Initial Speech:
I have been to
job interviews where there are people all around a table asking
questions but this!! Interviews are important
because we want to make sure we get the right mix of people in our
company to help it thrive. I hope you will listen to my ideas with
an open mind and choose wisely. I work hard for a living but my driving
passions are energy and the environment. Lately the news on global
warming has been getting me down. Some say if we don’t make a
significant reversal in our green house emissions by 2025 we won’t
be able to reverse it and the planet may be too hot for survival within150
years. If they are right, 20 years is not a lot of time to make changes.
Some answers are emerging and I don’t think it is an impossible
task and most changes require more of a change in political will than
huge outlays of public money. The market will drive change given the
right incentives.
I didn’t
want to discuss particular environmental issues in my opening but
there is
a very important question I would like to address
that was not brought up in the Chamber questions. The Tar sands are
the biggest creator of greenhouse gases in Canada and they want to
grow it by five times. It is also a huge emitter of acid rain. It consumes
enormous amounts of energy and water. And it will result in the destruction
of a lot of forest habitat. And the oil companies want the resource
for next to nothing. We need to get an idea of the possible cumulative
impacts of this industry before it gets rolling any further in Saskatchewan
so we can decide what the rules for development are going to be. We
can not continue to assess it as a group of separate projects.
The Green party
platform is also one of social responsibility. What we really want
to do to
Saskatchewan is to give it a sense of community
and pride in what it can accomplish. We want to build community in
a way that won’t leave anyone behind. We often look at smaller
industries as the driving engine which will provide more entry level
jobs and a richer, more stable economy. As we build community we will
be taking care of poverty, unemployment, adequate housing, accessible
health care and prevention of illness, free education and respect for
each other and diversity. The biggest thing that we could is to create
opportunities for dialogue, much like here, only let everyone have
an opportunity to participate so we can work together.
Questions sent
from Chamber of Commerce Office
Q#1 Question One
If you are elected in Prince Albert, what is your Government going
to do to ensure that the Pulp and Paper Mill re-opens?
I have some concerns on how some of the forestry operations were carried
out before Weyerhaeuser closed. In particular they were forcing the
small operators to merge to form larger operations with work orders
that left little time to plan harvest operations properly. They were
cutting up to the edges of lakes even in poplar resorts. I am concerned
that much more of the forest floor was being severely damaged by summer
harvesting operations. I was concerned by Weyerhaeuser pushing more
and more all weather roads deep into more pristine areas such as the
Dore-Smoothstone Lakes area and what the continuous traffic would mean
to the wildlife
I am really concerned
about how much of the commercial forest still exists within economic
distance
of the mill. Domtar is willing to give
up the FMLA which raises questions in my mind about how exactly they
will operate and for how long. A lot of the equipment from the mill
is being dismantled, such as the paper mill (which, I believe the government
invested a lot of money into) and the lumber room where logs are debarked
and chipped up, and they are giving up shares in the lumber mills.
All this Raises some alarm bells in my mind as to whether we are just
see a salvage operation here. The fact that W didn’t feel the
mill was profitable enough when it was producing a value added product
when the Canadian $ was $1.80US seems to support this. The mill is
being down graded to a kraft mill which is an older type of process
which was more harmful to the environment. If Domtar is just making
a quick grab of whatever resource is most easily available and the
forest resource is being compromised, I wouldn’t be in any hurry
to open it because the jobs won’t last for long and government
money will also be swallowed up. As an alternative, or back-up, I think
we could build a pretty viable community managed forest with many operators
instead. This may take time, although there are models out there in
Canada from which can we take the best ideas from and make it work.
Q#2 Questions Two
We all say that we want this area to expand economically. What is your
view on future opportunities for the Uranium industry including the
construction of a nuclear reactor in Northern Saskatchewan or specifically
in the Prince Albert area?
