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Resource prices, health care among issues in Cut Knife-Turtleford

Mar 30, 2016 | 6:32 AM

Tumbling oil prices have made their presence particularly felt in west-central Saskatchewan, an issue being raised with the candidates for Cut Knife-Turtleford during the provincial election campaign.

But the incumbent MLA, the Saskatchewan Party’s Larry Doke, said there’s positive news in the region as well.

“We’ve had some pretty good results in the Edam/Vawn area with Husky and Serafina oil carrying on with their capital projects, with the SAGD (steam-assisted gravity drainage) projects,” Doke said in an interview during the final week of campaigning, “so we’ve had good interest over there and have retained some jobs and some new jobs over here.”

Doke also touted strong cattle and grain prices. He said during his meetings with constituents, people are raising the issues of highways and health care, “not a lot, but more so very appreciative of the premier and the direction the party is going by just keeping things simple for this election, no grandiose ideas, enhancing programs that we’ve got underway and just steady as we go.”

In 2011, Doke, a Metinota resident and former North Battleford auto dealer, was elected to his first term by a margin of nearly 2-1 over the NDP’s Bernadette Gopher.

Health care is a big issue for the 2016 NDP candidate, writer Danica Lorer, who mentioned frustrations with the LEAN efficiency initiative and high ambulance fees.

“I’ve talked to families that have dealt with sitting in emergency rooms and having to pay for these ambulance fees from one hospital, say the hospital in Maidstone to the hospital in North Battleford,” she said, “and then waiting for hours and hours in order to get a bed.”

Lorer said the decline in the oil sector is weighing on many people.

“I know people in the riding who’ve been laid off in the last couple of months. So there’s definitely room to improve,” she said. “But what we want to do is make the cost of living better for everybody.”

“I think it’s a long ways from being over,” said Rod Gopher, the Liberal candidate, whose resume includes policy analyst, sales consultant, business management, and Tribal Chief. Gopher said medical waiting times are still a concern.

“There’s some concern about some of the services, they’re going to be opening private health clinics,” Gopher said.

One candidate who doesn’t expect to be in the government but hopes to provide a strong opposition voice is the PC Party’s Rick Cline. The truck driver and Mervin resident previously lived in Alberta for several years where, he explained, “you become a PC person.” 

“I’ve been back in Saskatchewan now for six years, and I really do not see a whole bunch of money coming back into this area from the provincial government,” he said.

The Green Party is being represented by healthcare worker Tammy Fairley Saunders, who lives in Battleford. Through the party she declined a request for an interview but provided a statement in which she outlined her party’s positions to hire more teachers and school support staff, eliminate ambulance fees, and provide a guaranteed income supplement.

The Cut Knife-Turtleford constituency includes communities west of the Battlefords, such as Lashburn, Maidstone, Edam, Meota, Wilkie, Unity, Neilburg, and Sweetgrass, Poundmaker, and Little Pine First Nations.

-With files from Duncan Cairns-Brenner

gsmith@jpbg.ca
Twitter: @smithco