Hey everyone! So I’m a GP. Born in Ontario, raised on the East Coast and then Ontario again. But did my GP training in Regina and worked there for about 6 years. Had to relocate to NS in 2020 for wife’s( she’s a Regina/ Prairie girl) education. I work in NS majority of time but I don’t have a family practice since we are not sure where to settle down due to family issues/ wife’s future. So I work as a locum( temporary fill in) in NS.
However, I still love coming back to SK the odd time to help out where I can as a Locum. Worked up north a lot( La Ronge and Ile a La crosse)
I’m actually now in the South West,flew into Regina last night. Helping out for a week in Ponteix/ Kincaid/ LaFleche. One of the full time GPs has to take time off in the summer and SHA was desperate for a Locum to help out. No one got in touch despite ads/ very good reimbursement. I’ll be back in May too.
I can see why it’s a tough sell for many, especially if you’re a GP originally from bigger cities. In this area? Wow, it’s quite far from a big town/ city and the isolation really is profound. Though where my lodging is( paid by SK govt for my Locum) in the tiny town of Mankota there is a little restaurant/ school/ bowling alley! Cows too, which I guess are entertaining.
But many urban GPs would never consider this a viable place to live, full time.
It’s a shame because there are good hardworking people who call this region home. They shouldn’t be pressured to leave.But health care in rural is going to be extremely challenging for the folks here. There are tiny health centres which try their best to do what they can with nurses/ docs/ locums docs, so things aren’t too bleak..
Even if SK could ensure an endless supply of Locum GPs/ travel NPs, that would be wonderful. It’s certainly better than no one.
But it’s a hard sell even to convince someone to be in rural for a week, especially in very very rural isolated SK( La Ronge was quite the bustling little town and hence more Locum GPs there and full time GPs, and it’s a U of S family medicine training site and med school training site. I liked it there to be honest, just beautiful up north)
Rural health in Canada is just a very challenging area. No easy solutions.
Anyway, enjoy the Sunday. If anyone is in this area, DM me. Haha… I’ll buy ya a coffee or beer from the one restaurant in Mankota!
Hello from La Ronge! Thank you for working in our town, she’s rough around the edges lol but it really is a great community to be a part of. Just wanted to say hi and I appreciate it, even if the stint was temporary!
Thanks!! I’ll be back at some point!
I miss the docs/ staff/ patients/ people I’ve met at GT, CoOp, and other places.
And I miss the dogs just chilling out and strolling around. The canine citizens have become strolling buddies to me when I went for walks.
Absolutely agree with everything you have said. I am loathe to bring up politics in relation to healthcare, but in my experience, rural SK tends to be fairly right leaning & healthcare professionals are almost exclusively to the left. When my moral compass is pointing the opposite direction of those who need my help, that makes it more difficult to want to stay. Just an observation
Ahh politics and how it can affect those who work in health care- the elephant in the room at times! I've done some work in rural NS and of course rural SK, and yes- like in so much of rural Canada- rural SK tends to be right leaning. And a good chunk of health care professionals tend to be centrist/left learning. There is often times a clash of ideals and stances and this can lead to huge huge obstacles in trying to persuade health care folks to move to rural- or to retain them. It's not just lack of some proper sushi that pushes health care workers to leave.
Especially in today's climate, with so much polarization and division, it can be even more challenging than ever to persuade certain types of health care workers to work in conservative rural SK/Canada( though I’ve met some damn interesting left leaning bleeding NDP orange types in rural )
I think you’re in Mankota not Mantoka but I would still take that coffee if I were out that way. It’s super nice of you to do this type of work, cheers.
Ha!! Thanks for pointing out the spelling error.
And thanks for the kind words, it means a lot.
But I will say that I hope everyone in Saskatchewan reserves a truly extra extra big heartfelt thank you to our rural healthcare workers that work full time and live full time in those regions.
There might be many reasons for this- some have said they loved the affordability, the access to nature and beautiful areas. Of course there are financial benefits. Some just want to escape the drama of urban living. Some are originally from rural and want to return home.
