Voters across Saskatchewan go to the polls in a provincial election April 4. In Yorkton, four candidates are seeking support, incumbent Greg Ottenbreit with the Saskatchewan party, Greg Olson of the New Democrats, Liberal Aaron Sinclair, and Chad Gregoire with the Green Party.
All four were contacted via email, social media, and Party offices, and asked to participate in a question and answer with Yorkton This Week providing the questions.
All but Gregoire responded that they would take part, however Sinclair did not send the answers in by the deadline to publish.
What follows are the questions, and replies of the two responding candidates.
This Part 1 of 2.
Q
The Parkland College Trades Centre has been touted as a major addition to the city, but there are plans for at least two additional phases, and a need for student housing and physical fitness additions. Does the province have a plan in place for these expansions that includes a time frame and funding?
OLSON - I can’t speak to what the plans for the College have been under the current government, but I do know that having access to educational and training opportunities, like those available at Parkland College, are vital to growing and diversifying Saskatchewan’s economy. All our postsecondary institutions should have the necessary infrastructure needed to be able to provide top-notch training in order for students to succeed and find employment within the province.
OTTENBREIT - The initial expansion of the college into a trades and technology centre was a priority for me as a nominated candidate as well as after being elected in 2007. It was an honour to work with so many area stakeholders and see it come to fruition last fall. I advocated and secured the initial $10 million investment from our Saskatchewan Party government and will advocate for its expansion when the need arises. The college currently has a capacity to offer more training opportunities and has not yet forwarded an official plan for expansion. When it does, the proposal will be considered in the budget a process and I will once again advocate strongly. The same holds for housing. There have been conversations about the housing need but no formal plan. In the meantime, I have connected third party partners who specialize in multi-unit housing with college officials to explore possible opportunities.
Q
A new hospital has been talked of locally for a while now, and money collected and spent on initial plans. When, if elected, will your party move forward with the needed regional hospital?
OLSON - The Sask. Party has ignored the large infrastructure deficit of our province’s health regions for too long. They’ve spent millions on their wasteful Lean pet project, which an academic study has proven costs taxpayers $1,511 for every $1 it saves. They’ve also spent big time on private consultants and a bloated health care administration. The NDP is committed to addressing the infrastructure deficit in our healthcare system. We’ll put an end to the Sask. Party’s wasteful spending and redirect that money to the front lines- to tackle the rising ER and specialist wait times and ensure there are enough doctors and nurses on each shift.
OTTENBREIT - As always, I have advocated for the needs of Yorkton Constituency and region to cabinet colleagues. Personally, I believe future possibilities are likely indicated by the past record. The NDP record is: 52 hospitals closed; the Plains Hospital closed, 173 doctor and nearly 500 nurse positions eliminated, limited training opportunities for medical professionals, limited recruitment strategies, and no rescue/trauma helicopter service. If any projects were actually undertaken, the community share was 35per cent.
The Saskatchewan Party record has been to build or replace 15 long-term care and integrated facilities, develop five Collaborative Emergency Centres, which is a 24 hour team of health workers meeting the complete needs of a community instead of relying solely on only a doctor and eight innovation sites, all in rural Saskatchewan.
We have virtually doubled training for doctors and nurses. Since the Saskatchewan Party was elected we have 650 more doctors and 3000 nurses of all designations as well as over 800 more Continuing Care Aids working in Saskatchewan. Under construction is the new Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford (provincial mental health facility) and the Children’s Hospital in Saskatoon. We have brought STARS helicopter trauma to Saskatchewan and we have reduced the community portion of new builds to 20 per cent from 35 per cent.
The NDP and Liberals have said no to LEAN design and no to public-private partnerships; in many instances this innovative process is the best way forward. In the future traditional builds will continue for certain projects.
We have completed and started some major projects, and I see Yorkton as one of the next major projects provincially. P3, efficient design and bundling may open opportunities to get a new facility on time, on budget and at less cost to the taxpayer.
