Premier Brad Wall makes the rounds in P.A.

“I just can’t thank the people of Prince Albert enough for their leading edge response to the need to make sure people were welcome,” Wall said.

Wall and Jurgens visited the different organizations and agencies to not only thank them, but to also have a “debrief” and respond to feedback and concerns.

One particular concern brought up by the Red Cross dealt with labour mobility between the western provinces.

“There’s some paperwork involved in terms of having Saskatchewan nurses work in Alberta and vice-versa,” Wall said.

While the New West Partnership Trade Agreement, which was implemented in 2013, allows for the three western provinces to recognize each other’s workers, unexpected paperwork delayed some Saskatchewan nurses from going to Cold Lake, Alta. where a shelter was set up.

“It was overcome easily, but there was a little bit of paper work there. I said to the Red Cross that we’ll take that back to the premiers of the other two western provinces … the New West Partnership is about getting rid of these barriers so let’s make sure we don’t have any unintended ones that would affect a crisis response.”

The organizations will have an opportunity to formally communicate their thoughts in a report that they’ve been encouraged to prepare.

The government will also be working with communities to create a review of the fire response and fire policies, said Wall.

Annual caucus retreat in the North

The Sask. Party will be having their annual caucus retreat in Northern Saskatchewan this week.

Wall says the retreat will give the party a chance to review what is coming up in the Fall. Specific discussions will be around healthcare, economy, and highways.

The provincial government will spend a record $842 million on highways projects in 2015.

“We’ve broke our own records in terms of highway expenditure, but the deficit we inherited in terms of highway situations was so great that we know there’s more work to do. There’s a lot more fixing to be done. We have a lot of thin membrane surface that needs to be fixed,” Wall said.

knguyen@jpbg.ca

Follow on Twitter: @khangvnguyen

by Khang Nguyen

Premier Brad Wall makes the rounds in P.A.

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