Throne Speech Debate (4 December 2024)

From Hansard (4 December 2024)

Throne Speech Debate

Hon. Terry Jenson: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And it’s great to be on my feet this afternoon. And I’d like to begin by congratulating you on becoming Speaker of the House. We’ve known each other for probably about four years, a little more than four years, and I think you’re going to do a terrific job. You’re already demonstrating that and, you know, really, honestly I can’t think of a better person to be sitting in that Chair.

And to your colleague from Lumsden-Morse, the Deputy Speaker: again congratulations to you. And I think you two will do an absolutely terrific job in maintaining, you know, the House and everything that goes with it.

So that’s where I’d like to begin today. And I’d also like to congratulate all the new MLAs from both sides of the House. The last few days we’ve had a chance to listen to maiden speeches. We’ve learned a little bit about your personal lives and some of the triumphs and some of the tragedies and some of the genuine stories. And it’s really enlightening and I think it’s really exciting — 31 new members in this Assembly. And everyone is bringing a whole bunch of new perspectives, and that’s a good thing for our province. So to all the new MLAs: really enjoyed listening to your maiden speeches, and really looking forward to what you’ve got to offer over the next four years.

In addition to that, all the returning MLAs and my colleagues on this side of the House as well as the members opposite that are returning, congratulations on a successful re-election. You know, election time, it’s a fun time. It’s campaign time. You get a chance to talk to people you maybe don’t normally get a chance to talk to during your term as an MLA. So you know, those campaign days are long. No one’s going to argue that. It’s go, go, go, and then you can finally take a breath after you’re done. And you know, it’s so satisfying on election night when you see the results come in and they’re in your favour. So to all the members that were re-elected, congratulations and welcome back.

Speaking of campaigns, I had a terrific campaign team this time around, Mr. Speaker. It’s my second campaign, and you know, my campaign team was headed up by Ivan Gabrysh. And Ivan is a retired city manager for the city of Warman, a lifelong resident of the province, mainly in Warman, Hague, that area. And Ivan was my rock. He was essentially my boss for 28 days — well maybe even longer; probably closer to 50, 60 days — where he said, you know, well put the coffee down; you got stuff to go do; get out and go do it. So for Ivan and his leadership in my campaign office, I just want to say thank you.

Some additional people: Whitney Friesen. Whitney, I believe he said this was his ninth provincial election campaign where he was involved as either campaign manager or financial agent or a volunteer coordinator. And he kind of does it all. I mean he’s in there. So to Whitney: I know you’re probably one of four people watching right now, so thank you so much for everything during the campaign.

To my sign crew, headed up by Gerald Vance. We also had Angela. We had Don, Terry, Josh, Jerry, Tim, and a few others as well. And we’re missing one of our campaign team this time around, from 2020, and her name is Darlene Buyck. And Darlene was the face that greeted people when they came through the door in 2020.

And Darlene had to move into a home earlier this year, so she wasn’t able to join us in our campaign. We did however take her a sign, a lawn sign for her suite in Saskatoon, and had a good visit with her prior to the . . . or maybe it was just after the writ was dropped. So to Darlene: we want to thank you for everything that you’ve done. Thank you for all the support over the years, and know that we’re thinking about you and we’ll try to get in to visit you very soon, okay.

So had a great campaign team. It was a fun 28 days. We knocked a lot of doors and spoke to literally hundreds if not thousands of people.

Prior to the election I was invited to serve in cabinet at the end of May. So I got to know some people that I had known but didn’t really know, and that was my staff in the SaskBuilds office, that staff headed up by Sean Wilson as chief of staff. And they say you never forget your first. Well my first ministry, so I’m not going to forget Sean. I’m not going to forget Bonnie. I’m not going to forget Puja, Josh, Rashawn for the four and a half months that I was there. Man, you talk about a group of people that can take an individual from knowing this much to knowing this much in a short period of time, that was the group. So to that staff in the SaskBuilds minister’s office: thank you so much for that four and a half months. It was extremely enjoyable and very rewarding.

My current ministry, the Social Services staff upstairs, again I don’t know what to say. They are some of the most professional, some of the hardest-working people that I’ve ever been able to work beside, and I’m so proud of the work that they do. And that’s Lee Guse, my chief of staff, who is everything “goose.” So if you’re looking for Christmas gifts for Lee, anything with a goose will probably do. Just keep that in mind.

