REGINA – It has been a busy, and an unusual, year for Opposition Leader Carla Beck and the New Democrats.
Beck and her party had been active this year holding the government to account on a variety of issues, including some that were quite unexpected. Those included a severe 2025 wildfire season in the province’s North, as well as challenges posed to the province’s economy by tariffs imposed from the United States, China and India.
Beck spoke to SaskToday at the Legislature in which she looked ahead to 2026 and also reflected on the past year, which she said was "unprecedented:"
Unprecedented 2025 year
Over the last number of years, I think people have used the word ‘unprecedented’ or ‘unusual’ to describe the year several times. This year certainly fit that bill as well. I think back to January when we were facing threats to our economy, threats to our very sovereignty, really feeling like we were under attack. We saw the federal election really turn on a dime during that time.
We saw a summer full of really unprecedented wildfires across the north and thousands and thousands of people displaced from their homes. I forgot the budget that at the time we, I think rightly predicted, wasn't worth the paper it was written on and we've come to see that it was more a work of fiction than a work of fact. And then a fall session where I really saw our team, the Official Opposition, Saskatchewan NDP, hold this government to account.
We saw a record number of people coming to the legislature to voice their concerns, launched a number of projects. If I had to distill it down to one or two words, I would say it was unusual and very busy.
On the tariff and trade issue and President Trump’s “51st State” comments
We've had various leaders in this country make analogies about it being like a mouse sleeping with an elephant being next door to the United States, but this has really been unprecedented what we've seen in terms of the attacks. Again, not just to our economy, which we've seen tariff disputes before, but outright calls to put our economy into the ground and annex us as the 51st state.
That's not something that we're used to as Canadians and certainly people in this province, myself included, didn't take very kindly to that, nor did we take it lightly.
I think it really did solidify our resolve and was more than a little bit of a wake-up call to start really getting shovels in the ground on some of the trade-enabling infrastructure that we've dithered on in this country for too long. Getting those rail lines built, getting those ports working in a way that is efficient and reliable, getting goods to market.
I think that there's always the hope that we will see more normal relations return with the United States, but I think it's also very clear that we cannot allow ourselves to be disproportionately reliant on trade with the United States, especially when things are so unreliable south of the border.
On the NDP’s approach to the issue compared to the government
I think the first thing is controlling what we can control. And as I said, making sure it's completely within our control in this country. A country as rich in resources and skilled workers as Canada, we need to be able to build that infrastructure, we need to be able to find a way to get it built quickly. Rail lines, pipelines, power lines, port access, all of those things, we need to act like grown-ups and get it done and stop bickering about it.
The other thing I think that certainly I felt, and I heard this from a lot of people as well, was a sense of pride and a backbone. Look, we're reasonable people. We want to be good neighbours, but we're not going to take getting kicked in the jaw lying down.
We need to show a backbone, we need to show resolve, and we need to show that we're prepared to look for other trading partners if the United States is not going to be reasonable. I think that is a difference between the approach that I took and the approach that the Premier took, which was to play nice and hold hands, and it really hasn't gotten us that far. We have seen huge impacts to all sectors.
When you look at our steel industry here in this province, certainly agriculturally, we now have bookended the year with Trump threatening to put tariffs on potash, buying potash from Belarus. Russians supported Belarus. It hasn't worked. And we haven't seen Saskatchewan get our share of those infrastructure projects that we need to be building right now.
So I think there has been a different approach between the Premier and I. I've taken my lead both as someone who's incredibly proud to be from Saskatchewan, but also to be a Canadian, and from the people that I'm hearing from who are telling me, look, we've got to take things into our own hands. We've got to have some pride here, and we need to be working to ensure that we are not overly reliant on the United States, because again, they're not a predictable partner as they have been right now.
On the state of the agriculture sector in 2025
You know, we've got a resilient agriculture community. Absolutely is the case.
But this year has been difficult. You've seen the tariffs, threats from the United States, tariffs from China, tariffs then from India on canola. We've seen tariffs on peas and pork, pulse crops.
