WATCH: Promo video makes Sask taxpayer money rain, renewing NDP criticisms on expensive contract nurses

The Opposition NDP is grilling the Saskatchewan Party government for increasing reliance on costly out-of-province travel nurses after a private nursing company released a promotional video of a man firing a taxpayer money gun in a canola field..On Tuesday, Health Critic Vicki Mowat, MLA for Saskatoon Fairview, said the video pointed to a misguided approach towards health care.“Travel nurses used to be a one-off, fill-in-the-gap tool. But under this tired and out-of-touch government, travel nurses have become a costly baked-in part of our healthcare system,” said Mowat.“We should be training more Saskatchewan people to become healthcare workers, and skilling-up the folks who are already here. It’s common sense.”The caption of the taxpayer money gun video reads “POINT OF VIEW: YOU JUST FINISHED YOUR SASKATCHEWAN CONTRACT MAKING $92/HOUR”. Its soundtrack is “Gimme the Loot” by American rapper The Notorious B.I.G.TravelNurse is a division of Solutions Staffing Inc. According to SHA annual reports, the company received $6.2 million from the Sask. Party government over the last four years. Last month, 49 Saskatoon emergency room nurses penned a letter to Health Minister Everett Hindley. The letter says that differences in pay and benefits, along with the government favouring out-of-province travel nurses for open shifts, are lowering staff morale.Read more: Saskatoon ER nurses 'feeling frustrated' and 'resentment' at better paid travel nursesMowat grilled Health Minister Everett Hindley about the "overreliance" on travel nurses from the floor of the legislature.Hindley said the government allocated $7.6 billion for health care in the budget, a 10% increase from last year."Eleven hundred nursing graduates that have been hired either from Saskatchewan or other Canadian provinces that are now working in Saskatchewan since December of 2022, Mr. Speaker; 230 new and permanent full-time positions across many communities across Saskatchewan — rural communities, remote communities as well," Hindley said."Yes, we utilize contract nurses, much like other jurisdictions do as well, but with a goal to reduce our reliance on that."Mowat called out the $100 bills blasted in the video and even called for the government to abdicate power."The Sask Party broke our health care system and they cannot be trusted to fix it. It’s time for a change. Why won’t the Sask Party just get out of the way so that New Democrats can get to work rebuilding the public health care system?" Mowat said.Hindley said Mowat's comments were "quite a stretch," and pointed out the NDP only promised 400 new nurses in their 2020 election campaign."Since 2007, Mr. Speaker, 3,700 more registered nurses; 240 more nurse practitioners in this province since 2007; 1,480 more licensed practical nurses since 2007. Nearly 19,000 nurses of all designations call Saskatchewan home. That’s an increase of over 5,000 since 2007," Hindley said.Hindley saw the video for the first time shortly before talking to reporters after Question Period. He said the promo was "disappointing when we're talking about some very serious issues when it comes to a healthcare recruitment intent and retention.""We do promote Saskatchewan as a place to be a healthcare worker, whether you're a nurse or a specialist or a doctor. But we want to do that on a permanent basis. We want those people to be living in our province and contributing to our communities and being here full-time," Hindley explained.Mowat said she was "honestly shocked" at the video."The first reaction is concern, that these are taxpayer dollars we're talking about. And the reference to a money gun is like a party reference or like a celebration reference, that it's raining money. . . . It raises alarm bells about how the public money is being spent," she said."It sends the absolute wrong message to nurses who are burning out, who are doing the work who are from this province, and deserve to be fairly compensated by this government and deserve to have quality jobs."The Saskatchewan Union of Nurses predicts that the province is on track to spend a record $70 million on travel nurses in 2024, and its most recent member’s survey suggests that 58% of Saskatchewan nurses are thinking of leaving the province’s health system.

WATCH: Promo video makes Sask taxpayer money rain, renewing NDP criticisms on expensive contract nurses

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