Weedmark appointed Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Health
February 10, 2025, 1:03 pm
Moosomin-Montmartre MLA Kevin Weedmark has been appointed the Legislative Secretary to the Minister of Health.
“As Legislative Secretary I will be working with Saskatchewan Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill and Rural and Remote Health Minister Lori Carr in various areas,” said Weedmark last week after the appointment was announced.
“I sat down after the caucus meeting on Tuesday with the two of them and we came up with a plan. I’m going to start sitting in on stakeholder meetings with them with the view to being able to take some of those meetings off their plate. So I will be meeting with various groups who are coming to the health ministry with issues, and I will be attending events on their behalf.
“Health is a big portfolio. There are a lot of areas it covers, and a lot of stakeholders to meet with, a lot of events to attend. I will be helping the two of them spread themselves a little bit farther. I will be taking some meetings on their behalf, occasionally speaking on their behalf and helping out in any way I can.
“The main responsibilities will be simply standing in for them in cases where they can’t be there. So that might be speaking at an event or it may be meeting with a group of doctors, meeting with a health care foundation—speaking at both public events and private meetings in place of the ministers, and then relaying the information from those events back to them. So the three of us are working as a team. I will help them spread themselves further, it’s as simple as that.”
Weedmark says this will be a new challenge for him.
“The different thing about this role is I’ve got a lot of committee appointments, and most of my committee appointments have to do with the management or economic side of things. Most of my committee appointments are to do with the economy. I’m on the Cabinet Committee on the Economy and the Standing Committee on the Economy. They deal with economic issues. I’m on the Board of Internal Economy, the House Services Committee and the Caucus Management Committee. They deal with management and budgets. So a lot of my appointments up to this point have been in that area.
“In this area, when the premier reached out, he mentioned recruitment in the health care field as being one area that he thought I might be able to help with. So this is a bit of a different appointment in that everything up to this point has been focused on economics and management and business. Health is a totally different realm. It’s something that I’m also very interested in.
“One of my legislative colleagues reached out and said, ‘This is wonderful Kevin, this is obviously something you have a passion for.’ And my reply was ‘I have a passion for too many things.’ I’m very interested in a lot of things. I’m sure I have a lot to learn on the health file, but it’s going to be very, very interesting to be involved.
“It’s certainly going to add to my work load. Already as MLA I’m doing a lot of events and a lot of meetings across the constituency. I have been doing a lot of events in Regina and around the province on behalf of the government already, and on behalf of various ministers. And now this is another role that is going to add to my workload.”
“It’s exciting. It’s going to be interesting. There are so many different duties of an MLA, the challenge will be working this into my schedule. On Wednesday I had some meetings set up on the health file and at the same time had to work that around a call with the chief of Carry The Kettle First Nation, as I am the liaison between Carry The Kettle and the provincial government as they respond to the tragedy there.
“The health file is one more thing to add to my list of duties. I’m definitely not going to have a slow day for the next four years.”
What does Weedmark think the biggest challenge will be with his new role?
“Basically learning the file inside out,” he said. “I’ll start by sitting in with the ministers on some meetings and see how they respond to issues that are raised at meetings. There will be briefing notes for each meeting I attend. I’ll try to learn from them and then be able to take on some of those meetings on their behalf.”
Weedmark says he is happy he was chosen for the responsibility.
“It’s a smaller caucus and we have a lot of new members so some of those new members are being called on to fulfill bigger roles more quickly than they have had in the past. But we have a great team. Every Sask Party MLA is a committed advocate for the communities they serve and a committed team player for the government caucus. We all have our roles to play and every one of those roles is important.
“I think my energy and enthusiasm are what I’d like to bring to this role. I like to solve problems. I like to put people together to solve problems. I like to look at issues in new ways to come up with creative solutions. I believe that there is a solution to every problem. So I’m going to bring that attitude and a lot of enthusiasm into this role and I hope I can make a difference for the people of Saskatchewan.
“It feels great. It’s wonderful. I was very pleased when the premier gave me a call and told me he was going to be appointing me to this role. My reply to him was ‘thank you for your trust in me.’ It means a lot that after just a few months as an MLA, he has enough trust in me to give me this role. Very quickly after being elected, I was appointed Deputy Government Whip, I’m on five committees, and now I have this role as a legislative secretary to the Ministers of Health.
“It feels good that people are seeing some potential in me and I’m just going to do everything I can to live up to those expectations.”
