MOOSE JAW — A question about health care during the chamber of commerce’s political forum was personal for Jasmine Cameron since she believes the poor service she received has contributed to her terminal cancer.

The Moose Jaw and District Chamber of Commerce hosted a discussion for all Moose Jaw-based provincial election candidates at the Golden Nugget Centre on Oct. 15, with both Sask. Party and NDP candidates in attendance but none from the Green Party.

The chamber asked the candidates questions, while it also invited the roughly 60 residents in attendance to submit written questions.

Cameron directed a question to Sask. Party candidate Tim McLeod, although the other candidates could offer rebuttals or comments, too.

She pointed out that the Sask. Party invested $7.6 billion in this year’s health-care budget, while it had hired roughly 1,700 health-care workers during the past few years provincially and 156 locally. She wanted to know what effects these actions had had on waiting listings and overall health outcomes.

McLeod replied that that spending was a record amount, while it was double what the NDP was spending its last year of government in 2006-07. Furthermore, the 156 new workers hired here included 88 nurses, 56 care aides and 12 lab technicians.

“We fully acknowledge that we have more work to do, but we have a plan that is working. I know the NDP, in their plan, are talking about hiring more people, but we’re already doing that,” he said. “We’ve been doing that for a couple of years now.”

The Sask. Party, if elected, plans to continue investing in the system by training more people locally, recruiting people from abroad, incentivizing people to take hard-to-fill positions and expanding part-time positions to full-time ones, McLeod added.

With wait times, McLeod said more workers and general health-care increases will lead to decreases in wait times, which is something the government is seeing. He noted that the province has a “two-for-one system,” where for every patient that private service providers help, they must provide two free scans publicly. This is “significantly chewing” through waiting lists.

“But increasing the investment in health care, by adding more diagnostic machinery, by adding more diagnostic staff, we can further reduce those wait times,” he added.

“It’s unfortunate that you haven’t talked to those who have been in those wait times and who are experiencing the health care (system),” Cameron said, with some of the partisan crowd applauding in agreement.

McLeod replied that he is always happy to speak with people, respond to emails and keep his door open, and since they are friends, she has his personal number. He noted that he can’t address constituents’ problems if they don’t bring them to him.

“I take that very seriously, not just for friends but for all constituents,” he said, before Cameron interrupted and said she appreciated his comments even though when she did contact him, he allegedly sent her a 1-800 number, which prompted more applause from the partisan crowd.

Becoming emotional, she said she had sent him further messages, while her concerns came from the fact she was dealing with stage 4 breast cancer due to a misdiagnosis.  

“… it took me two years to get me the right scans. I’m 42 years old, and here I am trying to say one thing and it comes to, ‘Oh, you gotta email me,’” she said emotionally. “It’s so sad where our government is right now. I never want to see anyone else go through this … . It’s happening more and more every day.”

McLeod apologized for her situation and offered to help her as best he could to acquire the services she needed.

Cameron told MooseJawToday.com afterward that the health-care system had failed her, while since her first diagnosis two years ago, she has been fighting to receive follow-up scans but has been denied because of her age and because she “looked healthy.”

“And then I finally got in and it was determined that it was metastatic and moved,” she said. “So, again, if I didn’t advocate for myself, I could be in a totally different situation a year down the road where maybe I couldn’t get that extra year out of my (life).”

She added that she appreciated McLeod’s offer of support, while her intent was not to attack him but to remind everyone that — even with great front-life staff — the province needs to prioritize fixing health care.

The provincial election is Monday, Oct. 28.