ELECTION 2016: Meet candidate Joe Hargrave

Joe Hargrave: Well that’s a very interesting question. Part of the reason I’m running is because, one, I’m almost a senior and – that wasn’t why I’m running – and then I have a young family and then they have young families. I’m quite concerned about our youth and about moving people up and making sure their lives, their quality of life, is going to continue to increase and be better for them.

So under 18, we want to continue with strong education for those kids still in school. And then we want to make sure they get a good rounded education and advance towards post-secondary education. Young families, the biggest concern I have is that we don’t raise taxes. And that’s one of the key things for me. There’s nothing harder on a young family than having to pay extra money in taxes. By keeping the taxes low, I think we can create more jobs, we can create more businesses that want to come to the city and improve on the job situation for those young families. We want to continue the pace of those childcare spaces that we’ve developed. SaskParty government, Brad Wall and the SaskParty government, have created 600 additional childcare spaces over their term, in the last eight years, as opposed to the old record of the NDP which only created 180 per year. And although they do profess to be very concerned about that, but the actuality is that the SaskParty government has actually created 600.

As far as seniors go, we want to ensure that they continue to be well taken care of. I mean we owe them a huge debt. And, so, we want to make sure that they’re well taken care of. We want to make sure that there’s spaces in long-term care facilities. We’d like them to stay in their homes as long as possible, so that all has to be worked on. But, we’re creating more long term care facilities to handle that need going down the road. Our predecessors, I mean, they closed 1,200 long-term care facilities and we built 14 since the last eight years of the Brad Wall government. That’s so important to us. Plus what we’ve done is tripled the seniors income benefit from $90 to $270. So we’ve always got to be watching and we’re going to make sure that their income tax stays low for any seniors.

DR: January of 2016, StatsCan records Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate at 5.6 per cent. However, Prince Albert and the North was listed as 7.6 per cent. This was actually up from the same time last year from 4.7 per cent. Why is the unemployment percentage higher than the provincial average and what can you do to get people working?

JH: That’s another reason why I ran. I have a pretty good record of my businesses in creating employment, of economic development. I’ve had five major businesses that I’ve ran and started and developed and employ that many people. We’re not noticing, in my businesses, much of a downturn as far as layoffs go. But I do think that part of it is a seasonality thing. Part of it relates to a downturn in the oil sector. A lot of our people work outside of Prince Albert, but live in Prince Albert. So I think a lot of it has to do with that. What we need to do, is we need to generate more jobs right here in Prince Albert for these people and I think that’s a strong point of my platform, my personal issue is that I can help out if I’m fortunate enough to be elected.

DR: And how are you going to generate those jobs?

JH: Well, one way you generate those jobs is by welcoming business into the community. So, I’m going to work with city council, the mayor and city council, and go out and solicit business and to get business. I think if you don’t go look for it, it’s not just necessarily going to come knocking on your door. So we got to go out, and we got to attract that business. We got to keep our tax rate low, we can’t afford to raise taxes. The NDP raised taxes 23 times in 16 years. The SaskParty hasn’t raised it once. So we got to keep that pace going, because that helps people and that attracts other businesses to come to Prince Albert. We have an open door policy, c’mon into Saskatchewan and start your business, or move your business here. So that’s what I’ll be doing.

DR: Does Prince Albert and region need a second bridge? How should this be accomplished and how should the project be funded?

JH: Definitely Prince Albert and region needs a second bridge. Maybe the traffic flows don’t warrant it, but, you know, I’ve lived in Prince Albert a lot of years and you see the need for it. When the bridge has been down, you know, this last few years that we’ve been doing construction on it, it’s harmful. It’s harmful for the economy of Prince Albert and all those businesses along there. We do need a second bridge as well just for the dangerous goods routes, so it doesn’t have to go right through the middle of the city.

How should it be funded? Well I know Brad Wall and the SaskParty already committed funding for a portion of the bridge, basically, with the SaskBuilds model combining with the federal government and the municipal government.

DR: Given the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s findings, does our education system adequately teach students about residential schools and First Nations issues in general?

JH: Well I have grandkids who are just starting school and it’s my hope that they’ll learn lots about the First Nations in school. I don’t know the school curriculum that well at this point, but I think it’s so important for us all to be involved and to be aware of First Nation’s history, you know, in Saskatchewan. That’s how we’re going to work together to build a better Saskatchewan is if we know. That’s an issue that I’ll be looking at with the Education Minister to see that it is the increased awareness of the Aboriginal treaties, Aboriginal history.

DR: Would you support a community drug strategy in Prince Albert, similar to our alcohol one?

JH: Most definitely. Alcohol of course is a drug so it’s part of that. I was on the police commission for three years, so I have some insight as to the strategy, or a little bit more, and I know that we’ve invested heavily in the provincial government in the Community Mobilization Project, the HUB and the CORE. That’s crucial, I think, to a long-term strategy of dealing with this. The drug issue is extremely important in Prince Albert that we get this dealt with along with the alcohol issues. So yes, in short, I do support that.

DR: Does Prince Albert and region need a new or additional hospital? If so, how should this be accomplished and how should the project be funded?

