Moe: Synergistic relation between rural and urban enterprise in province

Moe has been raising the issue of greater provincial autonomy for Saskatchewan on various matters since the recent federal election, which resulted in a minority Liberal government. He believes the idea of more provincial autonomy should not just be a matter of discussion while there is a Liberal government in Ottawa.

“I think it’s an issue that we should actually have a conversation about indefinitely,” he said. “We are a strong and growing province and our needs are changing.”

He referred to the synergistic relationship that has developed between rural and urban Saskatchewan. The province’s natural resources, agricultural production, energy and mine products are in rural areas, but the process to add value to these products will take place in urban centres.

“So this is a very synergistic relationship that we have between rural and urban Saskatchewan and it’s one that we feel we have to constantly have the discussion around,” he said. “Do we have the best tools as a province to enhance the opportunity for us to grow the investment, to grow the population, to grow the careers and really grow the opportunity for that next generation.”

Moe was asked if there is any possibility of provincial funding for Dorie’s House, a local initiative to provide emergency shelter for homeless youth in southwest Saskatchewan. He indicated that the provincial government will continue to evaluate the changing need for services in communities.

“In the same way that I say the relationship between rural and urban Saskatchewan has changed over the last number of years, the relationship on the services that are required in our communities changes as we move through the years as well,” he mentioned. “So we always need to be aware of that. We need to work with our CBOs and we need to fully support our CBOs in ways that we can as a provincial government, and as we near the provincial budget I think you will find examples of how we are stepping forward to not only ensure that we are supporting our current CBOs, but ensuring that we’re always having a conversation with respect to CBOs that are looking to be funded or come on stream in the future.”

Swift Current MLA Everett Hindley added that he recently attended a meeting hosted by Southwest Youth Emergency Shelter, the non-profit community organization responsible for the Dorie’s House initiative. The meeting was attended by many stakeholder organizations from Swift Current and the region, and there was a really good conversation about services offered, duplication of services and gaps.

“So I think it was good to have that conversation to discuss where we’re at right now, where are the gaps, where are there potentially opportunities,” he said. “I committed to the folks there at the meeting and said I’ll be reporting this back to the Ministry of Social Services. I think there’s another meeting coming up here in April and we’ll just keep working forward on it.”