Updated 8 a.m. August 12, 2025
Some residents of northern Saskatchewan where their community has been decimated by wildfire are expressing outrage over the Saskatchewan Party golf tournament scheduled for Tuesday in Elk Ridge. The Saskatchewan Party golf tournaments can serve as fundraisers for the party.
In a statement presented via the opposition NDP, Linda Lowe, who has lived in Denare Beach for 31 years, pointed out that her family isn’t golfing, boating or taking a family summer holiday because they are picking up the pieces after the Wolf fire. She also says, “During the height of the fires, the support from the provincial leadership was inconsistent, delayed and quite simply embarrassingly inadequate.”
Rhonda Werbicki’s family home of 26 years burned to the ground at Denare Beach and in her statement she criticizes Premier Scott Moe for not having gone north to see the devastation for himself. She says, “You are our Premier. This is a job you wanted. Now do your job.”
Those impacted by the fires say the resources to recover have been limited with residents and the municipality taking on the financial burden of clean up, repairs, and the fees for lifting SaskPower lines for each of the replacement homes. They also note that while $20 million was allocated for recovery there are questions about how that money will be distributed among the various communities impacted by wildfire in the summer of 2025.
The NDP contends the golf tournament should never have been planned and now should be cancelled. More than 200 homes in Denare Beach were destroyed in the Wolf fire. As of 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday there are 85 wildfires in the province and 17 are not contained.
The provincial government in an emailed statement responded saying in addition to Premier Scott Moe being in northern Saskatchewan Monday, various provincial Cabinet ministers including the Minister of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety, the Minister of Crown Investments Corporation, the Minister of Environment, and the Minister of Government Relations have met with northern communities impacted by wildfires.
The statement says that the provincial government understands the challenges of this year’s wildfire season as well as its devastating impact and that they are committed to supporting the recovery process in northern communities pointing to the $20 million dollar commitment previously announced. In addition, the Province donated $15 million to the Canadian Red Cross to bolster its assistance to wildfire evacuees. The province also pointed to the Community Resiliency Centre in Denare Beach implemented to support residents as well as clearing debris and removing hundreds of vehicles lost to fire.
The Saskatchewan Party government fired back at the NDP noting that the New Democrats have already held two of their own golf tournaments on June 13th and June 24th, with another next week on August 21st with Leader Carla Beck.
Additional Sask Party golf tournaments planned this summer include the Meadow Lake Constituency 17th Annual Golf Tournament which takes place this Saturday, the following Monday, on August 18th, is the Regina Saskatchewan Party Day of Golf . Finally on September 3rd there is the 2025 Saskatoon Sask Party Golf and Networking Event.