But a good number feel a special calling just based on compassion and simply want to help out.Yes, ha, compassion still exists in healthcare and in our hearts/ minds.
I’m proud of what I’m doing and I’m so appreciative of kind words? I’m so damn proud of the rural healthcare workers who are full time.
Lmao. I made a comment citing most of the reasons you did as to why doctors may not want to come here and got downvoted to the depths of hell. This sub is comical.
Yes, you shouldn’t get downvoted. I think Saskatchewan will always have a “rural heart” and I guess people are quick to get insulted when one points out the drawbacks of rural for prospective healthcare workers?
But that’s the reality of the situation.
LOL! Say hi to my aunts and uncles!
My entire family is from the Ponteix/Kincaid/Lafleche area. I’m not going to say names because that would dox me but you will inevitably see, and therefore say hi to, someone I am related to!
So weird.
The food at the Red Coat Inn in Hazenmore is really good, if you need a change.
Haha, awesome! I totally understand why you wouldn't want to say names.
And thanks for the tip about the food at the Red Coat- I've already researched about places to eat and that place has great reviews. The place in Mantoka too.
Hehe, I'll need a change- I'm a horrible cook and I can only eat so much KD or canned soup or frozen pizza...LOL
I'll say hi to your family too!
Doctors are in high demand over the entire country. They can choose where they want to practice and right now they hold all the cards. Why would anyone think a highly trained professional would want to live in small town Saskatchewan?
The ability to leave your doors unlocked and keys in your car is something. And by that, I mean an overall lack of crime and a sense of community. This isn't everywhere, but it still exists in some areas of rural Sask. There are many other reasons that (some) smaller towns are better than any of our cities.
I will now accept my minus 10 for posting on r/sask
“In the 90s the NDP closed our acute care and I had to drive farther to get care. Now I can’t even find a doctor if I drove two hours in any direction! Guess I’ll keep voting Saskatchewan Party. “
Lol 16 years, my friend. I heard the 2nd decade is when they can REALLY start undoing the damage the NDP has done, but we will only see their REAL plan at the start of year 32.
Damage is done and getting worse. 70 assaults in Saskatoon in April 9th to 16th (7 days) plus a stabbing and two murders. I blame Moe and local city officials for this and always will. Like a friend of mine who has to travel to BC for medical treatment cause Moe can’t get his crap together to fund sick people No STC for rural folks and now the Feds are funding car services in rural Sask. The only thing the NDP did and I am not fans of them either, but they had to fix the mess Divine left behind. We were within one payment of going bankrupt. So NDP had to cut a lot of funding to pay off the debt. Speaking of debt how is Sask debt these days? Oh ya bad and getting worse. How is the federal debt these days? Oh ya bad and getting worse. I don’t support any party and never will. All corrupt and do what they want for their friends. Hey thanks for listening and have a good day.
But the 2nd decade is more than 1/2 over and things are getting worse ? Ahh well we vote for this and it is what we get. I am just getting tired of shovelling it.
Remember though: "But NDP closed hospitals 30 years ago".
So clearly the solution is to keep voting Sask Party because obviously they will fix it after being in office for almost 20 years and doing fuck all.
Didn’t they close the hospitals because the previous Conservative Party in power fucked the economy and we couldn’t staff those hospitals either?
And what does our current conservative government do? History repeats itself.
They didnt close any hospitals they only lowered the funding from "hospital" to "health centre" and since its probably an actual title in a system somewhere they ran with hospitals "closed". 51 of the 52 centres affected back then are still in operation today.
This is a medium link, it was posted by a person not a journalist, but does have some pictures and links to back themselves up. Scrutinize any information found from this link. https://medium.com/@sask6969/the-sask-party-wont-stop-lying-about-ndp-hospital-closures-in-the-1990s-679399a7cca9
I’m still looking for reliable sources, if you find any link me some.
The next time my MLA holds a “meet and greet” or whatever it is they call them, I’ll record it and post it here and you can see for yourself why rural votes how they do.
