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Sask. NDP Leader Carla Beck, like many looking back at 2025, said there was “a lot” this year.
She sat down with 980 CJME senior reporter Lisa Schick to talk about the year that was, starting with the highlight for 2025, which she said was her team of Sask. NDP MLAs.
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The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Beck: And how relentless they’ve been at holding the government to account, I think, is the most gratifying thing that I think of when I look back at 2025.
Lisa: It’s been a while since you guys have had a team this big, eh?
Beck: It has been, it’s not only the largest opposition we’ve had in the province since 2011, I would stack this team up against anyone when it comes to how hard they work and the reasons why they work so hard.
This is a team that certainly does their job as the Official Opposition, holds a government to account, brings those criticisms, those concerns about provincial policy and spending forward.
But they are also riding that second horse as well, and really, really interested and dug into finding solutions to some of these issues that are impacting people in the province. And I have not seen that from any Opposition for a very long time. In fact, I don’t remember one that worked this hard.
Years from now, when you look back at 2025, what is the thing that’s going to stand out for you?
Beck: (2025) is the year that we laid the groundwork to become the next government in Saskatchewan.
You’ve certainly been very aggressive this year in positioning yourselves as the up-and-coming government. It’s almost like you’re still in campaign mode. Why have you chosen that tactic when the next election is still three years away?
Beck: There’s a lot of work to do, and this is going to be an incredibly important election, the most important election in my lifetime, for sure. And I’m not that young anymore.
When I look at education, I look at health care, we’ve gone from being leaders in this country to being back of the pack, and the impacts that we’re seeing right across the province.
The amount of people that I have talked to this year who have never really struggled before, never had to think about what they were buying when they went to the grocery store, who now are saying, you know, I’m putting groceries on my credit card, I’m dipping into my savings, my retirement fund, just to pay for the basics.
This is a province that is incredibly rich, we still have a lot of revenue coming into this province, but somehow, through mismanagement, through misplaced priorities, we have more people struggling, working harder and harder, but struggling more than I’ve ever seen. And I grew up in the ’80s, there was a lot of struggle then.
People deserve better and it’s our job, not only to hold the government to account for where they’re failing — and there are many fronts where they’re failing — but I see the next year as convincing people that they deserve better, that better is possible, and that the Saskatchewan NDP is the team to be able to deliver that positive future the people in this province deserve.
An aerial view of the wildfire damage at Denare Beach. (Linda Lowe/Facebook)
There were a number of different private members’ bills that your team introduced this year, is there one that sticks out for you?
Beck: I know you asked for one, I’m going to say two — first two that came to mind.
Number one is the wildfire bill, and maybe that’s because of what we saw in the north this summer. We were some of the first people to be able to get back into Denare Beach once the okay had gone out to do so, and that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Two things: the devastation, which is on a scale that I can’t even describe. I know some people have seen the pictures, I had seen some of the pictures before, it didn’t compare to the real life.
But also that sense of community spirit. When we were coming into town, the first thing people were doing, after assessing everything that they’d lost, was put a ‘Welcome Back’ sign on. And I just thought that encapsulated the resilience of people in the North, people in this province — they were digging in, helping out their neighbours, and they deserve a plan.
They deserve to have their voices heard. Our bill would create a wildfire strategy that would be updated every year with input from from those on the front line, and make it truly public. We need a plan, but we also need to restore trust with people, because as angry and upset as people were, the number one thing I heard from them is we need to ensure that there’s a plan in place so this doesn’t happen to any other community again. And that’s what that that bill is for.
The other one that came to mind right away was the rent control bill, something that is meant to and would address top of mind issue for the 300,000 renters that we have in this province.
The impact of there being no controls when it comes to rent increases, no effective measures to keep what we’ve seen over the last 41 months, is month over month increases, sometimes people paying 20, 30, 40 per cent increases.
(The bill) would be hugely impactful, this would allow people to, you know, pay for their groceries again, to not have to worry about whether they’re going to keep a roof over their head, and really impacts largely seniors and students and working people in this province.
It’s not a full housing strategy, but it’s something that’s needed right now to ensure that we’re not seeing more homeless folks, or, as we’ve heard, seniors who have retired moving back in with their kids because they simply can’t withstand these increases — largely from out of province, large corporations that do it because they can, and then brag about how much money they’re making in Saskatchewan.
Sask. NDP Leader Carla Beck. (Submitted)
What would you say is the biggest mistake the government made in 2025?
Beck: Again, the wildfires come to mind. But overall, I think the wildfires, obviously were a disaster and a real failure of preparedness on the part of the government, but it’s become across the board, where I see a government that is more and more content to spout lines to say, ‘hey, everything is a-okay. We’re the best ever’, despite all of the evidence to the contrary.
We know that people are struggling in this province. We know that now we’re up to one in four people not being able to access a family doctor. Ridiculous wait times, closures, I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And some of these things are complex and they’re difficult, but I see a government that’s given up trying to actually improve things, and is spending more and more time clapping for themselves and spinning lines.
One thing I hear a lot is, this is a government that has run out of ideas, that has become too focused on themselves and decisions made in small rooms and in places like Regina, and that is the exact opposite of what I want to see from from a government, should I have the privilege of of being the premier of this province. There are solutions out there, but they’re not going to be found in small rooms in Regina, they’re going to be built with the people of this province.
On the flipside of that, what do you think is the biggest success the government had in 2025?
Beck: I did see some moves on interpersonal violence. You know, that’s something, as a former director, a former manager at a women’s shelter, that is close to my heart. We’ll see if those those measures are effective, but it’s the first time I’ve heard them talk about that for a long time.
A good next step would be to heed the recommendations of the review panels that have called for more education in schools, to restore the consent and relationship healthy relationship teachings in our school system.
But that’s one thing that I can point to that at least is raising the right issue, and hopefully we see some some movement on our worst in the country, rates of domestic violence.
The Sask. Party was making a lot of your attendance in the fall, you missed at least 13 of 25 sitting days. At the end of the sitting the explanation was you were doing a lot of meetings and travelling across the province, but can you explain that?
Beck: First of all, I’d be really, really happy to compare schedules with with the premier, or any of the members on the other side.
We haven’t stopped since the last election, and there’s a balance between being in the house, but there’s a lot of work to do. If I’m going to be invited up to a mine in northern Saskatchewan, I’m going to take that chance, because I learn a lot when I’m out and about the province.
There are a lot of people who want to talk to us right now, and you can’t always fit it in. We try to pack as much as we can into 52 weeks, but sometimes you have to take those meetings during the session.
I suspect, if they were being honest in their quieter moments, this government would not for a second think that we didn’t hold them to account this session, because we certainly did, and we will continue to do that.
I also will continue to be around the province, meeting with people in every corner, because we’ve got a lot of work to do. The premier can say what he wants. I did ask him if he missed me at the end of session.
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