Listen to this article
Estimated 4 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A lot has changed since Saskatchewan voters elected the province’s first female MLA more than a century ago.
But the Legislative Building is only now catching up to the concept of equality on one important front: bathroom space.
Just outside the plush-carpeted legislative chamber where MLAs sit to debate and pass legislation, there’s a private, multi-stall bathroom reserved exclusively for elected members, who often have only a few minutes to scurry out during important business to answer a call of nature.
But it’s for male MLAs only.
The women, who now make up 30 per cent of Saskatchewan’s legislative chamber (21 of 61 elected positions) have only a one-stall bathroom on the government side of the chamber.
It means women are often dashing to the bathroom with minutes to spare, only to find it occupied. They then have to search for stall space in a public washroom further away.
Sometimes they’re pregnant or carrying an infant who needs to be changed.
MLAs don’t get maternity leave.
To properly support their constituents, they have to return to their legislative work shortly after giving birth, often with babies in tow.
“When I was pregnant I had morning sickness and I ran to [the single stall] one because it was the closest one and I didn’t want to throw up in my seat,” recalled NDP MLA Kim Breckner, whose son Ian was born in December 2025.
“I was just like, ‘God, I hope nobody was briefing out front,’ and if there was, I might just storm past them. Luckily the one stall was open.”
The longstanding problem is about to be rectified.
Renovations on a new, five-stall private women’s bathroom for MLAs is nearly complete.
Iris Lang, Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, said she has worked in the building for 41 years and watched the number of female MLAs increase while their bathroom space remained unchanged.
“It’s 2026. It’s been a long time that we’ve had a female member. The first one was 1919,” Lang said, referring to Sarah Ramsland, Saskatchewan’s first female MLA, who won her husband’s seat in Pelly after he died.
Lang helped get funding allocated to have her own former office, just outside the chamber opposite the men’s washroom, turned into a multi-stall washroom with a separate, accessible space for families.
“Certainly there are more [female] members and members with young families. There’s toddlers, babies. In order to have some privacy with young children I think it’s very important to have a space like this,” Lang said.
The renovation, estimated to cost about $200,000, is expected to be complete in June.
“We need equal facilities, enough to serve all of us,” Breckner said.
“There’s a lot of instances where we’re going to have to bring our babies, and to see that kind of level of ‘We want you here, we are going to make these facilities available to you,’ it makes this a whole lot easier.”
About 30 per cent of the province’s MLAs are women, and yet they share a single bathroom stall in the Saskatchewan legislature. But that’s about to change. A former office is being converted into a private washroom to give women and children more bathroom space.
Building manager Steve Bata said the renovation is historically sympathetic, keeping the soaring, curved oak windows and intricate fireplace.
“One real cool aspect, I think, is we have a light fixture when you walk in that’s over 100 years old,” Bata said.
He said the renovation was extensive and everything came out of Lang’s former office except the existing fireplace.
Some of the materials used for the rebuild include old marble and historic heritage light fixtures, he said.
“It blends in with the rest of the heritage building. If you were just walking in and had never been in the building, you would think it’s always been part of the building.”
Read the full article here