanged a back and forth on a number of issues. Meili asked a series of pointed questions criticizing the government’s handling of the pandemic. Moe responded by repeatedly characterizing the opposition’s questions as a “never-ending” election campaign.
Mr. Meili: — You know it’s comical to hear someone stand up and say we’ve completed all our campaign promises on a question that was about the biggest promise that he clearly did not complete, the number one promise. He didn’t go out there and say, we hope to be able to balance the budget, we might be able to balance the budget by 2024-25. He said, I will balance the budget by 2024 or ’25. There was no uncertainty. So he was certain, perhaps, or he was certain that that’s what people wanted to hear. And he was willing to tell them whatever he needed to to get their votes.
But the fact is he made that promise. He made that promise loud and clear, and then he went on to completely mismanage the second wave doing huge damage to our economy, making that promise impossible. So to the Premier: does he regret going out there saying day after day that he would do something that was never within his power to achieve?
Hon. Mr. Moe: — Madam Chair, no, as I said in the previous answer. And we used the data that is available to us, as I’m sure the opposition party does as well, in formulating their budget. If I remember correctly, they forgot to count all of the expenditures and the commitments that they had made with respect to their campaign. We did not, however; we’d fully costed the campaign that we’d had. We used the latest available data at that point in time.
… I’d just be very clear on what we have heard over the course of the last number of weeks in this House, and quite frankly, you know, what we’re likely going to hear in here over the course of the next couple of hours. And I think it’s the difference between the two sides that was actually reported on and stated quite clearly in the post-mortem of the opposition party that was published. The name was “Sask. NDP completes autopsy of election loss.” That’s not a good title for a political party. But in the article the Leader of the Opposition he says, and I quote, “. . . his party needs to campaign 365 days a year . . .” And he goes on to say, “The campaign is on now.”
The NDP is campaigning 365 days a year. The campaign is on now, according to their leader. And that means that each and every day in this House he is campaigning. He is campaigning here today over the course of the next couple of hours. You know, through the actual campaign they had talked about putting people first, and now we’re in this House they continue to campaign. They’re actually putting politics first in many ways, Madam Chair.
The fact of the matter is is that the members on this side of the House and a few of them over there, the government members, Madam Chair, we don’t have time to be campaigning. The campaign is over. Our side is busy governing. The campaign occurred last year; we did campaign throughout that time period. And that means that, you know, we are governing. We are doing the hard work that is necessary to ensure that we are passing a budget in this House that protects our people that we represent, that builds our communities, and ultimately continues to grow our great province of Saskatchewan.
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Mr. Meili: — The Premier said that he didn’t say he wouldn’t change a thing. Here’s the headline: “Premier Scott Moe says he wouldn’t change a thing about coronavirus response.” The direct quote from the Premier: “I just don’t know that, as I reflect on them, there’s a different decision we could have made in that point in time, given what we knew.” He later said, “I haven’t doubted decisions.”
And then today he stands up and says, and then today he stands up and says, that he regrets outcome. He regrets what happened. He regrets how many people died in long-term care. But he doesn’t identify the fact that he made choices that led to that.
… Now that the Premier recognizes that he didn’t get everything right, does he understand that if he’d acted in long-term care, he would have saved lives?
Hon. Mr. Moe: — Madam Chair, with respect to Extendicare, I referenced this in an earlier answer as well. We asked the Ombudsman, asked her to look into what occurred specifically with Extendicare, understanding a very tragic situation that did occur there.
…
Mr. Speaker, we again are in the never-ending campaign. We see the Leader of the Opposition continuing to campaign each and every day, including today in these estimates. And we however, as I said, are taken with the responsibility of governing at the moment. We are the governing party of this province, and we will most certainly govern on behalf of the people that elected us, the great people of Saskatchewan.
But we’re running a little bit of a campaign of our own as well. It’s a vaccination campaign. Government is working very hard to ensure the resources are in place so that the vaccination campaign in Saskatchewan will continue to lead the nation, save for one little hiccup today which will, I have been assured, be corrected in very short order.
… And you’ve heard myself, Minister of Health, you’ve heard our chief medical health officer, Dr. Shahab, you’ve heard so many in the Saskatchewan Health Authority and really so many across the province, you know, say stick it to COVID. Let’s all get vaccinated; let’s stick it to COVID. We are going to stick it to this virus. We are going to find our way through this COVID pandemic. We’re going to do it through the vaccination campaign that this government is working on, has been working on, continues to work on into the future. That’s the campaign that the governing party of this province is interested in.
