What will Saskatchewan's MAID bill say? The text isn't public yet
Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill introduces Bill 73 in Regina today, a provincial MAID bill the throne speech says would “prohibit the use of MAID for certain individuals.”
Saskatchewan is tabling its own medical assistance in dying bill today, and I’m watching it closely.
I was born in Saskatchewan, and this is the sort of thing I’d have expected to come out of Ottawa, not Regina. Eligibility for MAID is set in the federal Criminal Code. But the provinces run the programs, and today’s order paper has Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill moving first reading of Bill 73, The Medical Assistance in Dying Additional Safeguards Act.
The bill text isn’t public yet. All anyone outside government has to go on is one line from the October 27 throne speech, which said the bill would cover “persons under the age of 18 and persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness.”
That same day, the federal government tabled its own bill, Bill C-41, which Global News reports would bar MAID for people whose only condition is mental illness. That expansion is otherwise set to take effect on March 17, 2027, a date Ottawa chose back in 2024, so the federal bill has to pass before then.
So why would Saskatchewan bother? Justice Minister Tim McLeod told 620 CKRM the aim is “to make sure that the legislation that we have here in the province is consistent but also is protecting the interests of the people of Saskatchewan in the way that they expect.” He added that the programs are administered provincially, “and so that’s where we have a place at that table.”
| Paperback Hardcover Kindle |
Cockrill has been the Saskatchewan Party MLA for The Battlefords since October 2020. Premier Scott Moe made him Health Minister when the new cabinet was sworn in on November 7, 2024, after stints in Highways and Education. Battlefords Now reported him saying constituents had asked for additional safeguards.
To be fair, nobody can say yet what this bill does beyond that one throne speech line. The one provision we know about, mental illness as a sole condition, is in Ottawa’s bill too, and McLeod says the whole point is consistency.
But a bill with a title and a minister’s name on it is on the table in Regina today. Ottawa has had this file for ten years and is still amending it. Saskatchewan decided it wasn’t going to wait.
I’ll read the bill when it’s posted and let you know what’s actually in it.
Tamara Lich
After becoming a central figure in the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, Tamara Lich emerged as one of the most recognizable voices challenging Canada's pandemic response. As the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act, Lich found herself at the centre of a national debate over civil liberties and government power. She is also the author of the bestselling book Hold The Line: My Story From The Heart of The Freedom Convoy. Now reporting for Rebel News, she covers politics, government actions, and grassroots movements across Canada.
https://www.theconvoybook.com/Featured Stories