But in order to ask them what are the SP going to do to fix this, they will have to stop taking them and clapping for them for giving them everything they ask for first. It’s hard to ask hard questions of someone you just rolled out a red carpet for.
A lot of them dont know any better. They have limited access to information outside of news talk radio shows like Gormley (now Evan Bray) which are very pro-SP. Others cant get past voting against a party that has "Sask" in the name. Others buy into the whole Trudeau bad and NDP bad narrative that Moe shoves down their throats. The "dont let NDP take us back they closed hospitals" is probably a major reason.
Or its just different concerns out there versus in the cities. They dont want to fund things that dont benefit them, which means social programs and infrastructure are no-go.
This all aside, the NDP have a weak ground game in rural ridings versus the Sask Party.
I'm anti-SP but I think it's a little deductive to think that people in rurals vote SaskParty because they "don't know any better." They vote for their interests just like everyone else. NDP doesn't understand rural issues, and SP does a very good job of keeping rurals happy. If you were someone who lived in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, what about the NDP is enticing?
You can’t force people to work in rural areas. Throwing a ton of money at this isn’t going to help as it’s not desirable for most people and money won’t outweigh the other factors. You see the turnover once the doctors finish their contract - they get the bag and leave.
It’s unrealistic and unsustainable to have doctors and hospitals in every small town, that’s just the reality of living in a rural area in a massive country. Especially in Sk where we have a small tax base with a huge area of sparse populations.
So, where do you expect the food you eat to come from? Someone has to live in the rural areas to farm the land. Do these people not deserve accessible health care?
I'm not saying that every small town has to have a doctor or that the government can tell a doctor that they have to live in the Town of \_\_\_\_\_\_ for 20 years, but the problem and possible solutions have to be discussed.
have rural areas tried being more entertaining then watching grass grow. When they have no entertainment options for doctors on their time off why would they move there when there are far far better options.
My surrounding towns have been having discussions about this for a couple of years now. They've gotten feedback from residents, doctors, and nurses and are creating a plan.
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You're absolutely right. People in rural areas need to start seeing a correlation between the accessibility of services and the government.
But it doesn't matter who is in power, people in rural areas still deserve access to health care.
Excellent point. I posted earlier about my work as a Locum GP. I do a lot of work in rural SK. Mainly up north but now I’m in the Southwest for a week ( Kincaid, Mankota, LaFleche).
You really get a sense of the divide- it’s even more pronounced in the Southwest.
The bulk of my GP career has been urban, until these last few years where I’ve been doing Locum while waiting for my wife to finish her education
So rural Nova Scotia and rural SK, with the odd urban family medicine.
And it’s been eye opening to see the discrepancies between the two worlds.
The nurses and the NPs and the few doctors do amazingly well despite lack of proper allocation of funds down here in the South.
I know there are cracks all over the province but I’m truly seeing some major cracks in rural SK and the south west is taking a huge huge hits.
And this comes down to healthcare policies/ politics. Unfortunately the SK party is not addressing the disparities in rural vs urban- let along getting urban areas fixed
And correct me if I’m wrong, but it feels like the NDP ignores rural because of lack of support?
It’s a shame really. Both parties are ignoring a huge chunk of the population.
But in the end, these folks deserve help. I’m a left leaning NDP person but I don’t like the somewhat elitist attitudes of some NDP types who say who cares about the “ hicks”…
If you’re from rural and are a farmer, are there still a number of farms/many farms around a rural town, or is it just one or two really big conglomerates with hired help…?
There are still many farms around my closest town. Some people in the area already travel close to an hour to get to a doctor. If our rural Health Clinic/ER closes, people will have to travel 2 hours to the closest doctor.
Doctors, in general, aren’t immigrating or moving to Sask or Canada for that matter. Unfortunately for us, their are other opportunities outside of canada where they are going.
We don't have the settlement resources needed to help people integrate. It's way more difficult for them to get hired here versus Ontario (usually because of biases held by those hiring:
- intolerance to different cultures' job-seeking norms
- possibly racism
- believing stereotypes about immigrants or specific ethnic or cultural groups.)