These are very important crops to this province, to the agricultural community. And it's been a stressful year, especially when producers continue to see their input costs climb. And then you have added stress for people in the Southwest, where they're facing nine years of drought. The existing business risk management programs simply don't work for them. And it's costing them more to put a crop in the ground than they have any hope of recovering, even if they're able to make a claim. So there's some desperate, desperate situations.
Luckily, not as widespread that drought, but nine years of drought is leaving a lot of young producers. We heard from one generational farm saying that this year would be make or break for not only himself, but for many of his neighbours. Of course, we also saw concerns about foreign farmland ownership, something that this government suggested there's nothing to see here, even after the provincial auditor pointed out a number of problems.
They did bring in some half measures to go forward, but didn't fully implement what it would take to restore that trust in the system. That people weren't breaking the law when it came to buying farmland in this province. And then, of course, we saw another shift when it comes to the agriculture minister.
So we'll see if we're off in a different direction in the new year or not.
On some of the separatist sentiments expressed in 2025
Honestly, I think it's ridiculous. This is a province that is incredibly rich in, as I always say, in resources and people. But we are part of Canada, and that is something that is non-negotiable for me. Yes, there are things that we need to do to ensure that we are getting our fair share, when it comes to federal projects. Decisions made in Ottawa sometimes don't take into account much after the Manitoba border.
That is all true. There are reasons for grievance. But to suggest that we're going to go on our own — we don't have the port access that we need right now in this province to get our goods to market. And I am not interested in becoming the 51st state. So, yeah, quite simply, I disagree with those sentiments. And I'm prepared to back that up with, I think, a lot of my neighbours in this province.
On the wildfire situation
You know, I can't think about what we saw in the north this summer without remembering, you know, standing in the legislature here in May. And my colleague, Jordan McPhail, the member for Cumberland, asking an honest question, because there were concerns already then in the north that this government was not prepared — asking of the minister, ‘are you ready?’ And the minister standing up and confidently saying ‘oh, yes, we're ready. And how dare you even ask?’
Well, it turns out they weren't ready. We know now that half the water bomber fleet was grounded. We know that it's possible that we overpaid by as much as $100 million for water bombers that we didn't have trained pilots for.
And we know that communities, communities like Denare Beach, were left essentially to fend for themselves in some of the worst forest fires that people have seen in this province.
Since then, we've seen a government that has been slow to respond to evacuees, in many cases, waiting weeks and months for any sort of compensation. And we've seen a government that's been slow to admit that there was any problem.
What we are asking for, and this comes from those folks who were most impacted, those who've been fighting forest fires in the north for years and years, is a true public inquiry to look at what happened, what went right, what went wrong, and to commit to opening up that wildfire plan yearly with input from people in the north and doing that publicly. That's not something that the government is committed to. We've seen other reports created and sit on shelves. People have lost trust with this government and with the wildfire strategy in this province, and this is a way to build trust and to ensure that we are ready for next year's wildfire season.
On the state of health care in 2025
Well, it's bleak in many places. We're hearing from health care workers that have been sounding the alarm for years that the wheels are falling off. This past weekend, we saw 13 emergency rooms and program closures in this province in one day. We're seeing huge wait lists at the ERs and major centres.
We now know this government, the Sask Party government, promised just a year ago in the last election that they were going to ensure that every person in this province had a family doctor by 2028. Well, they've gone in the wrong direction. We've gone from one in six people in this province not having a family doctor to one in four in the latest report. That is showing up in our emergency rooms. It's showing up in stress across the system.
This is a government that doesn't want to admit that there's a problem. They are burning their health care workers out. They're leaving them without a raise, which is causing more frustration and more burnout, more people to leave.
Ultimately, it's Saskatchewan people who are going without the services that they need.
On affordability
Cost of living, inflation for everyone in this province has really been a number one issue going back years.
But people are really feeling the crunch. We had recent numbers that more people in Saskatchewan, I think it was four out of 10, are putting their groceries on their credit cards or dipping into their savings just to put food on their table. These are often families who have never struggled before, finding themselves further and further in debt just to meet the basics.
