Sask. NDP focuses on mental health and addictions as critic roles are shuffled

Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili has given his newest MLA a critic role.

Yens Pedersen, a Regina lawyer who won the Regina Northeast byelection on September 12, is now the NDP critic for agriculture and environment.

Meili announced a shuffle of his party's critic roles Tuesday morning.

Other changes include the addition of a critic for mental health and addictions. Saskatoon Riversdale MLA Danielle Chartier will take on that role. Saskatoon Fairview MLA Vicki Mowat will become health critic.

Chartier said the party wants to give mental health and addictions the "prominence it deserves".

Meili said the province has paid "lip service" to mental health without following through.

"The number of people in Saskatchewan struggling with depression, anxiety or high rates of suicide, these are numbers that don't have to be happening but we need to actually take the steps to change it," Meili said.

Meili also said his party will focus on agriculture and issues facing rural Saskatchewan. He pointed to Pedersen, who grew up on a farm near Cut Knife, Sask., as an asset due to his "rural roots."

"We no longer believe that rural Saskatchewan is the Saskatchewan Party's pure territory. They are taking rural Saskatchewan for granted. When we are out in rural Saskatchewan we hear more and more frustration with the direction of this government."

Trent Wotherspoon will be the finance critic and Nicole Rancourt moves into a role as critic for social services.

Here are the roles of the remaining NDP caucus members:

• Ryan Meili: Critic for Executive Council and Office of the Premier, Francophone Affairs;

• Carla Beck: Deputy Leader; Critic for Education, Advanced Education.

• Buckley Belanger: Critic for Highways and Infrastructure; Energy and Resources.

• David Forbes: Critic for Ethics and Democracy.

• Warren McCall: Critic for First Nations and Métis Relations.

• Nicole Sarauer: Critic for Justice; Corrections and Policing.

• Cathy Sproule: Deputy Whip, Critic for Crown Investments Corporation, the Global Transportation Hub, the Regina Bypass and SaskPower.

• Doyle Vermette: Whip; Critic for Northern Saskatchewan.