By Teena Monteleone

Local MLA anticipates more impaired driving legislation in 2017

Dec 29, 2016 | 11:00 AM

Prince Albert Carlton MLA Joe Hargrave was on a steep learning curve in 2016. The businessman turned politician had just a few months to learn the ropes at the legislature before the premier asked him to join cabinet.

“It was a great honour and I think a really good thing for the city of Prince Albert to have someone sitting at the cabinet table in Regina,” Hargrave said.

As the minister responsible for SGI, Hargrave has spent a lot of his time focusing on impaired driving. Saskatchewan has the highest rate of impaired driving in the nation. New legislation, set to take place January 1 2017 will bring the stiffest penalties in Canada for blood alcohol content as low as 0.04. Still, Hargrave said the province isn’t done with impaired driving – whether alcohol or drug-related.

“I am confident that we’ll bring new legislation in 2017 to compliment what we’ve already done,” he said.

Hargrave acknowledged Prince Albert has an exceptional problem with drugs and crime is on the rise as a result. He says a task force made up of MLAs focused on reducing crime rates in Saskatchewan will make a stop in Prince Albert next month.

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“Rural crime is going up and we know drugs are causing issues like that. As a government, we will come up with a plan to tackle it,” he said.

Hargrave said the province will look to other provinces on how to curb the problem. The federal government is eyeing a number of legislative changes, for example, to address an opioid crisis that has resulted in hundreds of deaths in Canada this year alone.

In addition to being the cabinet minister for SGI, Hargrave is also responsible for the Saskatchewan Transportation Company and the Crown Investments Corporation ministries. He said tackling the billion dollar shortfall in revenue will be an onerous task.

“We’ve got a tight budget. I’ll be working with Crown Investments Corporation to ensure they are working diligently to earn additional money and to save money where they can,” Hargrave said.

teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

@TeenaMonteleone