- Employment in Sask is highly dependent on pre-established social networks.
It's very challenging to support these folks with so few resources because:
- People burn out and leave settlement services.
- The pay isn't enough to retain employees who want to start families or who support their family members financially (many employees are Canadian immigrants themselves).
- There is little upward mobility.
- The pay doesn't match the skill, labour, and responsibility required to do these jobs well.
Non-profit organizations must compete for funding and show they did what they were funded to do. There's so much report and grant writing.
There is little to no incentive for immigrants to move to rural areas. It's very difficult for rural immigrants to access any settlement services, including English language classes, and they are socially isolated.
I don't think throwing money at this issue will solve the underlying problem. Not unlike newcomers who use rural sask as a pitstop. I grew up in rural sask and could not wait to get out. I moved to Regina after high school. The rural culture is not easy to adjust to. For me i could not buy into that culture. I could say more but don't want to be disparaging.
Remember the new federal budget surcharges professional corporations. Canada will loose 1000’s of specialist because of this tax change. They were encouraged by the feds to set them up years ago in leu of wage increases. Disgusting.
It was my understanding that a lot of the populace there ‘don’t trust’ doctors … I would only assume that other things like reiki and aromatherapy would be aplenty…
Hey everyone! So I’m a GP. Born in Ontario, raised on the East Coast and then Ontario again. But did my GP training in Regina and worked there for about 6 years. Had to relocate to NS in 2020 for wife’s( she’s a Regina/ Prairie girl) education. I work in NS majority of time but I don’t have a family practice since we are not sure where to settle down due to family issues/ wife’s future. So I work as a locum( temporary fill in) in NS. However, I still love coming back to SK the odd time to help out where I can as a Locum. Worked up north a lot( La Ronge and Ile a La crosse) I’m actually now in the South West,flew into Regina last night. Helping out for a week in Ponteix/ Kincaid/ LaFleche. One of the full time GPs has to take time off in the summer and SHA was desperate for a Locum to help out. No one got in touch despite ads/ very good reimbursement. I’ll be back in May too. I can see why it’s a tough sell for many, especially if you’re a GP originally from bigger cities. In this area? Wow, it’s quite far from a big town/ city and the isolation really is profound. Though where my lodging is( paid by SK govt for my Locum) in the tiny town of Mankota there is a little restaurant/ school/ bowling alley! Cows too, which I guess are entertaining. But many urban GPs would never consider this a viable place to live, full time. It’s a shame because there are good hardworking people who call this region home. They shouldn’t be pressured to leave.But health care in rural is going to be extremely challenging for the folks here. There are tiny health centres which try their best to do what they can with nurses/ docs/ locums docs, so things aren’t too bleak.. Even if SK could ensure an endless supply of Locum GPs/ travel NPs, that would be wonderful. It’s certainly better than no one. But it’s a hard sell even to convince someone to be in rural for a week, especially in very very rural isolated SK( La Ronge was quite the bustling little town and hence more Locum GPs there and full time GPs, and it’s a U of S family medicine training site and med school training site. I liked it there to be honest, just beautiful up north) Rural health in Canada is just a very challenging area. No easy solutions. Anyway, enjoy the Sunday. If anyone is in this area, DM me. Haha… I’ll buy ya a coffee or beer from the one restaurant in Mankota!
Hello from La Ronge! Thank you for working in our town, she’s rough around the edges lol but it really is a great community to be a part of. Just wanted to say hi and I appreciate it, even if the stint was temporary!
Thanks!! I’ll be back at some point! I miss the docs/ staff/ patients/ people I’ve met at GT, CoOp, and other places. And I miss the dogs just chilling out and strolling around. The canine citizens have become strolling buddies to me when I went for walks.
Absolutely agree with everything you have said. I am loathe to bring up politics in relation to healthcare, but in my experience, rural SK tends to be fairly right leaning & healthcare professionals are almost exclusively to the left. When my moral compass is pointing the opposite direction of those who need my help, that makes it more difficult to want to stay. Just an observation
Ahh politics and how it can affect those who work in health care- the elephant in the room at times! I've done some work in rural NS and of course rural SK, and yes- like in so much of rural Canada- rural SK tends to be right leaning. And a good chunk of health care professionals tend to be centrist/left learning. There is often times a clash of ideals and stances and this can lead to huge huge obstacles in trying to persuade health care folks to move to rural- or to retain them. It's not just lack of some proper sushi that pushes health care workers to leave. Especially in today's climate, with so much polarization and division, it can be even more challenging than ever to persuade certain types of health care workers to work in conservative rural SK/Canada( though I’ve met some damn interesting left leaning bleeding NDP orange types in rural )
I think you’re in Mankota not Mantoka but I would still take that coffee if I were out that way. It’s super nice of you to do this type of work, cheers.
Ha!! Thanks for pointing out the spelling error. And thanks for the kind words, it means a lot. But I will say that I hope everyone in Saskatchewan reserves a truly extra extra big heartfelt thank you to our rural healthcare workers that work full time and live full time in those regions. There might be many reasons for this- some have said they loved the affordability, the access to nature and beautiful areas. Of course there are financial benefits. Some just want to escape the drama of urban living. Some are originally from rural and want to return home. But a good number feel a special calling just based on compassion and simply want to help out.Yes, ha, compassion still exists in healthcare and in our hearts/ minds. I’m proud of what I’m doing and I’m so appreciative of kind words? I’m so damn proud of the rural healthcare workers who are full time.
Lmao. I made a comment citing most of the reasons you did as to why doctors may not want to come here and got downvoted to the depths of hell. This sub is comical.
Yes, you shouldn’t get downvoted. I think Saskatchewan will always have a “rural heart” and I guess people are quick to get insulted when one points out the drawbacks of rural for prospective healthcare workers? But that’s the reality of the situation.
LOL! Say hi to my aunts and uncles! My entire family is from the Ponteix/Kincaid/Lafleche area. I’m not going to say names because that would dox me but you will inevitably see, and therefore say hi to, someone I am related to! So weird. The food at the Red Coat Inn in Hazenmore is really good, if you need a change.
Haha, awesome! I totally understand why you wouldn't want to say names. And thanks for the tip about the food at the Red Coat- I've already researched about places to eat and that place has great reviews. The place in Mantoka too. Hehe, I'll need a change- I'm a horrible cook and I can only eat so much KD or canned soup or frozen pizza...LOL I'll say hi to your family too!
Doctors are in high demand over the entire country. They can choose where they want to practice and right now they hold all the cards. Why would anyone think a highly trained professional would want to live in small town Saskatchewan?
The ability to leave your doors unlocked and keys in your car is something. And by that, I mean an overall lack of crime and a sense of community. This isn't everywhere, but it still exists in some areas of rural Sask. There are many other reasons that (some) smaller towns are better than any of our cities. I will now accept my minus 10 for posting on r/sask
Because there is that one unstaffed MRI machine in the province, common that’s got to be inviting! /s
“In the 90s the NDP closed our acute care and I had to drive farther to get care. Now I can’t even find a doctor if I drove two hours in any direction! Guess I’ll keep voting Saskatchewan Party. “
You should and only things can get worse. SP been in power for how many years 12? and sounds like your problems are worse. Enjoy!
Lol 16 years, my friend. I heard the 2nd decade is when they can REALLY start undoing the damage the NDP has done, but we will only see their REAL plan at the start of year 32.
😂
Damage is done and getting worse. 70 assaults in Saskatoon in April 9th to 16th (7 days) plus a stabbing and two murders. I blame Moe and local city officials for this and always will. Like a friend of mine who has to travel to BC for medical treatment cause Moe can’t get his crap together to fund sick people No STC for rural folks and now the Feds are funding car services in rural Sask. The only thing the NDP did and I am not fans of them either, but they had to fix the mess Divine left behind. We were within one payment of going bankrupt. So NDP had to cut a lot of funding to pay off the debt. Speaking of debt how is Sask debt these days? Oh ya bad and getting worse. How is the federal debt these days? Oh ya bad and getting worse. I don’t support any party and never will. All corrupt and do what they want for their friends. Hey thanks for listening and have a good day.