My senior admin, Ariann. What a way to begin every morning, walking in, “morning.” And you know, conversation just starts to flow and it’s, you know . . . Ariann is a great senior admin. She keeps me organized, you know. I can’t say enough. Jessika, Kamel, Wynonna, Zach — they’re all absolutely amazing people, and this province is served very well by my minister’s office staff.

I want to also say a big thank you. In the first four years I served as a private member I spent a lot of time in the caucus office and learning the ins and outs from the caucus office staff and learning about all the work that they do and the invaluable work that our caucus office staff do. So to our chief of staff, Ang Currie, to Kim, Troy, Mathew, Shelby, Cien, Aliyah. You know, I try to get down there the odd time for coffee when I’ve got a few minutes, when I’m not busy in my office. But you know, every chance I get, I try to come by and say hello and find out what’s happening in the world of caucus.

Going back to the campaign, I just want to give a shout-out to the other candidates in the Warman constituency who ran. Putting your name on a ballot is not something a lot of people want to do. Let’s be quite honest. Politics, it’s difficult. It’s difficult on your psyche sometimes. It’s difficult on families. And for those individuals that did put their name on a ballot, I want to say thank you. And that includes Erica Baerwald, Eryn Early, Mark Friesen, and then we also had a Green Party candidate that I can’t recall right off the top of my head. But I do want to say thank you to them for putting their name on the ballot and participating in the campaign.

I want to say thanks to the building staff. We have LDSU [legislative district security unit]. We have, you know, people in Hansard that are recording everything that we say, Legislative Assembly Service custodial staff. We’ve got Linda and the staff downstairs in the cafeteria, which happens to be one of my favourite places to go — just saying. I know. You’re a runner, Mr. Speaker. We might have to start running a little bit. We’ve got Pages. We have the Sergeant-at-Arms office. And there’s so many individuals that make this place run smoothly and efficiently, and I just want to say thank you to them as well for everything that they do.

My family, I’m not going to forget them. Most important people in my life. My wife, Angela, who up until Throne Speech day had never sat in this Assembly. For four years she had not been able to attend a sitting day. She’s been to the legislature but we haven’t been sitting, so this year’s Throne Speech was an incredibly momentous occasion for her.

She was able to come and actually see what we do. Even though it wasn’t a typical sitting day — it was Throne Speech — she was proud. I’ve never seen her eyes that big. She was so happy to be here, Mr. Speaker. Four years she waited for this moment, and she’s going to be back soon. She’s hooked. So I want to say thank you to my wife, Angela. You know, we’re 19 years now married, two wonderful children. We’ve got a son, Asher, who’s now 18, and a daughter, Kolbie, who is 10, turning 11 in February — two very active children.

Asher graduated from high school earlier this year and he’s currently working, and I think he’s going to be having a career in the military very, very soon. He’s been meeting with different members of Reg Force in the army, and I think that’s the route he’s going to go. And I’m proud of him. I’m very proud. I’ve had people say, well aren’t you worried? I’m not worried in the least. If my son as a young man wants to serve his country, so be it. I’m proud of him for doing that. So I hope he does pursue that course. No matter what he decides to do for a career, Mr. Speaker, I’ll be proud of him regardless. He’s a smart young man and he’s got a great future.

My daughter Kolbie. You want to talk about two polar opposite kids? There you go. Kolbie is like her dad — creative, just doesn’t have an off switch. She’s go, go, go. And she cares about people. She has a heart of gold, Mr. Speaker.

A couple weeks ago we got, it was in the neighbourhood of around a foot of snow. It was a Sunday morning. I get my ski pants on and I get my jacket and my balaclava and my gloves, and I’m getting ready to go blow snow with the snow blower and get the driveway cleaned out. As I’m doing that, as I’m going along with the snow blower, I notice Kolbie going down the sidewalk with her shovel. I’m like, well okay, where is she going? Couldn’t figure it out.

It wasn’t until I put the snow blower away and I was shovelling up some of the loose snow that the snow blower couldn’t get, she came back with her shovel. And I said, “Where were you?” And she says, “I was down at the park.” I’m like, “Well why were you at the park with your shovel?” She says, “I was making a path to the different play structures, so little kids wouldn’t have to go through the snow if they wanted to go play.”

