The provincial NDP is calling on Premier Scott Moe to find a new education minister. Education critic, Carla Beck says the final straw for the opposition to call for a new education minister was when Dustin Duncan stated during a news conference last week that he met with the Saskatchewan School Boards Association to discuss a delay to the start of classes in the new year, although the opposition says this was a lie when hours later, the SSBA said that wasn’t the case. “Simply put, when you don’t do your job, you don’t get to keep your job. It’s a simple as that and government ministers should not be an exception.” says Beck.
Saskatchewan was one of the only jurisdictions in the country to not delay the return of school in the new year or move to online learning. Other provinces like B.C. and Ontario pushed back their start dates or opted for remote learning amid a surge in COVID-19 infections driven by the new Omicron variant. The opposition would like to see the reinstatement of the province’s Education’s Response Planning Team and to get N95 masks out to schools to protect students and staff.
Duncan is the second minister the NDP has called on to resign during the pandemic. The opposition has requested that health minister Paul Merriman resign from his position a number of times dating back to last summer.
A statement from the provincial government in response to the accusation that the education minister didn’t tell the truth doesn’t actually clarify or defend Dustin Duncan’s statement.
The official statement as released from the Premier’s Press Secretary, says that while the NDP continues to play politics by taking pointless and gratuitous cheap shots, education minister Dustin Duncan spent Monday doing precisely what he was appointed to do – working with and for the education sector. Both Premier Moe and Minister Duncan were in La Loche, Both Premier Moe and Minister Duncan were in La Loche, where they announced the community will have a new Ducharme Elementary School built alongside the existing Dene High School in time for classes to start in September, 2024.