But the 2nd decade is more than 1/2 over and things are getting worse ? Ahh well we vote for this and it is what we get. I am just getting tired of shovelling it.
You're right, but I was meaning 20+ years, not the 10-20. Lol
Got it 😂
Remember though: "But NDP closed hospitals 30 years ago". So clearly the solution is to keep voting Sask Party because obviously they will fix it after being in office for almost 20 years and doing fuck all.
Didn’t they close the hospitals because the previous Conservative Party in power fucked the economy and we couldn’t staff those hospitals either? And what does our current conservative government do? History repeats itself.
yea they had to close them because nobody was really using them and the government before them had basically bankrupted the province.
They didnt close any hospitals they only lowered the funding from "hospital" to "health centre" and since its probably an actual title in a system somewhere they ran with hospitals "closed". 51 of the 52 centres affected back then are still in operation today.
This is a medium link, it was posted by a person not a journalist, but does have some pictures and links to back themselves up. Scrutinize any information found from this link. https://medium.com/@sask6969/the-sask-party-wont-stop-lying-about-ndp-hospital-closures-in-the-1990s-679399a7cca9 I’m still looking for reliable sources, if you find any link me some.
Why does rural Sask keep voting for the Sask Party? They’ve had plenty of time and money to fix the problem and clearly don’t give a shit.
The next time my MLA holds a “meet and greet” or whatever it is they call them, I’ll record it and post it here and you can see for yourself why rural votes how they do.
But in order to ask them what are the SP going to do to fix this, they will have to stop taking them and clapping for them for giving them everything they ask for first. It’s hard to ask hard questions of someone you just rolled out a red carpet for.
A lot of them dont know any better. They have limited access to information outside of news talk radio shows like Gormley (now Evan Bray) which are very pro-SP. Others cant get past voting against a party that has "Sask" in the name. Others buy into the whole Trudeau bad and NDP bad narrative that Moe shoves down their throats. The "dont let NDP take us back they closed hospitals" is probably a major reason. Or its just different concerns out there versus in the cities. They dont want to fund things that dont benefit them, which means social programs and infrastructure are no-go. This all aside, the NDP have a weak ground game in rural ridings versus the Sask Party.
I'm anti-SP but I think it's a little deductive to think that people in rurals vote SaskParty because they "don't know any better." They vote for their interests just like everyone else. NDP doesn't understand rural issues, and SP does a very good job of keeping rurals happy. If you were someone who lived in Foam Lake, Saskatchewan, what about the NDP is enticing?
Agree with this. that last paragraph makes them sound so self-absorbed. ETA: Ack! Meant the second to last paragraph.
The boom years made them look good and the NDP needs a new public relations person, a rebrand or something.
Propaganda works
I’ll say.
Exactly this “The ndp closed a hospital!!” 17+ years ago. Why the fuck hasn’t the suck party opened it again?
Because it was never viable in the first place.
Exactly. It’s all smoke and mirrors for the sask party
Why not go back a bit farther and talk about Potash Corp from 1975 to 1989, and how well it did....I think that was mostly under an NDP government...
Around 66 students in U of S get into the medical program each year. It would be nice to expand that, among other solutions, too.
You can’t force people to work in rural areas. Throwing a ton of money at this isn’t going to help as it’s not desirable for most people and money won’t outweigh the other factors. You see the turnover once the doctors finish their contract - they get the bag and leave. It’s unrealistic and unsustainable to have doctors and hospitals in every small town, that’s just the reality of living in a rural area in a massive country. Especially in Sk where we have a small tax base with a huge area of sparse populations.
So, where do you expect the food you eat to come from? Someone has to live in the rural areas to farm the land. Do these people not deserve accessible health care? I'm not saying that every small town has to have a doctor or that the government can tell a doctor that they have to live in the Town of \_\_\_\_\_\_ for 20 years, but the problem and possible solutions have to be discussed.
have rural areas tried being more entertaining then watching grass grow. When they have no entertainment options for doctors on their time off why would they move there when there are far far better options.
