The revived Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative Party under leader Rick Swenson released the first plank of their 2016 platform heading into the April 4 general election.
Seeking ways to escape the boom-and-bust cycle the province is experiencing now and has fought through in the past, the PCs have placed a couple of proposals on the table that could directly involve citizens in the southeast region.
Since broccoli and cauliflower are becoming more costly than a barrel of oil, the PCs are suggesting the Shand Greenhouse could easily be repurposed to grow vegetables and fruits rather than trees, using the current greenhouse facilities that could then be expanded in the future to include traditional trees once again along with hybrid trees.
“Then we don’t have to buy so much food from Mexico,” said Estevan Constituency candidate Paul Carroll, who attended the party’s policy forum that was held in Moose Jaw last week.
With the Canadian dollar falling in value compared with the U.S. greenback, the PC suggestion should gather even more traction, said Swenson.
The PC Party went on to add the program could be shifted over to the Saskatchewan Research Council and the University of Saskatchewan’s strong agricultural programmers to take pressure off SaskPower, the current operators of the Shand Greenhouse which uses waste heat from the Shand Power Station to feed the greenhouse that is restricted to the growing of young trees and shrubs.
“We grow food in Saskatchewan, that’s what we do and we are also producing a lot of additional heat and wasting much of the BTUs. We should be using these products for value added production,” said Carroll. “Trucking fruit and vegetables from Mexico like we’re doing at the current rate, is costly and time consuming. We could be trucking our own vegetables across provinces.”
Carroll said the program his party envisions would have a short-term mandate that would allow for a good experimental period and if the vegetable and fruit greenhouse concept didn’t work, then the program could simply default back to the tree nursery concept with no harm to anyone or the environment since “trees supply oxygen, so they’re a very valuable commodity too, that’s why we’d like to see both of these programs go forward,” said Carroll, adding that government would not have to be fully involved other than to provide a startup grant or perhaps offer a tax incentive or a temporary partnership to get the idea into an action plan. That plan would include a government exit strategy, which would allow agricultural entrepreneurs to take hold of the concept and run with it.
“Right now there is no price tag on it. The experts in the business and agricultural world would provide that and they’d be much better at it, but I don’t believe the original cost would be huge because the greenhouse is already there and it’s using Shand’s waste heat,” Carroll said.
The Estevan PC candidate went on to say that the platform could also include an expanded role for Rafferty and Alameda reservoirs with their untapped potential to provide water for irrigation projects, and again, it could begin with a modest pilot project to test viability without a huge cost attached.
“These are two great opportunities we have staring us in the face and they’re close by,” said Carroll. “I believe they are also realistic and if successful, we have lots and I mean lots of heat to spare from our southeast power plants that could be used efficiently to grow things.”
Swenson noted these first two planks spoke to the subjects of food self-sufficiency, greener energy and business (job) opportunities in places other than Regina and Saskatoon and projects that were not directly attached to the oil industry.
“This speaks to Saskatchewan’s abundant land and water resources and clean environment. We are blessed with more sunshine than anywhere else in Canada. Let’s start using that resource along with Saskatchewan’s ingenuity,” Swenson said.
“Because of the foresight of the PC Party in the 1980s, this province has many industrial complexes that generate heat to power our food industry through the coldest days of a Saskatchewan winter. Many of these complexes already help power our agriculture industry, so why not make them a bigger part of the production cycle?”
Carroll said the party will be revealing further suggestions and recommendations for voters to discuss once the election writ is dropped and the campaigns are officially launched.
