The second session of the Legislature opened last Wednesday afternoon with the Speech from the Throne, delivered by Lt.-Governor Vaughn Solomon Schofield.
On Thursday, debate opened on the Throne Speech. Among those who spoke was Battlefords MLA Herb Cox who, after giving out a number of thank yous to staff, family and constituents, voiced his support for the contents of the Throne Speech.
Here is a portion of what Cox had to say, as recorded in Hansard. Cox’s remarks came immediately after Dan D’Autremont, Sask Party MLA for Cannington, had delivered lengthy remarks of his own in support of the Throne Speech.
Mr. Cox: — Well, Mr. Speaker, this certainly isn’t the position you want in the speaking order, following my learned colleague. However, as Paul Harvey used to say, “and now for the rest of the story”.
It’s indeed my pleasure, Mr. Speaker, to once again be able to rise and lend my voice to this very well-thought-out Throne Speech, this speech that’s going to help us inform the direction of this second session of the twenty-eighth legislature of the province of Saskatchewan.
… So before I begin with my comments on the Speech from the Throne, Mr. Speaker, I’d just like to share a little bit of what’s been happening in my constituency up in The Battlefords.
It’s been a very busy summer with sporting events, parades, cultural events, all those sorts of things. Western provincial finals in fastball we hosted up there. And of course right now The Battlefords are abuzz with preparations for the 2018 Saskatchewan Winter Games which are going to be hosted in Battleford next February of 2018.
And I had the privilege just a few weeks ago to speak on behalf of SaskEnergy. They’ve been a sponsor of the Saskatchewan games for many, many years and once again will be sponsoring the volunteers. We are going to need about 1,200 volunteers to pull off these Winter Games, and I know The Battlefords have always come forward, whenever they were called on, with volunteers for a function like that.
Recently I just had the opportunity to attend the opening of our very first Habitat for Humanity home in The Battlefords. And everyone who was there certainly enjoyed, you know, the wide smiles that were on the two families that now finally have a home to call their own…
Last week I had an opportunity to address the class of 2030, if you can imagine. The class of 2030 is this year’s kindergarten class actually, for a technicality. And this is a program begun by Living Sky School Division, and I think it’s a very worthwhile program…
I was also able this summer to attend the announcement, on behalf of our Minister of Highways and Infrastructure, the announcement of $275,000 for our runway improvements at our local Cameron McIntosh airport…
And just last month, Mr. Speaker, our Minister of Rural and Remote Health was on hand for the unveiling of our new CT [computerized tomography] scanner at Battlefords Union Hospital for which our government provided $600,000 in funding, which was matched by a very robust fundraising campaign run locally of another $600,000. And of course anyone who has absolute need for a CT scanner, and I guess I’m considered one of those people, this new CT scanner works at a lot greater speed than the previous one and with a lot less radiation emitted. So anyone using a CT scanner is very happy to have this in our city…
… Mr. Speaker, we’re not striving to grow our economy for the growth sake alone. It provides us with the ability to do the things that we need to do in areas such as health care, in education, in care for our vulnerable. And in my constituency alone in the Battlefords since November of 2007, $10.6 million has been invested to develop 209 rental and homeowner units for low-income families. And we’ve also worked hard to help out our seniors, as evidenced by our seniors’ income plan, which we have tripled in 10 years. In the previous 16 years of the former government, it was never touched once. We’ve increased it from $90 a month to $270 a month.
Since we’ve had the honour of forming this government, we have hired 750 more doctors and 3,400 more nurses of every designation. Mr. Speaker, we’re not closing long-term care homes like the former government did. In fact we’ve opened 13 new long care homes in the last 10 years.
As well, we’re building schools. We’re building low-income housing. And yes, we’re building hospitals, like our own Sask Hospital North Battleford. Mr. Speaker, I had the distinct pleasure of attending the celebration marking the 60 per cent completion of this new beautiful facility and bringing greetings on behalf of our government. And what a beautiful facility it is. In talking to patients, some of the patients there that day and certainly the staff, family members of the patients, they can’t wait to move into this beautiful building with such a great view of our North Saskatchewan River Valley. The spacious rooms now, modern bathroom, this facility has been long, long, long overlooked and a lot needed, and we’re finally getting it built.
In other areas of health care, Mr. Speaker, we are also making great strides forward. Mr. Speaker, our government’s innovative two-for-one MRIs have resulted in 1,800 scans being completed at no added expense to our taxpayers.
Autism spectrum disorder continues to be a serious concern to many citizens with family members who are affected. And that is why we have committed to provide individualized funding of $4,000 per child per year on top of the $8 million we already provide for ASD [autism spectrum disorder] services.