I thought, you know, that’s pretty neat. For a 10-year-old to take that kind of initiative to go think of kids younger than her that might want to go play at the playground and couldn’t get through deep snow, she shovelled out a trail for them. I thought, that’s pretty cool. So I’m very proud of my daughter. She’s thoughtful, she’s caring, and she’s so creative, Mr. Speaker.

And she’s also a drain on my bank account and my wife’s bank account because she’s a cheerleader, and anyone that knows anything about cheerleading knows it ain’t a cheap sport. And again being that she’s a cheerleader, I’m very, very proud of her. And they have a competition coming up in Lloydminster, so I’ve already promised the member from Lloydminster that we’re going to be up there this weekend. Maybe we’ll have some time for a coffee and we’ll visit and that kind of thing.

You know, the member from Regina South Albert made reference to she’s the first MLA for Regina South Albert. Well I’m proud to say I’m the first MLA for Warman. Not Martensville-Warman any longer, Mr. Speaker, but just Warman, right? And it’s the constituents of Warman, the constituency of Warman, the city of Warman that returned me to this legislature. And I just have to say thank you. I have to say thank you for that support, and know that every day that I’m here, I’m working on their behalf.

When we look at the Throne Speech, Warman’s actually mentioned in the Throne Speech, and it made me so happy when I saw that. Warman’s grown, Mr. Speaker, by over 160 per cent since 2007. One particular reason why Warman has grown by 160 per cent since 2007, Mr. Speaker, when did we form government? What year was that? 2007. People see opportunity under this government. Warman has grown from roughly 4,000 people to over 14,000 people as we stand here today. People see opportunity in this province.

Even more encouraging, Mr. Speaker, this growth has been fuelled largely by young people, young families. The average age in Warman is 35.3 years of age. That means kids. That means vibrant neighbourhoods. That means lots to do. And it’s a great place to raise a family. And that is something I am so proud of, being from Warman.

We have a very robust housing market. I often joke with the member from Swift Current, every time I go home, especially during construction season, there’s new basements that weren’t there when I left for Regina four days ago. There’s new houses that have been framed that weren’t there, you know. We have like a 124-unit apartment complex that was started back in the spring, and it’s nearing completion. Like the growth is just absolutely amazing. We’ve got another ice surface being added on to the Legends Centre or the Warman Home Centre Communiplex. We’ve got construction everywhere.

Warman Truss is effectively doubling their production line building trusses. Well strong economy means things are being built, so if there is more trusses being needed around the province, that’s why they’re doubling their production, because the demand is there. That means we have an economy that is firing on all cylinders and things are busy.

As I said, we have a strong and growing business community. We have lots of small businesses opening up. Literally every week there’s a new business or two opening up in Warman. Lot of them are family businesses. I think of, you know, Pretty Little Pieces clothing boutique. Laskowski and Wright accounting, chartered professional accountants, just built a brand new complex that will house not only their accounting firm, but they’ve added staff and they’ve also built extra leasable space for small businesses. We have a game store in town — like board games — where you can go in. You can sit down; you can play board games. You like it, you can buy it and take it home.

These are the businesses that make the fabric of our communities. And when we have these types of businesses in our communities, Mr. Speaker, it makes every community in our province a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Warman is just one example of that. It’s happening all over the province, Mr. Speaker.

I should go past Warman and really talk about some of the other communities in my constituency. I’ve got the town of Hague now, and Hague is an absolutely wonderful community. You talk about having some of the best burgers in the province — Jake’s in the Shell on Highway 11. You get a chance to stop at Jake’s, you do it. It’s a burger that quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, you don’t want to miss.

And if the burger doesn’t quite fill you up, just a couple steps down in that same complex there’s a bakery. That bakery has some of the best cinnamon buns in the province, bar none. I’ve been visiting there, and if you can’t really tell, which is why I’ve said to the Speaker maybe it’s time that we could start running together. He could show me a thing or two.

But in all seriousness, Mr. Speaker, the town of Hague, you know, fabulous people. And it’s a community that I’ve known for a while prior to being elected. We used to own the community newspaper that served that area, and Hague was part of our area. So I’ve gotten to know some people there over the years, not just since it became part of my constituency. So lots of familiar faces. Met a whole, whole lot of new ones as well.

And then if you go straight west of Hague you run into the town of Hepburn — another community, Mr. Speaker, that’s growing. There’s new houses being built in Hepburn. That wasn’t the case back in the ’90s. You know, Hepburn was a village of probably 500 people, 600 people. They’re now nudging close to 1,000 people.

