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Carla Beck has big plans for 2026.
The Saskatchewan NDP leader sat down with 980 CJME senior reporter Lisa Schick to look ahead to the new year and discuss issues like health care, tariffs and more.
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The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
SCHICK: Did you make a resolution?
CARLA BECK: To find that elusive balance of taking care of myself and throwing myself completely into into the job. There’s a lot of work to do. And just keeping healthy, because it’s a long road to the next election.
Do you have a New Year’s resolution for the NDP?
BECK: We set a pretty good fundraising goal this year: to out-fundraise the Sask. Party. We are going to put everything into it, as as we do when we set a goal. We will continue to be in constituencies and communities right across this province, to do more work than than we did last year. And we set a pretty high bar last year. We’re going to be doing more work towards getting ready for the election. As I promised people on election night just just over a year ago, we weren’t going to stop. We were focused on the next incredibly important election in this province. People have become cynical, I think, over the last number of years. Our job to show them that not only is better possible, better is coming a year from now.
If we sat down again at the end of 2026, what do you want to have accomplished? What do you want to be able to talk about in that interview?
BECK: You’ll continue to see us bring those propositions forward. That’s one thing we heard loud and clear from people. Yes, they knew that things were not going well. They could see it when they went to pay their bills. They could see it when they took their kid to school or didn’t got called to bring their child home because there weren’t supports when they went to get a doctor. People understand that things are not going the way that they should be.
We’re going to continue to bring forward our solutions, built with the people of this province to show them, again, not only is better possible, but “Here’s the plan. This is how we’re going to get there.” We have taken on a lot. We’ve got a health-care consultation going on. I’m not going to suggest that there are simple answers there, but we will not find the answers if we don’t start listening to the communities and the front-line health-care workers, something this government has failed to do in such a spectacular way.
“We were focused on the next incredibly important election in this province,” said Beck about her hopes for the new year. (Liam Richards/THE CANADIAN PRESS)
We are also going to take on the grids and growth plan, looking at what the energy pathway is going to be to not only ensure that we have the energy that we need for today, but to fuel growth into the future. In this province, this is a lot to take on for an official Opposition, even a double the size one, but we’re not messing around (and) certainly not taking anything for granted.
But should we have the opportunity, the privilege of forming government after the next election? I can’t watch things go the way that they’re going in this province any longer. We want to be able to hit the ground running on day one. Probably a lot of opening the books when we get in into government, should that happen. We’ll see what happens from there, but I don’t want to be waiting. I think the people of this province have been waiting long enough for a government that is focused on them and the quality of their lives and the safety and security of their communities. We want to be able to deliver.
In a lot of cases this year, you certainly brought up a lot of problems, but not necessarily specifics when it comes to solutions. Are we going to hear more solutions this year? And I’m thinking particularly of health care.
BECK: We did. Health care and those consultations right now have been going on for a while. That’s not going to be a simple one. I’m not so generous with the government that I’m going to let them copy all of our homework. Ahead of the next election, we have been bringing forward some some solutions, though. I think of our private members’ bill, and we had, I don’t know if it was a record number of private members’ bills, but we certainly had a lot of private members’ bills in this last session. Sometimes private members’ bills are meant to raise an issue or draw attention to an issue, not always, but these ones certainly were pretty laser-focused on things that actually needed to happen.
Jared Clarke, the Sask. NDP’s rural and remote health critic, says it’s unacceptable and dangerous for people in rural Saskatchewan to have to drive around to find an open ER when someone is hurt. Sept. 10, 2025 (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)
In the health-care bill, admittedly a band-aid solution, but the private members’ bill that Jared Clarke brought forward was to have transparency when it came to ER closures and service closures across the province. We’re hearing too many stories of people driving up to their local health centre only to find that ubiquitous-now piece of paper on the door telling them that “Sorry, there’s no staff here,” or “Services aren’t available.” You have to get in your car and drive back down the other direction. That’s a safety measure until we properly staff our hospitals, our health care centres. We did see the government sort of halfway take that up.
Rent control is pretty straightforward. It is as detailed a bill as we could put forward as the official Opposition to address the issue.
For 300,000 people in this province, the wildfire bill also very straightforward, built directly with those who have that knowledge on the front line. All of these bills. If the premier wants to talk about work ethic, if he wants to come back and pass any of those bills, I’ll sit next week to get that done. These were not just to raise an issue or just to complain, bringing those bills forward.
Those were three, off the top of my head, very straightforward bills that the government could have, and frankly should have taken us up on.
Your hopes for Saskatchewan in 2026?
BECK: Tariff turmoil, I think might be the first one. Some predictability (is needed). I know this is a place where people are maybe more than a lot of places optimistic and able to roll with the punches and find a way. This year was a lot. You think of our three major trading partners, tariffs, uncertainty, threats to sovereignty. I hope we get a number of projects on that infrastructure list, because that’s going to be crucial regardless of what happens with those tariffs, to heed that wake-up call and make sure that we are more effectively able to get what we grow and build and manufacture here in this province to market. We’ve got world-class products, world-leading products, but folks here are at a disadvantage if we can’t get it to market, and frankly, it’s something that hasn’t drawn enough attention over the last number of years in this country, and Saskatchewan hasn’t gotten our share when it comes to those projects. Get those ports running effectively, make sure that our product can get to market reliably so that those around the world who know that we grow the best crops in this province, best quality, that they can actually get them on time and reliably. And that’s something we hear all the time.
Pipelines, the electricity infrastructure, those tie-ins (are) crucial as well, to really harness that growth, that potential that we see when we think of mining. We’ve got a forestry industry and a steel industry that are under pressure because of tariffs as well. So the number-one wish is to get that tariff situation straightened out and get that infrastructure started.
“Get those ports running effectively, make sure that our product can get to market reliably, so that those around the world who who know that we grow the best crops in this province, best quality, that they can actually get them on time and reliably,” said Beck.
