Saskatchewan Leaders Share Biggest Stories of 2025

As we turn the page on 2025, Eagle Feather News invited some of Saskatchewan’s most prominent leaders and newsmakers to reflect on the biggest stories of the past year, as well as look towards the most important issues of the upcoming year.

Note: Responses edited for length.

CHAD BACHYNSKI, Mayor of Regina

Reflecting on 2025, two stories truly stand out for Saskatchewan. The Roughriders’ Grey Cup win was an incredible moment of pride and celebration, a reminder of the passion and resilience that unite us. At the same time, the wildfires in northern Saskatchewan were among the most impactful events of the year. The devastation was heartbreaking, and my thoughts remain with those affected. I am grateful that Regina was able to support evacuees during such a challenging time.

Looking ahead to 2026, construction remains a top priority for me. I campaigned strongly on this issue, and early in the new year I plan to dive deeper into how we execute projects, striking the right balance between cost effectiveness, impact, and efficiency. I have already started conversations with my colleagues, and together we will work toward a more stable foundation for growth. In this role, I have learned that flexibility is key, but my focus on improving how we build and serve our community will remain front and centre.

I am also excited to see the return of a major stadium concert at Mosaic in September, featuring Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters. This will be the first concert of its kind since 2019, and it is a great opportunity to bring people together and showcase Regina as a destination for world class events.

BUCKLEY BELANGER, Liberal MP, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River

For me, the biggest story in Saskatchewan this past year was the strength and resilience of our northern communities. The wildfire season hit hard. In northern Saskatchewan, emergencies aren’t distant news. They’re personal. They’re about families having to leave home with little notice and whole communities pulling together to keep people safe. Recovery takes time, even when the smoke clears. I want to thank all of the first responders and community leaders for all their efforts to keep our people safe.

At the same time, I think another important part of the story this year has been northern Saskatchewan and the province as a whole being heard more clearly in Ottawa. I’ve worked hard to be a hands-on partner for northern leaders, First Nations, and local communities, and to turn those conversations into concrete federal support that actually makes life better on the ground. You can see that in the announcements we’ve made here in Saskatchewan over the last few months: $105 million to expand high-speed internet to over rural 6,500 homes, $69.5 million for infrastructure projects through the Canada Community-Building Fund, and support for community priorities like Kitsaki Hall in La Ronge. Plus real progress on affordability and services — expanding the province’s school food program, extending $10-a-day child care, backing virtual healthcare options for rural and remote areas, and continuing on the path of economic reconciliation, including a major settlement agreement with James Smith Cree Nation and restitution for Île-à-la-Crosse residential school survivors. But there’s plenty more work to do, and I’m committed to getting it done.

As we look ahead to 2026, I’m looking forward to building on that momentum in a way people can actually feel in their everyday lives — especially in northern Saskatchewan. First, I’m focused on recovery and readiness. We need to take lessons from this year’s wildfire season seriously and make sure northern communities are better supported before the next emergency, not just after.

Second, I’m anticipating real progress on housing, infrastructure, and key projects our communities need. When those things are neglected, everything gets harder — attracting nurses and teachers, keeping young families close to home, and helping seniors stay in their communities with dignity.

Third, I want to see more progress on closing the distance on connectivity. Reliable high-speed internet isn’t just a ‘nice-to-have’ in northern areas. It means access to health care, education, jobs, and staying connected to family. We’ve made major progress, and 2026 is going to be the year that progress shows up in more homes and more communities.

CYNTHIA BLOCK, Mayor of Saskatoon

For me as Mayor, I think the biggest problem-solving we have been doing is around homelessness and community safety. A lot of work has been done over the last year to improve things even though we know we continue to have challenges. I am grateful that we are building strong relationships with all orders of government including Indigenous government – I think that the way forward is to work in collaboration together. And also to figure out ways how we can move aside and let Indigenous leadership do what they do best. We certainly learned that this past summer as Indigenous Peace Keepers helped to support the mini navigation hub at CUMFI – that made such an enormous difference having Indigenous leadership able to support the relatives in the area.