Yorkton’s need has been recognized by the Premier on recent visit, as witnessed by City Council and Chamber of Commerce Executive. For a traditional build, the City and regional dollars are required up front. Through non-traditional approach, community portion could be amortized, making project more achievable in a shorter timeline.
We’ve achieved many infrastructure projects locally over the last eight years, and a new regional hospital in Yorkton is a priority for me. It’s not a matter of if, it’s when.
Q
On the same topic, the Yorkton hospital is designated as regional, yet there is no mechanism to collect local donations outside the city since smaller communities Melville/Canora/Esterhazy etc, have their own facilities to be involved with. Since that is the case and it is a regional facility should the province contribute a higher percentage to a new facility build?
OLSON - The province needs to invest more in our healthcare facilities, period. Province-wide, our hospitals need over $2 billion in repairs. Despite this great and urgent need, The Sask. Party committed just $26 million- or two per cent of the total amount needed to fix crumbling healthcare infrastructure. The NDP will repair our province’s hospitals through the development of a multi-year repair plan.
OTTENBREIT - Only provincial hospitals are funded 100 per cent (the North Battleford mental health facility and the Saskatoon Children’s Hospital). As previously stated, the Saskatchewan party government has already significantly reduced the community portion for new builds, and again by a non-traditional process there is a possibility to minimize the financial impact by spreading the already greatly reduced community portion over time. For example, in other areas of our province, where this same method has been undertaken, there has been significant and fair involvement financially from municipalities surrounding the major facility. This helps to ease the financial demand through the realization that the surrounding area benefits from a regional facility, even though they have their own health centres locally.
Q
The economy is obviously in a slowdown. How large a deficit is your party comfortable with (if any), and how long can a government run such annual deficits without looking at alternative measures?
OLSON - The NDP has always been adverse to the idea of having a deficit. After a decade of record resource revenue, the Sask. Party has somehow managed to plunge the province into a deficit of $430 million in less than a year. They’ve drained the rainy day fund, and added billions of dollars to the provincial debt. However, this is a situation that we are committed to resolving. The NDP will cut the wasteful spending of the Sask. Party- we will end the disastrous Lean program in health care, cut consultant spending and sell the planes that fly politicians across the province on the taxpayer’s dime. We will stop handing massive money by having them owned by the contracts to out-of-country corporations to build and own our roads, hospitals and schools and save province and built by companies right here at home. Through these measures, and continued elimination of other wasteful spending under the Sask. Party, we can bring our province’s books back to balance.
OTTENBREIT - The Saskatchewan Party is opposed to deficit budgets but due to the dramatic effect of low oil prices and a decline in world-wide potash sales we are forecasting a $427M deficit for 2015-16. We have committed to be back to balance in 2017-18. That being said, this year’s budget will end within $5 million of the initial budget forecast except for the cost of forest fires.
The Saskatchewan economy is one of, if not the strongest in Canada. This is recognized by many independent sources around the world and is evident in the strong investment in our province as well as our AAA credit rating. The Saskatchewan Party has worked hard to create the Saskatchewan Advantage and will continue to do so. The economy is now more diversified and we will continue to encourage new investment and expand trade markets. We will continue to create an environment to attract investment through initiatives such as our reduction of the small business tax from 4.5 per cent to two per cent, as well introduce new incentives like North America’s first ‘Patent Box’ Innovation Tax Credit. The Saskatchewan Party has and will continue to provide responsible government and reduce expense through efficiency. We have reduced the cost of government; our government travel last year was $350,000 compared to $1 million in the last year of the NDP government.
We will continue to support and promote our ag industry, manufacturing, and resources industries.
We will continue to work to keep our economy strong and encourage job creation. In fact, there has been one job per hour created every day since 2007 under our government.
We will continue to communicate a confident and optimistic attitude about our province, economy and opportunities and we will continue to advocate for pipeline capacity.