The GPS is the
only party which is clearly against any kind of nuclear development
because
of the long lived toxic and radioactive nuclear
waste and emissions which will selfishly be dumped into the care of
future generations for thousands of years. Not a single country on
this planet, after all this time, has figured out what to do with this
waste yet. The reason is there is water everywhere on this planet wish
can bring it back to the surface and contaminate our ground and surface
waters. It also opposes the use of the toxic and radioactive U238(depleted
uranium from refineries) from Saskatchewan mines that ends up in the
manufacture of armour piercing shells and missiles and bombs of which
2000 tons has been dropped on the people of Afghanistan and Iraq and
is also spreading, through the atmosphere, throughout the world. Several
hours after the bombing they were picking it up in the U.K. Over 200,000
American soldiers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan have
filed claims for compensation for injuries and effects from the gulf
war. I suspect you will soon be hearing stories about our own Canadian
soldiers and their children. I don’t even want to think about
what it is doing to the residents of those bombed countries. Nuclear
energy is a very expensive technology which many nations wish to utilize
to create materials for nuclear weapons. I also have to ask myself
the question, that if there was a major radioactive incident in Saskatchewan
would the people be willing to continue to support it because they
really believe in it, or because they may have no alternative at that
point, or would they be willing to take a loss and close it down -
it is not a cheap industry. Further because it is capital intensive
rather than labour intensive we should be making it possible for wind
and solar generation right down to the household level that people
could sell back on the grid that would not only have the benefit of
being clean and safe but could create a whole new manufacturing and
service sector to our local economy. Lets also add geothermal heat
pumps to the mix. If Saskatchewan does build a reactor it will likely
be built in the vicinity of the Tar sands because transmission losses
over a distance are still significant, so, Prince Albert would lose
out anyway. My research tells me that from mining to waste disposal
the nuclear cycle does produce about a 1/3 of the green house gas emissions
of coal but, we also have to deal with the radioactive emissions and
waste. I suggest we look at Solid Oxide fuel cells which use any type
of carbon fuel, including coal, and convert it chemically rather than
using combustion technologies so there will be no smokestacks. It is
twice as efficient at producing electrical energy, it produces heat
as a byproduct which we can use for processing, heating etc. Westinghouse
and other manufactures are currently building up to 10 megawatt units
but they can also be built small enough to heat a household and sell
off the electricity as a bonus. This means we can size a unit to exactly
what we need, anywhere we need it with no transmission loss.
Q#3 Question Three
Describe briefly your party’s platform on added value processing
of the Prince Albert regions raw materials. What incentives will your
party offer to encourage development & growth?
Prince Albert is situated on the transition between forest and agricultural
lands and has a major river passing through it and is close to lake country.
This begs the opportunity for the community to be involved in a whole gamut
of value added wood, fiber and food products as well as wildcraft, medicinal,
and herbal products and all kinds of recreational and tourism activities. If
we use the governments political will to create a community managed forest
with many, many stakeholders utilizing the forest resource many of these kind
of industries and endeavours could be possible. With global warming, high energy
costs and the demand for healthier, locally grown food and AGAIN ‘political
will’, it shouldn’t be too hard to turn our energy intensive, high
input agricultural economy into a very much less energy and input intensive
organic agricultural economy. Probably the main thing the government could
provide producers in this regard is some kind of marketing agency or access
to quality expertise in this field so that the producers can concentrate on
growing quality crops and value added processors would be able to sell their
products. As I have already pointed out processing industries often use heat
so encouragement of various cogeneration opportunities would be a natural that
would definitely give them a competitive edge. I might add that waste heat
from cogeneration facilities would also be very valuable to a greenhouse vegetable
industry when transportation for imported goods gets too high.
Q#4 Question Four
Saskatchewan is spending millions of dollars in interest payments each
year. Please speak on your party’s plans on debt reduction
particularly given the recent spending increases promised by all
parties.
The GPS believes
that the public debt could be eliminated over time by an increase
in royalties
collected for our resources. At the present
time corporate interests are throwing out tantalizing scraps so that
we will almost beg them to come in and take our resources for almost
nothing. The main incentive used is jobs. I think we can work a much
better deal. Admittedly, this is a global game but if people don’t
start standing up for what they are entitled to have at some place
and time the average person in this world will always be at their mercy.
Society seems to be in a mad rush to exploit our resource as fast as
possible. We should also start thinking of our unexploited resources
as money in the bank which we can spend as we choose, when we, the
people of Saskatchewan, choose. After all we have to leave something
for our future generations. Am I worried that companies will decide
not to do business - not really - I think they need our resources
and would be willing to pay more. Even if things slow down I think
it is really time that we start supporting our farmers again and start
creating value added industries that will support the sale of the products
that they produce. We have options - lets use them!!
Question Five
New business ideas are often abandoned due to taxation costs such as
the PST, property taxes and related issues. How can this problem
be solved?
“
New business” includes a pretty broad category of possibilities.
If it is a value added industry, access to marketing expertise can
contribute greatly to a company’s success and is a role that
government can fill. Local governments have the responsibility to ensure
that the right kind of businesses are established in their communities.
If a company can demonstrate that their business could provide services
or products that are useful and desirable to the culture of the community,
they will have obvious value to the community and should qualify for
a break in some of the initial start up costs such as property taxes
and income taxes for a reasonable period of time until they are financially
able to support their load. This should be particularly true if they
are creating a number of quality jobs. In addition, this will have
to be balanced against the need to not create an unfair advantage against
similar businesses already established. We should be looking at incentives
for businesses that sell or produce local green goods and services.
Businesses which promote art and cultural forms, and recreational activities
which help establish or promote a sense of community should also be
encouraged. As our population ages more and more people will be requiring
simple services such as landscape care, snow shoveling, groceries,
etc. and expertise could be provided to get them started. I think many
new businesses fail because they lack an outside perspective on what
they could do differently and provision of expertise to prevent business
failure of a valued business seems reasonable. However, it is in the
best interests of local governments to make sure that local business
are supported locally. I am sure some cost sharing arrangement could
be set up between governments - I would suggest we should return
to the 60% provincial cost sharing that existed during the Blakeney
Government.
