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Trudeau talks fires, environment and economy during visit to La Ronge

Aug 12, 2015 | 7:25 PM

Liberal Candidate Justin Trudeau is busy travelling across Saskatchewan as part of his federal election campaign.

He started off in Regina on Wednesday morning and continued the tour in La Ronge in the afternoon.

There, he accessed fire damage and discussed firefighting policies currently in place.

“If I become Prime Minister I will actually sit down and hold First Minister conferences,” Trudeau addressed the media. “There’s certainly been a call, by Premier Clark and Premier Wall—and others—to make sure that the Federal Government works with provincial governments and listens to municipalities and learns from the very difficult summer we had.”

“The reality of climate change is that we’re going to see more and more extreme weather events and we need to make sure that as a country we’re properly equipped to deal with these challenges.”

Trudeau said he expects a better collaboration between all levels of government on resources, training and funding when it comes to fires.

Continuing his discussion on the environment, Trudeau said the economy must go hand in hand with it.

“We need to get our resources to market, we need jobs, we need growth, but we need to do that in a way that doesn’t put in peril our land, our water, our air, or the well-being of future generations,” he explained.  

First Nations focus

While in Northern Saskatchewan, Trudeau met with local First Nations leaders including Lac La Ronge Indian Band Chief Tammy Cook-Searson. He was poised and ready to answer First Nations focused questions.

“The Indian Act is something we need to move beyond as a country but it’s not something to be done unilaterally from Ottawa. It’s something to be done in serious and sustained partnership with communities across the country,” said Trudeau, who went on to explain that some communities have moved past it, but patience is an absolute must.

“Canada needs to do right by the victims of residential schools and the Liberal Party is fully committed to working with all partners to make sure that happens.”

Trudeau said he’s long been in favour of the Idle No More movement, since he was in the community where it all started. One of the movement’s main issues was with Bill C51 which Trudeau said should be amended.

“Canadians understand that we need a government to both protect our security and defend our rights and freedoms,” he said. “Mr. Harper doesn’t think we need to do anything more to protect our rights and freedoms and Mr. Mulcair doesn’t think we need to do anything more to protect our security. In both cases they are wrong.”

“We need to make sure we’re doing both of those together.”

Because Canada is so large and vast, Trudeau said it’s important to have locals MPs who can represent their area. He spoke highly of local candidate Lawrence Joseph.

“Lawrence will be a strong voice in Ottawa for the community he represents, and not just Ottawa’s voice in his community,” said Trudeau. “It’s about time that this community, and this part of the country, had representation that is focused on making sure that we—in Ottawa—understand the challenges and the opportunities in this beautiful part of the country.

He said he strongly believes that no one person can represent the whole country, thus why strong MPs make such a difference.

Duffy in the hot seat

According to Nigel Wright, a witness to Mike Duffy’s fraud, breach of trust and bribery trial, Stephen Harper didn’t know specifics, but was briefed on general repayment negotiations. According to Trudeau, this is just one example of the Conservative Party’s dishonesty.

 “The Conservative Government has not been telling the truth to Canadians,” he said. “They have been misleading Canadians as to their level of involvement in and around the senate and the Mike Duffy scandal, and we’re going to continue to see just how much this government has focused on its own power and keeping that power rather than serving Canadians properly.”

“Any fiction that Mr. Harper has tried to push that the senate is somehow an independent body has been completely shown to be wrong.”

He said there has been a higher level of control and interference from the Prime Minister’s office than the public was aware of, which he said was “unrespectful of our democracy and its principles.”

asoloducha@panow.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha