Election 2016: Meet candidate Herb Cox

GH: And seniors?

HC: The Seniors Plan. We’ve increased the Seniors Plan, the monthly income plan which hadn’t been increased in 16 years prior to our forming government. It sat at $90, we’ve now tripled that to $270 a month. We’ve also increased the funding for senior citizens in personal care homes for individuals and for couples. Those are some of the things we are going to continue to do.

GH: What can be done to reduce the crime rate in North Battleford?

HC: I think we’ve made some good inroads there, over the past several years. As you know we’ve implemented, it was actually a pilot project for the Battlefords by the way, the Community Safety Officer Program. I think we’re seeing results of that. They’re looking after some of the traffic violations and those sort of things so that has allowed the RCMP members to focus on more serious crimes. We’ve also provided funding of $770,000 per year to our RCMP and that’s allowed us to hire seven more RCMP members to look after some organized crime.

GH: What’s your opinion of “public-private partnership” like the one being used to build the new Saskatchewan Hospital?

HC: Well I think it’s an excellent way to get some infrastructure working back again. Saskatchewan hospital of North Battleford is the largest infrastructure project ever in this community. It’s going to provide up to 1,500 jobs in construction. A lot of those jobs will be local jobs. It’s just in its beginning stages as you know. There’s been 11 provincial companies hired, two of them are local, the other nine are from the area. That’s going to continue on. I think of some of the other P3 projects like the Senior Care Home in Swift Current. There will be 46 local and provincial companies to build that P3 project. It’s a way to get these building built and maintained and when we get the building back in 30 years it’s still government property, but when we take it back it will be in new condition.

GH: Given the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings, does our education system adequately teach students about residential schools and First Nations issues in general?

HC: …and we’ve made some good inroads in that. I think our education minister has made several announcements to get some of these things into our curriculum. I know I’m talking to school board members and talking to teachers on the door steps, that some of these programs are helping to narrow the gap. Some other things we’re trying to do in our 20-20 plan – the Premier has indicated that our goal is going to be to reduce the difference between graduation rates between aboriginal and non-aboriginal students and incorporate some of that into our curriculum.

GH: Given the importance of the energy sector in this area, what would you do to improve the conditions for natural resource development?

HC: Well I think we’ve made some announcements in that regard all the way along. We just did a Husky opening of the SAGD plant in the Edam country up there and there’s two more that will be coming online shortly. What we hear from the oil industry is that they want a stable environment and that’s something that this government has provided. We’ve said were not going to take you with royalty roads, we’re not going to do that sort of thing. We saw what happened in Alberta in ‘07 when they did that. They want to know that they have a stable future economy to deal with and that’s what they have in Saskatchewan.

GH: Where do you stand on how we provide temporary shelter for the homeless, example being the Lighthouse?

HC: The lighthouse for example, our government is certainly committed to helping those that are most vulnerable in our society and we’re going to continue to do that and that’s why we’ve made, over the past several years, increases to per diem rates to homeless shelters and we’ve increased those rates eight times, some 21 per cent for individuals and 360 per cent for families. We certainly don’t want to see anyone that’s vulnerable in those sorts of situations. Our primary goal are protection and safety and to do what we can do, keeping in mind tax-payer dollars.

GH: What are the pros and cons of privatizing the liquor store in Battleford? Should it be privatized? And others?

HC: The liquor store that we’re converting right now – there’s 40 to be converted around the province and we’ve done that after doing extensive consultations and this is what the people have asked for. The stores that are being converted are the stores that are either not making any profit at this time or they’re going to have substantial capital expenditures required in the very near future. We’re still a regulator, we’re still the wholesaler of the liquor, we still make our mark up on the liquor so there will be no changes that way. We are making several offers to staff if they want to form their own little co-op or company to run the store we are prepared to make some concessions to them and we think perhaps some of them will take them over. It’s something that the public has asked for and we’re just going to proceed with it.

GH: Is enough being done to recognize issues with mental health? What more can be done?

HC: That’s a good question Greg. You’ve heard our premiere say it, that there’s always more that can be done. We’ve done a lot of work in that field, I think, and if you want to go back to looking at our new Saskatchewan Hospital and North Battleford here, I think that will be a great facility. Treatment procedures have changed, the building was built 100 years ago. The focus is now in different areas than it was and we are going to continue with that. The same line of thought is that we’ve increased some funding for autism and some of the help that we can give these young children at that rate and help them get more adapted to the school system and those sorts of things and I think that’s going to go a long way to helping out families with that.

GH: Premier Brad Wall is against a federal tax on carbon emissions, saying it is far too costly to the Saskatchewan economy. If not carbon tax, what can the province do to combat emissions especially from its two biggest emitters – SaskPower and SaskEnergy?

HC: Thank you for that question and I think it’s an excellent question. Yes our premier has said that, our finance minister has said that, these are not the times to implement another tax. Our economy as you know is struggling. I think that what we can contribute as a province and this is not only for us or for Canada, this can be global – as you may know 40 per cent of electricity worldwide right now is produced from coal. Our carbon capture sequestration plant by boundary dam 3 down by Estevan, I think can have global implications. Sell that technology, we’re already have a lot of international interest come and visit that plant. It’s the first in the world. The amount of carbon we can capture either by sequestrating or using for enhanced oil recovery in those area’s is going to go – and even the United Nations in their Secretariat Report specified that that is one of the best contributions from Canada is our carbon capture sequestration and I think that’s one of the greatest contributions that we can share around the world.

GH: At what point would a disagreement with your party result in your resignation?

HC: I can’t think of anything that would because I have no disagreements with our party. I think Premier Wall is a great leader, he’s a great premier. He’s speaking out for Saskatchewan, in fact he’s speaking out for western Canada. I have nothing but respect for him and for my colleagues in the party.

ghiggins@jpbg.ca

@realgreghiggins

by Greg Higgins

Election 2016: Meet candidate Herb Cox

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