NDP accuses Sask. Party of stacking SHA leadership with political operatives

The NDP is accusing the provincial government of stacking the SHA board with political operatives.

The Saskatchewan NDP are claiming that the senior leadership of the province’s health authority has been filled with political operatives and loyalists by the current government – a charge the province takes issue with.

“Our healthcare system is bloated, top-heavy, and disconnected from local communities because the Sask. Party is stacking its leadership with their political insiders,” said NDP MLA Meara Conway during a press conference on Wednesday.

The NDP identified six members of the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s (SHA) board as having connections to the Saskatchewan Party – citing donations and stints on various campaigns for former and current Sask. Party MLAs.

“After two decades in power, the Sask. Party has broken our healthcare, and we owe it to future generations to rebuild it from the ground up,” Conway added. “To get our health system back on track we must take resources and decision-making power away from the political insiders in Regina and give it back to local leaders and frontline workers.”

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The NDP has said it would be more appropriate to appoint health care professionals to the board.

Conway encouraged residents to share their experiences with Saskatchewan’s health care system using the party’s recently announced website.

In a statement to CTV News, the province accused the New Democrats of attempting to “smear the reputations of highly qualified and community-minded Saskatchewan people who serve on the SHA board and senior leadership team.”

“These individuals are not secret or hidden,” the province said in its statement, including a link to the SHA’s website that lists the members of the organization’s board and senior leadership.

The province went on to cite several statistics from the health care sector as evidence of progress being made.

They included a record 100,000 surgeries being performed in 2024-25, reducing the number of patients waiting for surgeries in the province while increasing the number of doctors and nurses in the province since the launch of the Health and Human Resources Action Plan in 2022.

Additionally, the province said that 463 high-priority healthcare professionals have been recruited to 70 rural and remote communities since the launch of a provincial incentive.

Lastly, more than 41,000 patients were seen at the Regina Urgent Care Centre over the course of its first year of operations.

-With files from Wayne Mantyka