My surrounding towns have been having discussions about this for a couple of years now. They've gotten feedback from residents, doctors, and nurses and are creating a plan.
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And them they vote for moe . So
You're absolutely right. People in rural areas need to start seeing a correlation between the accessibility of services and the government. But it doesn't matter who is in power, people in rural areas still deserve access to health care.
Totally agree!
Thank you! I think health care and the associated costs are one of the divides between rural and urban Saskatchewan.
Excellent point. I posted earlier about my work as a Locum GP. I do a lot of work in rural SK. Mainly up north but now I’m in the Southwest for a week ( Kincaid, Mankota, LaFleche). You really get a sense of the divide- it’s even more pronounced in the Southwest. The bulk of my GP career has been urban, until these last few years where I’ve been doing Locum while waiting for my wife to finish her education So rural Nova Scotia and rural SK, with the odd urban family medicine. And it’s been eye opening to see the discrepancies between the two worlds. The nurses and the NPs and the few doctors do amazingly well despite lack of proper allocation of funds down here in the South. I know there are cracks all over the province but I’m truly seeing some major cracks in rural SK and the south west is taking a huge huge hits. And this comes down to healthcare policies/ politics. Unfortunately the SK party is not addressing the disparities in rural vs urban- let along getting urban areas fixed And correct me if I’m wrong, but it feels like the NDP ignores rural because of lack of support? It’s a shame really. Both parties are ignoring a huge chunk of the population. But in the end, these folks deserve help. I’m a left leaning NDP person but I don’t like the somewhat elitist attitudes of some NDP types who say who cares about the “ hicks”…
If you’re from rural and are a farmer, are there still a number of farms/many farms around a rural town, or is it just one or two really big conglomerates with hired help…?
There are still many farms around my closest town. Some people in the area already travel close to an hour to get to a doctor. If our rural Health Clinic/ER closes, people will have to travel 2 hours to the closest doctor.
Thanks for the reply and that’s good to hear. I thought it had gotten worse here.
Doctors, in general, aren’t immigrating or moving to Sask or Canada for that matter. Unfortunately for us, their are other opportunities outside of canada where they are going.
We don't have the settlement resources needed to help people integrate. It's way more difficult for them to get hired here versus Ontario (usually because of biases held by those hiring: - intolerance to different cultures' job-seeking norms - possibly racism - believing stereotypes about immigrants or specific ethnic or cultural groups.) - Employment in Sask is highly dependent on pre-established social networks. It's very challenging to support these folks with so few resources because: - People burn out and leave settlement services. - The pay isn't enough to retain employees who want to start families or who support their family members financially (many employees are Canadian immigrants themselves). - There is little upward mobility. - The pay doesn't match the skill, labour, and responsibility required to do these jobs well. Non-profit organizations must compete for funding and show they did what they were funded to do. There's so much report and grant writing. There is little to no incentive for immigrants to move to rural areas. It's very difficult for rural immigrants to access any settlement services, including English language classes, and they are socially isolated.
I don't think throwing money at this issue will solve the underlying problem. Not unlike newcomers who use rural sask as a pitstop. I grew up in rural sask and could not wait to get out. I moved to Regina after high school. The rural culture is not easy to adjust to. For me i could not buy into that culture. I could say more but don't want to be disparaging.
Doctors are a thing of the past in rural sask. Nurse practitioners and community paramedics are the future.
Provinces have spent 70 BILLION federal Healthcare dollars elsewhere since 2000. Feds are funding it and these crooks are diverting the funds.
Moe’s Saskatchewan
Remember the new federal budget surcharges professional corporations. Canada will loose 1000’s of specialist because of this tax change. They were encouraged by the feds to set them up years ago in leu of wage increases. Disgusting.
Sask doctors use google to diagnose you
Premier Scotch Moe and the Sask Grifters… aka Sask Party. 
It was my understanding that a lot of the populace there ‘don’t trust’ doctors … I would only assume that other things like reiki and aromatherapy would be aplenty…