Sometimes good things can be achieved even from
the Opposition side of the Legislature
At the end of June, the Official Opposition
Saskatchewan Party joined with breast cancer patient and Humboldt
resident, Vicki Graf to call on the government to use its windfall
surplus to fund Herceptin – a lifesaving breakthrough breast
cancer treatment drug – under the Saskatchewan drug plan.
The NDP government’s response at that time
was that it would make a decision in some months. The concern at
the government’s position stems from the fact that there is a
narrow window of time under which the drug is effective in
preventing the recurrence of the most aggressive forms of breast
cancer. As more and more women came forward, we decided to hold
another press conference to urge the government to make a decision
in a more urgent manner to ensure the maximum number of
Saskatchewan women could be helped.
The BC government has approved funding of the
drug, PEI and Nova Scotia were approving case-by-case use of the
drug, and the Ontario government was days away from doing the
same. We issued an advisory about our pending press conference
with courageous Saskatchewan women who were willing to come
forward and call on the NDP government to do the right thing.
Immediately, the NDP government announced
$3.4 million in funding to cover Herceptin. We went ahead with
our press conference in Saskatoon on July 22nd, and I
was honoured to be able to share the good news with these amazing
women and their families. Due to their courage and our own
efforts, the government was forced to do the right thing. Here’s
an excerpt from the post-media coverage of that event. Sometimes
the system works!
DAVID KIRTON: Host (CJME/CKOM radio)
So let me ask the
two of you, Debbie first and then Vicki I want you to jump in at
that point. Give me your thoughts about politics. Politics
played a big part in this. Vicki you went to the Saskatchewan
Party and this is where I think people can get an idea of just how
effective an Opposition can be but also maybe get an idea that a
government can listen. Debbie the politics did play a part but
politics actually resolved it too.
DEBBIE PANKO-GIBSON (BREAST CANCER
PATIENT)
Yeah and I’m not
a very political person and you tend to think that it’s a big
machine and you don’t realize that there are people working for
that machine and the people that I dealt with were super…….
DAVID KIRTON: Host
I’ll bet it is.
Vicki Graf, if nothing else I guess it puts kind of a human face
on this whole political scene sometimes.
VICKI GRAF (BREAST CANCER PATIENT)
I don’t know, I
guess I don’t want to take the credit for it.
DAVID KIRTON: Host
I know and I’m
not giving you all of the credit for it. But I’m giving the
Saskatchewan Party for it for being an effective Opposition.
VICKI GRAF (BREAST CANCER PATIENT)
You know what I
give it to them to because they were just fantastic. I went to
them and in no time at all I had received a call actually from
Terry Gudmundson (Saskatchewan Party director of research) from
Regina and she said, Vicki do you think you can do this? I know
it’s a hard time. I just said I don’t have a choice, I have to do
this. And I have to do this for me and I have to do this for the
other women as well.
Dialysis
Unit
Our constituency office has taken several
calls in recent weeks regarding the dialysis unit at the Cypress
Regional Hospital in Swift Current – often pertaining to cases
where local residents commute several times per week for treatment
in other centres (ie. Regina). I am awaiting a response to a
letter I have written to the CEO of the Cypress Health Region
requesting an update on the status of the dialysis program in
Swift Current. If you are a dialysis patient of the Cypress
Health Region with questions or concerns, please
contact my office.
CAIS
Funding
As I write this report to you, I have also
learned that the provincial government has announced it is going
to fund its full share of the 2004 CAIS program. This is
something we worked hard all Spring to urge the government to do.
The Official Opposition Saskatchewan Party believes that if you
sign on to a federal provincial program, you must be prepared to
fund it. Thank you to the many farmers and ranchers who contacted
their MLA’s across the southwest in recent months to voice their
concerns about this issue.
Questions/Comments?
