CARROT RIVER VALLEY — Fred Bradshaw said that if he is re-elected for Carrot River Valley constituency, he would follow the Saskatchewan Party’s 10-year plan to move the province forward, with a specific focus on businesses and the budget.
“We want to get our budget back on balance within the next few years, and this is good for all of Saskatchewan, including Carrot River Valley,” Bradshaw said.
“We are not going to borrow ourselves into oblivion, we’re going to move the province forward, but do it being fiscally responsible.”
Bradshaw was first elected in 2007, before being reelected in 2011 and 2016.
He has previously served on Carrot River council, Carrot River Fire and Rescue, the Pasquia Park board, the Arborfield Dehy board, and on the founding board of the Northeast Early Childhood Intervention Program (NECIP).
“I believe the fact that I’ve been here all of my life, I can bring things to Carrot River Valley that the other candidates cannot do,” Bradshaw said.
“Since I drive the roads all the time I know which roads need to be worked on because I live here. A very good example [is] I knew the school here in Carrot River was in bad shape and needed to be replaced, and now we have a plan for replacing that school.”
Bradshaw said he has no plans to advocate for a province funded transit system connecting rural communities to cities.
“I think that should be up to the private sector,” he said.
“I’m hoping some companies will pick up those routes to be able to transport people, but I’ll tell you what, the ridership was so low that there had been various different companies who have tried it, and it hasn’t worked out thus far.”
For the education sector, Bradshaw said that he believes his party has done a good job since forming government in 2007.
“We’ve hired 1,200 more teachers, we’ve built quite a few new schools, compared to shutting down schools.”
If reelected, Bradshaw said the Sask. Party will increase funding for education. To get the funds, he said his intention is to increase the Saskatchewan population so there are more taxpayers.
In the Sask. Party’s 10-year plan, by 2030 they plan for 1.4 million people in Saskatchewan. According to Statistics Canada, as of 2019 there are 1.174 million people in the province.
“We have a growing province. The people who are working and the businesses who are working pay taxes, and what we want to do is have people paying the taxes. The more people we have, the more tax base we have.”
In order to get more people moving to the province, Bradshaw said his plan is to create a “business friendly environment.”
“You have to be business friendly. Government cannot sit there and micromanage business, that is up to the business people to be able to do, and we want to have a friendly situation for the businesses so the businesses can move forward.”
Bradshaw said by being business friendly, he believes this will result in more jobs becoming available.
“We have set up a red tape committee to try to make things easier for businesses, to get rid of the red tape the government has. We have done a very good job with that, and truthfully, I sat on that committee and hope I’m still sitting on that committee after this election is over.”