And that's before Christmas. We have had, for months in this province, Saskatchewan people reporting the highest rates of financial anxiety in the entire country. And, you know, not surprising for the 300,000 renters in this province, 41 months of continuous rent increases, the highest in the country, 20, 30, even 40 per cent increases in a year.
This year has people feeling very financially strapped, feeling worried about the future and their ability to keep a roof over their head. And many people, record numbers again this year, finding their way to the food bank just to try to balance things. You know, we don't have a revenue problem in this province.
We have a management, a mismanagement problem when it comes to this provincial government that seems content to talk about high line numbers and ignore the fact that more and more people every year, again, record number of working people using food banks, they're struggling, they can't pay their bills, and they don't believe it when this government tells them how good it is. Again, that's why we brought forward rent control. We're going to continue to look for ways to ensure that not only do people have some relief when it comes to the cost of living, but they have opportunity to make a fair wage.
People want to work, they want to take care of their families. There should be those opportunities here for people to do that. But we have a government that doesn't seem particularly interested in doing what they need to do to ensure that those good wages, those reasonable costs are available for people in this province.
On the latest cabinet shuffle
Well, I don't think I'm cynical yet. It's almost 10 years that I've been here. You know, I've seen a lot of cabinet changes. This one maybe more than any other feels like shuffling chairs on the Titanic, shuffling those deck chairs.
The premier can move people in and out of those portfolios, but this is a government that seems immune from understanding the concerns that are out there in many cases. And even more so, doesn't seem particularly interested in actually solving some of the issues that are piling up out there. Whether that's in agriculture, whether that's in health care, education, the economy, the list goes on.
They're very, very happy to clap for themselves and throw a line out there, but not very interested in digging in, listening to people and actually trying to build that bright future that everyone in this province wants — to look forward to next year with a sense of hope, a sense that things are going to be better. I'm not content with the status quo.
I think this province is, again, so rich with potential, so rich in resources of every kind. It doesn't have to be like this. And that's what we're going to be working towards in 2026.
On looking ahead to 2026
We've loaded ourselves up with a lot for 2026 … This is a team that enjoys working hard, and we're in a hurry. The next election, 2028, is going to be the most important election that we've seen in this province in memory.
People are frustrated by this government. There is a lot of need for change, and we've got a lot of work to do to ensure that we show people in this province that we are ready to govern, that we have plans when it comes to healthcare, when it comes to providing for our electricity future. People can expect a grid and growth plan from us sometime in the new year.
We're really excited about that, something we haven't seen from this government after 18 years. We've got our big bold ideas, your care, your say, healthcare consultation, and we'll see reporting back on that. We'll continue to push our private members bills.
We'll continue to be in communities right across this province. We're building towards the next election, and I think people can expect not only more of the same but an even more ramped up pace from this Saskatchewan NDP official opposition in this province.
On the upcoming Budget
Well, not to be too flippant, but I expect that they will tell us a bunch of things that will turn out by the second quarter to be false. That's what I've seen most of the years that I've been in this legislature.
This is a government that has now projected debt of almost $40 billion. That is double what it was when Scott Moe came to power eight short years ago in this province. It now sees us, that level of debt, instead of investing in our schools and our healthcare system in this province, in infrastructure, that debt sees now $1.07 billion going to billionaire bankers in Ontario and in Saskatchewan.
The mismanagement, the lies, the scandal, the lack of being able to implement a plan on the part of this government is piling up, and I think Saskatchewan people, unfortunately, are the ones who are paying the price. They're also looking for change, and again, the government's going to bring out a budget that may or may not have any bearing on reality. They're going to do what they're going to do.
We're going to control, going back to our discussion about tariffs and what we need to do, we're going to control what we can control. We are going to show people in this province they don't have to settle for this kind of mismanagement, this kind of incompetence that we have with this government, and that there is an alternative. We will hold them to account, but we are also going to continue to build that alternative for people in this province.
