Saskatchewan premier Moe visits Shaunavon
Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe made his first official visit to Shaunavon Oct. 12 as the leader of the province.
Moe was in town for a special Premier's supper at the Crescent Point Wickenheiser Centre on Friday night. The event drew about 110 people, including constituents from across the Cypress Hills riding.
The event was hosted by Cypress Hills MLA Doug Steele and the local SaskParty constituency association.
Also in attendance were Swift Current MLA Everett Hindley, Estevan MLA Lori Carr (Saskatchewan Minster of Highways and Infrastructure) and Wood River MLA David Marit (Saskatchewan Minister of Agriculture).
Moe visited Shaunavon and several other Southwest communities exactly a year ago while campaigning for the SaskParty leadership.
He said he was thrilled to be invited back to the region and was looking forward to meeting again with local residents.
"It's been about a year since I have been here at the beginning of what was quite a long leadership race within our party and a lot has happened since then," said Moe. "I'm just so happy to be back in the community of Shaunavon and in the Southwest."
Moe said Friday's gathering was an opportunity to say "thank you" to area residents for their important contributions to the province.
"I'm bringing a message that in many ways is a 'thank you' for everything that the people of Shaunavon and the people of Saskatchewan do to build and grow our economy," said the Premier. "The recipe we have here in the province is working. We see our wealth is increasing in the province, our economy is stronger than it was a decade ago, and our population is stronger than a decade ago - there are about 160,000 more people living here in Saskatchewan now."
"The recipe of increasing our exports, increasing our wealth, increasing our careers, increasing our population and increasing our opportunity for that next generation to have a career in a community in Saskatchewan, is working," he added.
Moe also addressed several other ongoing issues being faced by the province. Among them was the country's legalization of marijuana which officially went into effect on Wednesday (Oct. 17).
Moe noted that the legalization was a federal government initiative, but that Saskatchewan was prepared to deal with the changes.
"We're ready here in the province of Saskatchewan for what will be the legalization of marijuana," stated Moe. "Whether we agree with that or not is a whole other conversation. But we are as ready as we can be in our communities and we will be monitoring this closely in the weeks and months ahead."
Moe also spoke about recent elections that have seen changes to provincial governments across the country. Those changes, coupled with other circumstances, have led more provinces to join Saskatchewan in the fight to oppose the federal government's proposed carbon tax.
"We see the face of our provincial leadership across the nation is changing to some degree," said Moe.
"It was about two years ago that Saskatchewan was a lone province when it came to our not moving forward with a carbon tax. We now see that has very much changed with four Atlantic provinces that are out of compliance with the federal government's carbon backstop. We see Ontario out, we see Manitoba out, we see Saskatchewan still out, and now we see Alberta out of the federal climate tax program. So we are very much seeing a different world from the provincial leadership perspective than we have seen not too long ago."
Moe also addressed recent debate surrounding the issue of a "living wage."
NDP leader Ryan Meili has said he is committed to introduce and phase in a $15 minimum wage if his party forms government in the next Saskatchewan provincial election.
The province's minimum wage increased by 10 cents from $10.96 to $11.06 per hour on Oct. 1, 2018.
"The fact of the matter is that with a $15 an hour wage . . . there is actually a cost in the nation of about 65,000 jobs," said Moe. "Five to fifteen thousand of those jobs are here in the province of Saskatchewan."
"We will continue to advocate for careers in our communities and careers in the industries that are important to Saskatchewan," he added, listing agriculture, energy, manufacturing and mining as vital provincial industries. "But we are by no means looking at introducing a $15 minimum wage, a wage that would ultimately mean job loss in communities - communities just like Shaunavon."
Steele thanked Moe for making the trip to Shaunavon, noting the Premier's busy schedule.
Steele said it was a great opportunity for local residents to meet the premier on a personal level.
"It's a great honour to have him here," said Steele.
Steele thanked everyone involved with helping organize the evening, including the local ridings' SaskParty executive who handled many of the event's details.
The evening supper included speeches by many of the visiting dignitaries, including the Premier. The evening gathering also featured several fundraising activities for the Shaunavon Perk Up Our Parks Committee, with proceeds from those activities going to the group's splash park project.