Homelessness is crisis. We continue to see those numbers rise. We want to make sure the people who come to our city seeking opportunity and hope, find it. And increasingly, we understand that’s not the case. When people get evacuated during wildfires in the summer, and they come to our city and we welcome them, we are happy to have them here. Many of them choose to stay. That’s wonderful but also sad because some of them don’t have homes to go back to. But we’re not able to figure out ways to have those folks safely housed and find opportunity here – and that means we have a lot of work to do. We need to work with the provincial government, and potentially with leadership form the north, to be able to find a better way to support people in our city.

Looking at 2026, it will be housing, homelessness, and community safety. I’m also excited about some of the awesome events coming to Saskatoon over the next years, including the Country Music Awards, and we’re getting a Rider game in the spring. But, housing and homelessness are connected and I think that our inability to have enough housing in general is contributing to some of the homelessness that we’re seeing. 2025 was among the best construction seasons for homes in more than a decade, and that will help to shake out affordability for a lot of folks. I think it will help in the overall housing continuum and hopefully we will start to see some of the rents become more affordable. All of those will play into having some optimism going in 2026.

We are also looking forward to, over the next year or two, adding new resources to community safety, and that is inclusive of Indigenous Peace Keepers as part of our Business District. I’m really looking forward to having better opportunities for people who are unhoused to connect to services, because it’s Indigenous-led. I think that’s a lens we haven’t had before, and I’m hoping to see some big improvements in that regard.

LORILEE DAVIES, Chief of Police, Regina Police Service

For the police service, the fact that our crime statistics are down double-digit numbers throughout the course of the year – we’re down 14 percent in both crimes against property and crimes against the person. That’s a good news story. I think that people often hear the odd news clip and have the perception that the community is becoming more unsafe, but the reality is, we are having an impact and making a dent in some of these crimes, so I think looking forward to 2026 we want to keep up some of that momentum.

I know we’ve seen some of these similar decreases across the country, so it’s not something we can personalty take credit for, but I think there are a couple things that I think we’re doing well that are having an impact. One, when we see an area pop up, we really try to direct our officers to pay attention those areas. And, I think our visibility of officers – our patrol is getting to the point where we’re almost where we need to be, and that leads to a little more free time to do things like focusing on proactive areas that we know are having an issue.

Looking to 2026, member wellness is huge focus for me. We’re rolling out additional emotional resiliency training early in 2026. This is program that has been statistically shown to be very successful, so I’m very excited about that. And last year we started some work around engaging with the community around our camera registry program and working with our community associations. That’s work I want to see increasing in 2026 and finding out how we can engage with citizens in their neighbourhoods, and help them take ownership with safety in their community.

MICHELLE LECLAIR, Vice-President, Metis Nation-Saskatchewan

The Île-à-la-Crosse residential school settlement, that was huge. The survivors had been waiting over 20 years for any kind of development. Their court case had gone on and on, and then the lawyer who had the case didn’t have it certified, so it sat for 20 years. So, four-and-a-half years ago, myself, and the Survivors Committee, changed course. We hired a new lawyer, we filed a fresh action against Canada and Saskatchewan. Canada came to the table last year to settle, and Saskatchewan followed this year. I’ve always said that until the Île-à-la-Crosse Residential School was settled, that there was no Reconciliation in this province and country. I know there’s other residential schools that need to be addressed, but for us, this is a huge huge story, and it really is Reconciliation in action that they finally said ‘okay we’re going to do whats right here.’

For the survivors, without money, although they need to be compensated and will, it’s the acknowledgement of their experience. And I think that’s a huge part that plays into any settlement with survivors. It’s acknowledgement of the harm and suffering they’ve experienced and that the trauma is real. That speak volumes.

In 2026, we now have a new Liberal government who are different – there’s a lot of pressures in the world now with tariffs and our relationship with the US, and that’s sort of guiding the new Liberal government, which is understandable. I think building a new relationship with Canada will be super important in terms of getting back to the table in negotiating our Treaty, and so I think that will play a huge role in the way we will go forward.

CAMERON MCBRIDE, Chief of Police, Saskatoon Police Service

The one that’s most fresh and has garnered the most public attention recently is with regard to our budget, and the fact that our budget, in proportion to the city’s entire budget, is higher than it’s been in recent history. It was a substantial request of the city. And it came on the heels of some things that are beyond our control, like inflation and the arbitration award as it pertains to our police association and their compensation. We came to the budget deliberations for 2026 and 2027 with a significant ask, and understanding the gravity and pressure of that, we really came through with tremendous support from council and our board. With that vote of confidence, and approval of the budget, comes a weight of responsibility as we head into 2026 with how we’re going to capitalize on the things we need to for the budget in the next two years.

