Saskatchewan premier visits various organizations during Swift Current tour
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe had meetings with a variety of organizations during his visit to Swift Current, Feb. 19.
It was part of his four-day tour to different communities around the province in the run-up to the spring session of the Saskatchewan Legislature, which will start on March 2.
He was accompanied by Swift Current MLA Everett Hindley during his visit to the city. Moe spoke about his time in the city during an interview with local media.
“Really just listening,” he said. “Listening to what’s on their mind, their concerns and ultimately how we can continue with the partnership that we have between the provincial government and those businesses that are driving our economy, those community-based organizations that are making life better for people and meeting with our municipal leaders, our partners really in the infrastructure that we provide in our communities and our RMs across the province.”
During the morning he visited the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre and he had a meeting with Swift Current & District Chamber of Commerce board members. He also had a joint discussion with Swift Current Mayor Denis Perrault and RM of Swift Current Reeve Bob Neufeld. The premier made visits to Diamond Energy Services and ETG Commodities in the afternoon.
Moe noted the disruption of rail services by protestors came up during discussions, and businesses were concerned about the impact it will have on them. He had a clear point of view about railway blockades.
“First and foremost, we need to understand that these blockades are not legal,” he said. “They are breaking a law. So there is an opportunity for dialogue with respect to why these blockades are happening in multiple areas across the nation, but at the end of the day they are not legal. … . They have a tremendously negative impact on the Canadian economy. They have a negative impact with respect to the economy here in Saskatchewan.”
An important focus of the upcoming spring session of the Saskatchewan Legislature will be the unveiling of the provincial budget.
“We’re working with our industries and our communities on what needs to be in that budget,” he said. “Obviously we have embarked on a path over the course of the last few years to ensure that we can continue to build strong communities and strong families and a strong province through balancing of that budget. We were able to achieve that last year and this coming year’s budget will also be a balanced budget.”
He added that the upcoming budget will contribute to the building of stronger communities, and there will be a significant amount in the budget for infrastructure investments.
His meeting with the City and RM of Swift Current included discussions about regional opportunities for growth.
“We had discussions with respect to the opportunities for a regional landfill in this area, where a number of municipalities, communities and the City of Swift Current are coming together to have a conversation around is there an opportunity for us to achieve some efficiencies of scale in a regional landfill operation, which other areas of the province have done,” he said.
Moe noted the government’s intention in the upcoming budget will be to continue support for services provided by community-based organizations. These services include support for newcomers as well as services for those in need.
“We’ve had those conversations as well as we find our way through these budget deliberations, ensuring that we are remembering the community-based organizations and how our government supports them, and ensure that we’re sending a signal that we want to continue to support them into the future to enhance and augment the work that they’re doing that are so very important to community after community right across the province,” he said.
He mentioned that immigrants from 100 different countries came to southwest Saskatchewan in the last few years, which highlighted the need for a community-based organization such as the Southwest Newcomer Welcome Centre. He felt the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program is one of the strongest provincial immigration programs in the country, but his government believes there is a need for the province to have greater autonomy over immigration decisions.
“It’s a mature program and it is time for us now to expand that program into having the provincial priorities being met by provincial targets in each of the immigration classes,” he said. “So this is a request that we have with the federal government. We’ll be working with them closely, given our strong track record when it comes to immigration.”
Moe believes there are also other opportunities for Saskatchewan to have greater provincial autonomy, for example with regard to the pension plan in the province and income taxes.
“Not to say that we would make a change with respect to that, but we’re open to considering these types of things, open to considering should Saskatchewan be collecting its own income taxes as opposed to the federal government collecting and remitting it back to the province,” he said. “These are just conversations we’re having in addition to where we’ve already acted, requesting the more autonomy with respect to selecting our immigrant classes and Saskatchewan taking a lead role in advocating for our exports and our investment attraction around the world.”