By Sarah Wallace

Local MLA’s look back on Spring Session

May 19, 2014 | 8:53 AM

Summer break has now come for our provinces MLA, as the Spring Session wrapped up on Thursday.

Prince Albert Northcote MLA Victoria Jurgens said all-in-all she’s excited about the Spring Session.

Jurgens said some of her highlights from the Spring Session include balancing the budget and continuing to invest in infrastructure and people.

“You see some of that investment [in the] $2 million dollars allocated for the planning of renewal for the Victoria Hospital and we are going to be finishing the Pine View Terrence, the funding is helping with the completion of that.”

She said they are also funding more HUB and CORs in the province and will end up with 15 more HUBs and three more CORs.

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“To me that shows the leadership of Prince Albert because we started the first HUB and COR,” she said.

“We also have double the funding for initiatives that will improve education and employment outcomes for First Nations and Metis people. We have upgraded bandwidth to increase the internet speed in all of our Saskatchewan schools.”

She said they are also investing in the Saskatchewan Advantage Grant for Education program.

“We are also starting a social impact bond, the first of its kind in Canada, to help support mothers complete their education or secure employment, or participate in pre-employment activities.”

For her summer break Jurgens said she’s going to take the opportunity to connect more with her constitutions.

“[I want to find out] what their thoughts are and where we might keep going. I know the balanced budget and controlled spending is number one for everyone, so I’ll make sure people still want that to happen.”

She’s looking forward to everything when the Fall Session begins.

“I enjoy getting out to my community and talking with the people … I want to thank my constituents for all their support, continue to contact me with any and all thoughts, my office is always open.”

Prince Albert Carlton MLA Darryl Hickie said for him a big highlight of the Spring Session was the changing of the Traffic Safety Act laws that will be coming into force June 27 for the most part.

“Those are going to toughen laws up against drinking and driving, cell phone usage and speeding, so we’re going to have a new way of punishing those people who refuse to obey the law. I’m very happy about that given my background with policing.”

Even though Hickie has already announced he will not be running in the next provincial election, he said he’s still an MLA so he plans to spend his summer engaging with his constituents.

“People are much more engaged then I think they were before when it comes to talking with MLA’s in our province. I get approached many times when I’m out shopping around town, people want to just chit chat about what we’re doing, good and bad and that’s what we get paid for.”

He said he looks forward to bringing his constituents concerns to the government.

When the Fall Session resumes Hickie said maintaining a balanced budget will still be a top priority.

“[But also continuing] our revenue sharing with municipalities is important because it keeps taxes lower for the city of Prince Albert, those are things I still want to work on.”

He wants to make sure the government is continuing to listen to stakeholders regionally and provincially to make sure everyone’s needs are met.

The Fall Session of the legislature is set to resume on Oct. 22.

swallace@panow.com

@sarahthesquid