The city is growing so fast that the police service has to grow proportionate to that city growth. The number of calls continues to rise, the number of individuals who are experience significant challenges in the community is growing, so we simply have to grow proportionate to that. So then the question – why is the police budget not growing in proportion to the overall city budget? I think that’s a very valid question. The city should see a service that more accurately represents the current population of the city, and a core group of police professionals who have the capacity to do things we really value.

In 2026, the biggest thing on my radar is following through with the commitments we made within our budget. Part of it is transit safety. The city has committed a significant amount of money to implement a transit safety initiative. We’ve done some foundational work already but will have to do more work to understand what transit safety looks like in Saskatoon, and build the foundation in 2026, and execute in 2027.

BETTY NIPPI-ALBRIGHT, NDP MLA, Saskatoon-Centre

The biggest story for 2025 is the amount of drug overdoses and deaths from drug overdoses. How many people that I know that have passed away and that have overdosed on these poisonous drugs that are out on the street. We’re losing an entire generation of young people form drug overdoses. Thing are getting worse, it’s really scary.

For 18 years, the Saskatchewan Party has been under-investing in mental health and addictions and because of that under funding, especially mental health, what we’re seeing today is the drug overdose and drug poisoning and the other social issues and its because of that continued under funding of that mental health and addiction.

What’s on my radar for 2026 is a massive expansion of voluntary drug treatment programs. For voluntary treatment spaces for detox, stabilization, in-patient services, sober living, and wrap-around supports, so we can start trying to deal with the drug overdoses and drug poisonings.

It’s what we’ve been calling for. I know the government is investing in only 500 treatment beds for a five-year period. They’re at 300. But we actually need much more than that. If we look at the 18 years they’ve under funded, we actually need so much more than that. We need to create spaces and expand massively for voluntarily in-patient treatment. The wait times are more than six weeks long and we only have a small window for individuals who want help. If we don’t respond to them, we lose them.

Dr. KATHY WALKER, Treaty Commissioner of Saskatchewan, Office of the Treaty Commissioner

For me it isn’t something that makes headlines. It’s the stories that I hear when I’m in communities, when I’m meeting with leadership, citizens, and Elders about all the things that they’re doing to uphold Treaty and implement it. These stories that are the most powerful because they are stories of people who are doing the right thing with little resources. They’re grounded in whats best for their children and grandchildren and future generations.

Another story I want to highlight – Joey Toutsaint. Joey was put in prison at 18 years-old. The main charge for that was a robbery charge from 2009, but after he was incarcerated, he was designated a dangerous offender at 27 years-old, based on one robbery charge. Basically they designated him a dangerous offender without a Gladue report. The dangerous offender designation was based on incidents that happened while he was in jail – and you basically can’t base a dangerous offender designation primarily on the testimony of prison guards. Usually those designations are reserved for the most dangerous repeat offenders. There was an APTN documentary about him calling attention to the fact that he was held in solitary confinement for almost 3,000 days. According to international human rights standards, they’ve essentially outlined solitary confinement as torture. So Canada did move to structural intervention units. But a lot of experts say that’s the same thing as solitary confinement under a different name. So there’s been multiple human rights violations against him. One of the reasons this story is so powerful is the PAGC and Chief of Black Lake Denesuline First Nation Coreen Sayazie have really been working hard to free Joey, and to have a say in his health and wellbeing going forward. They went to his latest parole hearing in December and unfortunately his parole was denied for another year.

For me in 2026, it’s really targeting education, awareness, and the commemoration and renewal of the Treaty relationship. We’ve had a number of commemorations recently – Treaty 4 two years ago, the Treaty adhesions and Treaty 5 this year, and next year is Treaty 6. For a lot the Treaties that have been made, it’s now 150 yeas and counting. So I’m looking forward to continue to work with all the citizens, leadership, and Elders that continue to honour the Treaties and uphold the Treaty relationship because it’s long overdue.