The spring sitting of the legislature is over, but Herb Cox has made clear he is interested in participating in many more sessions to come.
Cox has confirmed he is running for a second term as member for the Battlefords in the legislature, a seat he won in the 2011 election by over 1,000 votes.
The incumbent MLA was not opposed for the Saskatchewan Party nomination in the Battlefords at a meeting Wednesday night at the Tropical Inn.
It's a big change from the past two elections, when Cox ran for and won two tough contested nomination battles.
"I'm excited about it and looking forward to it," said Cox. "I've enjoyed this first term, certainly, and look forward to being a part of the Brad Wall government again in the next election."
While it is often commonplace for incumbents to win re-nomination, it doesn't always happen, as sitting MLA Bill Hutchinson found out earlier this year when he lost a contested nomination in Regina Pasqua.
Cox sad he believes one reason for the support he received from his party was he did what he said he would do - "to be the voice of the Battlefords in Regina, and I think that's what I've done."
Cox is the 27th candidate nominated by the Saskatchewan Party in 2014 as the party prepares for a provincial election expected in the spring of 2016. The process so far has seen area MLAs including Cut Knife-Turtleford's Larry Doke, Biggar's Randy Weekes and Rosthern-Shellbrook's Scott Moe all nominated to run again.
The nomination process has been notable due to announcements of some big-name retirements, with Finance Minister Ken Krawetz, Social Services Minister June Draude and former agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud among those who will not be running again.
While Cox is looking forward, he also is looking back on what he regards as a successful spring session of the legislature that wrapped up last Friday. Among the highlights was this spring's provincial budget.
"Again, it was a balanced budget and it was a new type of budget because it was summary financial instead of based on the general revenue fund," said Cox.
"It still highlights our plan to maintain steady growth for the province."
Another highlight was the announcement on a new Saskatchewan Hospital, which will be combined with a new integrated corrections facility.
"Finally we do have a good announcement, and it's gone to an RFQ as far as we understand," said Cox. He pointed to the progress on Saskatchewan Hospital as a major reason he is running again.
"That's one of the things I'm excited about staying on another term and seeing that project come to completion."
What it means for the community, Cox said, is an increase in beds from 156 to 188 at the hospital, plus 98 rooms in the new correctional centre. "So I think it's definitely going to mean some increased employment."
There have been concerns raised, however, about the closure of the youth centre in the coming changes.
Cox said he "didn't think anything's definitive yet" about that, but adds "what I'm hearing, anecdotally, due to changes in the Youth Act a lot of the centres are not operating at capacity and I understand this is one of them, and there are going to be some decisions made by the ministry. But that is separate from the hospital. If it does close, it won't be the result of building a new hospital. That will be a standalone decision."
The Sask. Hospital/corrections build will be a P3 - a public-private partnership. Cox noted several new schools are being built in the province under that model as well, reflecting on the continued growth of the province.
In the legislature, Cox points to his recent appointment as legislative secretary for First Nations and Métis Relations in the province, reporting to minister Jim Reiter.
In that role, Cox was part of a recent announcement made in Saskatoon, in which the government put $120,000 into Microsoft licencing agreements to allow First Nations schools to have better computer access.
Other things Cox could point to on the education side was increasing the bandwidth at rural schools, affecting about 500 rural schools. "They have better access to high speed computers," Cox said.
Cox could also point to recent developments and progress stemming from the recommendations from the traffic safety committee he served on last year in the legislature.
Among those that have now come to fruition, Cox said there is "more advertising going on by SGI," stemming from their recommendation for greater awareness of the issue.
Cox noted there was a recent announcement about more police officers devoted to traffic safety, as well as the implementation of photo radar and tougher penalties for impaired driving and distracted driving.
"I think we made 26 recommendations and quite a few have been acted upon already," said Cox.
A particularly hot issue locally has been crime in the Battlefords. Cox pledges to continue his efforts there.
"We're very concerned about the crime issue," said Cox, who acknowledged, "crime is still high here. More work needs to be done."
He pointed to the establishment of the HUB, as well as the $735,000 in funding annually from the province to cover an additional seven police officers at the North Battleford detachment under the Enhanced Community Policing Program. Other efforts are ongoing as well.
"There's more work going on at present and some recommendations that will be coming out hopefully in the near future," said Cox.
He also acknowledged efforts of city officials, who have lobbied for North Battleford to be named a "Centre of Responsibility" in addition to its current HUB efforts, in an attempt to address the root causes of crime in the community.
On that subject, the outlook expressed by city officials has been grim of late. City Manager Jim Puffalt told council at its last meeting administration now believes the City is not going to get a COR.
Puffalt said to reporters May 12 that provincial officials were "still working on where that funding is going towards. It's quite disheartening to be honest with you."
Cox did confirm nothing was decided, based on his own latest meetings with the corrections ministry.
"I talked to the ministry late last week and no decision has been made yet where the COR is coming, but they certainly wouldn't commit whether it was here or elsewhere."
Cox did, however, commend Mayor Ian Hamilton and the City for their decision to proceed with hiring a contract coordinator for a six-month position.
That person would be responsible for need and gap assessments, support to the HUB steering committee and project development.
"That's basically what the COR would do," Cox said. "I commend Ian (Hamilton) for doing that. Hopefully if that position is effective we can do something down the road and make it a permanent position. But at this point in time there is no commitment where that COR is going."
