It's the last week of the election campaign, and NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter announced his party's plan for major highway twinning projects in the province. If elected, he says that his party's government would twin Highway 10 from Yorkton to the Balgonie interchange. Lingenfelter also announced other planned highway projects along with a commitment to expand crop insurance coverage.
The focus on twinning projects from both Yorkton and Estevan to Regina comes from the high amount of traffic that both highways have to carry.
"When you look at the traffic between here and Balgonie, it's one of the highest in the province. When you look at the highway south of Regina to Estevan, it too has a very high traffic count, and in particular with the heavy truck haul and the mixing and school buses and the safety of families these are the two highest priorities," Lingenfelter says.
The plan would be to start both projects immediately after the election, should they be able to form government, and Lingenfelter says they would work with local communities along with the federal government to handle the project. The investment, over four years, is projected to cost $228 million.
One of the areas that the Sask Party has been most critical of the NDP's platform has been the large amount of spending, and their initial response to the announcement indicates questions about where the money will be coming from to fund these large scale twinning projects, with candidate Bill Boyd going so far as to say "It's irresponsible, it's unsustainable, and it's desperate" in a release.
Lingenfelter brushed off the criticism by saying that large scale twinning projects are a "tradition" for NDP governments. He says that twinning this highway should be a priority for the government, and questions the Sask Party's reluctance to embrace the projects.
When it comes to paying for them, he cites a growing economy as providing the money for the projects, and their intent to increase the potash royalty as providing more funding for highways in the province.
"We understand why the Sask Party can't do these kind of commitments because they are simply not charging a royalty rate which would allow them to do these kind of projects," he says.
Continuing on highways, Lingenfelter says that the party would have a renewed focus on fixing rural roads, committing $25 million to repair and upgrade secondary roads in the province. He says the fund would repair "neglect over the past four years." The total commitment for roads is a total of $2.48 billion over four years.
The other big issue announced was the plan to expand crop insurance. The NDP leader says that if elected and NDP government will expand coverage to include spot-loss hail damage, as well as extending coverage to more farmers, including things such as market gardens.
In order to pay for the expanded coverage, Lingenfelter says working out a system with the federal government works in other provinces, and should work here.
"It's my understanding that there is spot-loss hail in Manitoba, and the federal government pays for a large part of that. It's my anticipation that we could work out a similar program here."
Lingenfelter also says that his party is against the current plans to move away from single desk marketing with the Canadian Wheat Board. He says it should be up to farmers to decide, and the decision on whether to keep or discard the board would have to be decided by a vote among farmers.
"It shouldn't be politicians in Ottawa or Regina that decide the fate of the Canadian Wheat Board, it should be farmers, as the legislation that exists at the present time allows for."
The intent of the platform overall for the party is to help families, and their announcements over the campaign have all had that focus, no matter where the promise was directed. He says that the NDP's focus is always on the families of the province.
When it comes to local candidate Chad Blenkin, Lingenfelter credits him with running a strong campaign, and he says it's going to be an exciting night on November 7 thanks to the work that's been done.