JH: Well this should be accomplished, definitely. A new, or renewed, or vastly renewed hospital. I’ve toured that hospital and I see it is overcrowded in many areas, in all the wards, you know, in all the labs and operating rooms and everywhere in the hospital. It wasn’t built to handle as many people as we’re putting through it. I know Brad Wall and the provincial government have funded a $2 million study, which the results should be out very shortly, as to what’s the best way to go about doing this because we want to do it the right way. We just don’t want to do it on a haphazard basis. Let’s do it right, but let’s get it done.

So how should that be funded? I think that’s part of what this study is going to look at, is exactly how that should be funded. With the federal government changing in the fall, I know Prime Minister Trudeau has mentioned that he’s going to invest considerably more money in infrastructure, maybe there’ll be more money coming from there as well as the provincial government. So, we’ll see how that funding model works out.

DR: What are the pros and cons of private liquor vendors in Prince Albert. Does the fact that the city have a higher level of consumption than the national average, is this a pro or a con in this case?

JH: Well the pros and cons of private liquor vendors, I guess, the alcohol strategy, it doesn’t matter if it’s a private store or public liquor store, that’s still an issue; no matter what it is. One of the pros of a private liquor store, I mean I grew up in a small, small community in Saskatchewan. We’ve had private liquor stores for years, they weren’t started by Brad Wall and the SaskParty; they were started long before that. There was one in the Sears Outlet where I grew up. So they’ve been around for a long time.

I think one of the benefits of a private outlet is, if you’ve been to Saskatoon area and down to the Co-op liquor store there, you’ll see they’ve employed a lot of people there. More than what we would have employed in one of our liquor stores here in town, for example. They’re very competitive pricing with anywhere else that you’ll see in Alberta or anywhere, they’re more competitive pricing. But they’ve created a lot of employment and I think that’s one of the things they’ve given customers really a pleasant place to shop. The alcohol strategy is important, but everybody doesn’t have a problem with it and some people want a pleasant place to go shop for that.

So the downside is we do have a situation in our city. But it’s up to the city to decide what they want to do. The SaskParty government has thrown that to the city and said ‘you decide if you want private, if you want public.’ They’ve thrown it to the city. They’ve said ‘city, you decide if you want to have a privatized store or a government store, or another store.’ So we’ll wait to see what the city’s total final response is on that.

DR: Do you feel the same way about the 24 hour liquor stores they were proposing a little while ago?

JH: The 24 hour liquor store is, again, a municipal issue. I don’t know exactly what the municipal government, what the mayor and council are going to decide what to do. I think that’s an issue that’s got to go to the people and they can decide what they want to do with it.

I personally don’t need a 24 hour liquor store.

DR: Using 2013 StatsCan data, the Parkland Health Region was named the unhealthiest region in Canada. What factors do you think contribute to this and how will you improve upon these factors?

JH: Well, I think it’s a sad state to have to say it was that. What we need is a strategy to make sure that it does improve. Part of that is the hospital strategy that we’ve talked about, the study, and improving that. We live in an area, unfortunately, where a lot of people, social-economic factors are, where maybe the proper diet is not available. They’re low income, so they’re having to go the food banks, they’re having to go, maybe they don’t get the best food, the best quality of foods. And that’s a real shame and that’s something that’s got to be continued to look at.

As to how we can improve and move that up in Prince Albert, we’ve generated eight city blocks of renewed city housing. I think that’s got to continue here to improve that. It will eventually improve that social-economic standing of those people and move it ahead so that we can have these people attain a better standard of living.

DR: Premier Brad Wall is against a federal tax on carbon emissions. He told Trudeau that it is far too costly for the Saskatchewan economy. If not a carbon tax, what can the province do to combat emissions especially from two of its biggest emitters – our crown corps, SaskPower and SaskEnergy.

JH: You know, one of the reasons I’m running, is because Brad Wall and the leadership he shows. Not only for Saskatchewan, but for Western Canada and for Canada. To discuss these issues and not be afraid to say ‘right now is not the best time to throw another tax on the people of Saskatchewan, Western Canada or Canada,’ insofar and that’s generally what this is. He’s saying it’s not the right time. However, he’s also said ‘let’s discuss this, let’s sit down, let’s talk about it on a long-term basis.’ We should be looking at that. We have the Boundary Dam project, carbon capture project, and that’s improving month by month. I think that’s a whole new economic business for Saskatchewan and for Canada and I think we can continue to improve on that, we can share that with the rest of Canada. It will help that whole carbon capture issue.

DR: At what point would a disagreement with your party result in your resignation?

JH: Well again, one of the reasons I ran for the SaskParty nomination is because of the leadership of Brad Wall and my thinking is along the same lines as his thinking and the SaskParty’s. I guess if he started to act like the NDP I’d probably leave. But I can’t see that happening anytime soon. My values are the same values as his and of the Saskatchewan Party. He has a high standard, I personally have a high standard that I live to and I believe Brad Wall lives to, that the Saskatchewan Party lives to. That standard is paramount for me.

dreynolds@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @danitska

by Dana Reynolds

ELECTION 2016: Meet candidate Joe Hargrave

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