And they have a museum of wheat. If you’re looking for some history of our province and how agriculture ties into our smaller communities, plan a trip and go visit the Hepburn Museum of Wheat in the summertime. It will absolutely fill the gaps in terms of what you thought and what you might think. And everything will be there for you. And it’s such a wonderful place, Mr. Speaker.

And then there’s all the smaller hamlets and settlements in the constituency, places like Neuanlage. Neuanlage at one time was a Mennonite settlement that had probably 15, 20 homes. They were all on an acre or two. Neuanlage is probably close to about 800 people now. Like it’s an organized hamlet, but it’s bordering on town status. No businesses in Neuanlage but a lot of residents, a lot of great brand new homes, young families. Places like Rheinland. We have places like Blumenheim. You know, there’s several.

And this is what makes the constituency of Warman unique in our province, is there’s so much Mennonite history there. And I’m so proud to represent that area and all the agricultural producers that are there as well. So I’ve got a nice mix of urban and I’ve got rural, and that makes me very happy because I grew up as a small-town kid. So I’ve got the best of both worlds, and I couldn’t be happier.

You start talking about this year’s Throne Speech and all the positivity. This side, we are a very positive group of people. We have been for the past 17 years as government.

There is no room to start running down our economy, running down our people, running down our province. We’re very, very happy. We are very confident. And what we are doing as a government is growing our province. And when you grow the province, it gives you the ability to pay for the services that people are expecting.

I’m just going to touch on very briefly something in my ministry that I think is very important to people all around the province, and that’s our Saskatchewan accessibility plan. Our Saskatchewan accessibility plan was released yesterday, and there’s so much in here that I really think, people, if you haven’t had a chance to read through the accessibility plan, you need to.

It touches on several goals of our government: improving employee knowledge and awareness of accessibility; making government buildings more accessible; making our provincial parks more accessible; improving the accessibility of government programs and services.

Making digital content. You wouldn’t think . . . well, you know, it’s online. But there’s disabled people in our province that struggle with the things that are online. So making that digital content more accessible to them is a goal, and it’s a goal that over the next three years we’re going to work on and we’re going to achieve.

You know, supporting a diverse workforce within government. Making sure that we can do more to accommodate and welcome disabled people into the workforce within the provincial government context and, by extension, into small businesses and throughout our communities. So I just wanted to throw that in there. I know the accessibility plan maybe wasn’t part of the Throne Speech, but I think it’s an important part of what we’re doing as government when it comes to serving the people of this province.

And another area within my ministry that I really want to point out in the Throne Speech is the SAID program, you know, increasing that threshold by $1,000. That is going to help those that are receiving SAID benefits do more. That will be coming into effect as part of our Bill 1 through, I believe, the affordability Act.

Another one, my grandparents are no longer around. My parents are, but I’m getting close. So when I saw that the personal care home benefit is increasing — not going to be long, just saying.

An Hon. Member: — Six months.

Hon. Terry Jenson: — Six months. Well my wife says, like I have no more to go white. Everything’s white now. So I’ve crossed the bridge. We’re kind of on the back nine here, as we like to say in golf.

But in all seriousness, Mr. Speaker, when I look at the Throne Speech and I look at what we’re doing in education, when I look at what we’re doing in health care, what we’re doing to keep our communities safe and keep our residents safe, and really refocusing on a new beginning as a government makes me so proud to be able to hold this document up and refer to it. And I really look forward to being part of this group as we move forward on this Throne Speech.

So you know, I look at what we’re doing. And is it a challenge? Yeah, it’s a big challenge. We have some big things to do. But it’s this group, this group on this side of the House that I know,just from conversations — and some of them I’ve only known for probably a month or two — but I can tell just in those initial conversations that they have the best interest of the people of Saskatchewan at heart. And I’m so proud to be able to serve with this group. And we’re going to do it, Mr. Speaker.

The Throne Speech is a guiding document, and we are going to accomplish what we have in there. We are going to work hard. We’re going to listen to the people of the province, and I really am looking forward to being in here each and every day working on behalf of the people of this province.

So with that, Mr. Speaker, I will not be supporting the amendment put forward by the opposition, but I will be supporting the motion made by the member from KindersleyBiggar — who has great hair, by the way — and seconded by the hon. member from Saskatchewan Rivers. And we will work on his hair next. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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