A candidate for the Saskatchewan Party leader wants to see the province’s agricultural products processed further in Saskatchewan to provide more jobs.
Scott Moe, who visited Tisdale Oct. 10, said he’d like to see more value-added – and more exports in general – in industries like energy, mining, manufacturing and agriculture.
“As we can expand those industries, we can create jobs for our communities, we create jobs for people to move here from other areas of Canada and the world, and we also create those careers that give our children to stay in a community where they have grown up,” he said. “As we expand our export wealth here in Saskatchewan, much of that can come due to adding value to exports that we already have.”
Moe said investments in canola crushing and pulses are areas where the value-added export approach has already seen success.
The leadership candidate stopped in Tisdale as part of a tour of the Carrot River Valley constituency guided by local MLA Fred Bradshaw, who has endorsed him. He also stopped in Hudson Bay, Nipawin, Carrot River and Arborfield. He said he was here for two reasons.
“I want to listen to the people of Tisdale and have a conversation about our province,” he said, “and what our province will look like out to the year 2030 and to work with the people of Tisdale and across Saskatchewan on creating that vision for our communities, for our province and for our industries.”
Moe has only started to release his platform, but he said they will fall under three major themes: balancing the budget by 2019, supporting communities and families, and standing with industries and businesses within the province.
Other commitments include fighting against a federal carbon tax – something he argues is not part of the federal government’s jurisdiction, and re-enacting the PST exemption on crop, life, and health insurance – paid by reducing the government’s workforce by five per cent and delaying next year’s 0.5 per cent corporate income tax cut.
As for the Global Transportation Hub, he said he wants to wait until the RCMP finish their investigation regarding a 204-acre property the government purchased before deciding what to do next. The concern is the government spent more money buying the land than its appraisers said it was worth. He’d also like to refocus the discussion on if the project is properly structured to achieve its goals of exporting Saskatchewan’s products.
Moe said he’s ready to enact the policies he proposes during the leadership race and run on them during the next provincial election in 2020.
“I believe this leadership race is an opportunity to start framing the conversation around what does our province look like, how do we get there and, really, that policy platform for our party into the year 2030.”
