NIPAWIN — Ryan Meili, the leader of the official opposition, visited Nipawin on a provincial tour along with provincial NDP MLAs Yens Pederson, Doyle Vermette and Trent Wortherspoon.
Their tour took them to both the town office and the Chamber of Commerce where they answered questions.
“It’s all about trying to make sure I have a better understanding – the best possible understanding – of the opportunities and challenges faced in this and other communities,” Meili said. “Then I’ve got a chance to share my vision for what we should do as a province.”
The conversation from his chamber meeting included questions about post-secondary tuition costs, crime, the cuts to the education sector, transportation, renewable energy and crown corporations.
Meili said he is “100 per cent” committed to protecting the crowns, including SaskTel and Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC).
In addition, he said, if elected, the party will end the province’s Saskatchewan-first investment policy for crown corporations, so they can do more work outside of Saskatchewan and bring investment dollars into the province.
Meili said his party is committed to ending cuts to the education sector.
“I think what’s important is looking at the principle and looking at the core philosophy, which is making the best investments we can. Take education for example. If you don’t spend a dollar in education you end of spending that dollar ten times in healthcare, in social services and prisons and your justice system. We’ve seen that.”
In addition, he said that the party is currently in consultations with post-secondary schools in Saskatchewan to create a strategy to lower tuition.
When asked about the Saskatchewan Transport Company, Meili stated that the Saskatchewan Party getting rid of the provincial busing system was a “poor decision” and it hurt communities like Nipawin.
“We could have done better. They could have made it more efficient,” Meili said.
The NDP leader criticized the management in terms of both overpricing passenger transit and underpricing freight.
He called the governing Saskatchewan Party’s actions leading up to them closing the busing system “planned obsolescence”.
“If you want to get rid of something, make it worse.”
While Meili stated his party would bring back the transit system if in government, he said it wouldn’t be the same as it was before.
“If, God forbid, this building burnt down, you wouldn’t build the exact same building,” he said. “Design a new province-wide transit system and freight system that would be a better deal in terms of the financial management but that would also deliver back that vital services of transit throughout the province.”
To get this product, he said, the first step is talking to communities, looking at the ridership of the previous transit, and having an analysis done of the problems the system had before it was shut down. He also stated they would need to look at what the needs of the communities are.
For renewable energy, Meili stated that if elected they would create a provincial loan program for all homes and businesses to install renewable energy sources, such as solar power. The loan would be paid back over a period of time so it would mirror an electricity bill until it is paid off, giving the building owner free energy.
“You’ve got people all over Saskatchewan that want to have renewable energy, that see that it will save them money, that want to be a part of the transition to green energy but the upfront cost is too much.”