Mr. Speaker, more good news. Our population, our school population is no longer declining. In fact it is increasing. And that is why we have opened 21 new schools this year with 11,000 students being able to attend school in a brand new, better learning environment. To go along with the 21 schools, we have hired 875 more teachers and created 6,000 more new child care spaces.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, since I was fortunate enough to be elected to this position, I have made a point of attending, along with my colleagues from Cut Knife-Turtleford and from Rosthern-Shellbrook, annual school board meetings with both of the school divisions in my constituencies. And one of the things that we heard at these meetings was a request for new curriculum renewal.
… We have ended the pause to curriculum renewal and it’s now been lifted.
Mr. Speaker, we have developed the most aggressive grad retention program in Canada. And since 2008, 70,000 students have taken advantage of this program and they’ve been receiving $345 million in tax credit…
But, Mr. Deputy Speaker, not only post-secondary grads benefit from our programs, but grade 12 grads can access our Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship. And in fact since 2012, over 38,000 have received over $33 million to help defray the cost of a post-secondary education.
Mr. Speaker, last fall our Premier created a committee to try to find some solutions to reduce crime in our province. I was proud to be asked to be a member of that committee along with my colleagues from Cut Knife-Turtleford, from Cypress Hills, Estevan, Canora-Pelly, Regina Coronation Park, and Saskatoon Fairview.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, we spent a very busy winter travelling to 10 different locations here in our province to hear the concerns and suggestions from individuals, groups, police forces, municipal governments, First Nations, and many more. We sent out over 300 invitations and notices to these meetings, met with some 58 presenters, and received numerous written submissions.
And, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I was very pleased with the response we received from the Ministry of Justice and the announcement of 258 armed police officers and of our government’s commitment of $5.9 million towards these initiatives. We know that there’s more to do in crime reduction, and we are going to continue to work to help reduce this problem.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, I talked earlier about growth and what improvements it has allowed us to undertake. So let’s just touch a little on our infrastructure expenses and improvements in which we have invested $26 billion since 2007.
Mr. Deputy Speaker, in a former job that I had I was president of a national association. And one of the jobs of that national association was to travel to the other provinces and speak at the annual general meetings of the provincial associations, and on many occasions I travelled to Alberta. You’d sit around at a round table as you always do at a lot of these things. And once the flatland jokes and the no-time-change jokes were dispensed of, one of the main topics that came around that table was, when are you going to get your highways fixed in Saskatchewan? Well, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I’m happy to say that of that $26 billion, $7.4 billion has been invested to improve, to build, or rebuild 12 000 kilometres in highways in this province.
With our growing population comes increased demand for essential services like power. And SaskPower has experienced a 25 per cent increase in demands since 2007. And not only SaskPower, but SaskTel as well has invested $2.6 billion since 2008. SaskPower’s response has been investing $8 billion to meet that demand and to replace an aging infrastructure that was there. And SaskTel is continuing to invest with $300 million to expand and enhance its network. And, Mr. Speaker, I’m very pleased to see that my community in The Battlefords is on the list for faster Internet service, as are several other communities in this province.
Some of the growth is due to our increased activity in exports in this province because we are a very export-focused province, as we’ve heard earlier: exports to such designations as China, with a 530 per cent increase to $3 billion worth of exports going to China. India, we’ve seen an increase of 272 per cent to $1.5 billion; Pakistan, 293 per cent increase to $548 million.
And of those imports, Mr. Deputy Speaker, agriculture plays a huge part in our exports, accounting for half of our total at $14.4 billion. This involves over 300 companies that employ 5,000 people here in the province. And our government will continue to support our ag sector by strongly opposing the carbon tax which would be crippling to our province and by continuing to expand access to world markets, investing in research, and supporting value-added food processing.
We also need to be reminded of agriculture’s contribution to carbon sequestration to help reduce our net emissions in this province. In 2015 alone, Mr. Deputy Speaker, our farmers sequestered nearly 12 million tonnes of carbon into our soil.
… Mr. Deputy Speaker, as this is my last opportunity that I will have to address a Throne Speech under our Premier, I would just like to say that what a genuine honour it has been to serve with this Premier, and I certainly want to take this opportunity to thank him for his guidance, his wisdom, his hard work, his humility, his sense of humour, and indeed for his vision. The citizens of this province, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I think are in such a better place today than they were 10 years ago, and to him we all owe a great debt of gratitude.
… So in conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say that I’m very pleased with the initiatives proposed in this Throne Speech, and I look forward to our government moving forward with the implementation of the initiatives in it. So in conclusion I would just like to say I will not be in favour of the amendment to this motion, and I’ll be voting in favour of the Speech from the Throne. Thank you.