Question Six
Our current growing economy has created a shortage in available labor
pools, including skilled trades people, service personnel, and regional
industry specific positions. How will your party ensure that our
local colleges and educational institutions our funded appropriately
in order to meet the labor needs of the Prince Albert region and
including providing an adequate number of training spaces in relevant
programs.
Trades programs are financed by the apprenticeship board whose financing
should be contingent on the demand for the various trades. Available
training spaces needs to be tailored to current demands which will
fluctuate over time and actual skills required may also change. To
keep training costs down, institutions may have to keep track of
what physical training space is available outside of the institution
and expand their own facilities if a long term shortage is foreseen.
Wages offered for quality jobs by regional and service industries
should provide the incentive for people to seek out training. If
demand is acute enough, industry should be willing to contribute
training dollars as well, in all three sectors.
The other part
of this scenario is the preparation that students need to have prior
to taking
training. To the credit of our schools,
most students make out okay but,I have seen a lot of students enter
into programs that are doomed to failure before they start because
they do not have the skills. In my trade, these would include math
and reading skills. This is not a healthy situation. When students
drop out, they are no longer eligible for funding and they won’t
be allowed back into the education system for a period of time. With
no job skills, what are they going to do? Instead we should be testing
them for entrance skills that can be upgraded, if need be, before they
get into training programs. This would be money well spent because
this will help ensure that more become valuable members of the community
and our programs will be running at fuller capacity. I also think that
our high schools are still streaming students for university. I agree
that our schools should provide a liberal education to train our youth
for a variety of roles in their communities but I think that high schools,
as well as adult upgrading facilities need to see their role as primarily
preparing students for entering the workforce and all types of secondary
education programs. We need to figure out a way to provide better support
services that will turn students on to what skills are important to
ensure their success in their chosen career path that will give better
focus to their studies.
Another factor
that we have to address to keep people in our communities is to make
them
exciting enough and provide pursuits that truly give
people a sense of community. The Rawlinson Centre is an example of
what can be done. The Arts, Cultural Activities, Festivals, Concerts,
Recreation Opportunities - all these kinds of things have a role
to play.
Question Seven
Can you explain your party’s platform on health care in our region,
particularly as it relates to the Fyke Report and the development of
Prince Albert as the 3rd Tertiary Care Center?
. The Fyke report
was delivered in 2001. Basically it called for the rationalizing
and streamlining
of the health system to reduce cost
by 30 to 35%. A lot of this was accomplished by drastically reducing
the number of health districts from 500 to 32 and Fyke suggested it
should be 11-14 and they should have no control over their budgets.
He also focused on more efficient delivery of treatment using more
modern and innovative procedures such as tiny incisions and small cameras
that would mean a much shorter stay in hospital. It also suggested
that some services should be consolidated in one location only, or
perhaps not even in the province at all if joint planning with other
provinces for delivery could be worked out. Tertiary care facilities
were those that contained the highly specialized services. He suggested
Prince Albert could be one of three. To be honest, I don’t have
the background to make an honest appraisal to what services should
be offered in P.A.. I know that I have recently had to travel to Saskatoon
to see specialists. `If that means that I got the best care possible,
then perhaps that was a good thing. However, I believe everyone in
this province should be readily accessible to basic services. Perhaps
we could use our technologies to utilize long distance consultations
that would reduce travel.
The part of the
picture that is missing is prevention. I have been healthy all my
life because
I eat properly, I have good housing, I
have a good social status, good employment opportunities and a good
lifestyle. If we want to address health care costs at the front end
we are going to have to address those who don’t. People at the
lower end of the spectrum don’t tend to have any of these things
and they have more health problems as a result. In fact they are likely
to pose a greater load on both the health and the penal system. We
have to address the issues of poverty, inequality, status, employment
and work environment. We have to build a sense of community and foster
mutual respect. Local organic foods and products and local small scale
industries and affordable, adequate housing are the key. Education
and services through community clinics will also help. We will all
come out winners in the end.
Question Eight
Please explain your party’s platform on enhancing our regional
transportation infrastructure to further encourage the attraction of
industry, increase tourism travel and foster economic growth.
We could use some
real work in r&d for alternate transportation.
Sometimes we have
to use our imagination a little and consider something that, at first
thought
sounds impossible. For instance, during the
period when we were looking at rail line abandonments, tearing down
of grain elevators, and the resulting deterioration of our road systems
due to increased grain truck movement, I tried to convince several
people that we should look at cargo airships (something like Zeppelins)
to move our grain. Sounds impossible? As it turns out these things
have been used to carry some pretty large payloads for forestry and
mining operations in remote areas, they don’t need any roads
and yet can go just about anywhere, they get great mileage, they are
easy on the environment and talk about land of living skies. Hell,
they could be a tourist attraction all by themselves, a new Saskatchewan
icon. The downside is we might have to build a few docking stations
instead of heavy duty roads. Maybe our forestry operations could benefit
as well. Maybe that could be another manufacturing and service industry
for us and we can preserve or even rebuild our remaining elevator system.