Hon. Jeremy Cockrill, MLA
Room 204
2405 Legislative Drive
Regina, SK, S4S 0B3
he.minister@gov.sk.ca

Minister Cockrill,

On Wednesday, September 3, you appeared on the Evan Bray radio show and spoke about the funding that the Saskatchewan government has received from the recent tobacco lawsuit decision. During your interview, you said that you were not “aware of any promise that the money would be used for cancer-related initiatives.”

Allow us to refresh your memory. Your own March 10 press release quotes you as saying: "These funds will support our ongoing cancer care and prevention efforts for the people of our province."

On Wednesday, you also mentioned that you had consulted with a number of organizations on how these funds needed to be used. These organizations included the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Lung Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Notably, this list did not include workers at the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency. These SGEU members work with the people who are facing the toughest health crises of their lives.

It’s surprising that you would exclude these people from your consultations. If you had listened to them, you would have learned about the cramped and unusable workspaces in which they are confined. You would hear about equipment needs, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment and positron emission tomography (PET) scanners.

You would have also heard about solutions to keep people trained to use new equipment in the future. Proposals like this would greatly benefit those dealing with cancer, far outweighing the convenience of throwing these one-time funds into the “general revenue” void.  

The good news is that it’s not too late. Our members are ready to talk to you about these investments. They are ready to work with you to make sure these funds go to where they are intended: supporting Saskatchewan’s cancer patients.

In solidarity,

Tracey Sauer,
SGEU President

Cc: Maera Conway, MLA and Opposition Shadow Minister for Health
Keith Jorgenson, MLA and Opposition Associate Shadow Minister for Health