(file photo/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Budget battle

Local MLA’s weigh in on budget

Mar 20, 2019 | 6:23 PM

The Prince Albert region and the North has either a lot to gain from this year’s provincial budget or very little, depending on which member of the legislative assembly (MLA) gives their view.

Joe Hargrave, the Sask Party MLA for the Prince Albert Carlton riding, told paNOW the budget has a lot to offer families, and will help address some of the social issues.

“We’ve got $30 million going into mental health funding and beds. Well guess where a lot of the money is going? A lot of that will go into Prince Albert,” he said.

Hargrave added a tax credit for volunteer fire fighters, and a $700,000 increase in funding for individuals struggling with autism, will also be felt in Prince Albert.

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One of the big budget items which may be of concern to Prince Albert and the northern region, is a $2.5 million commitment by the provincial government to advance the pre-construction design of a new Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert. Hargrave refuted any suggestion the provincial government is not fulfilling its promise to build a new hospital.

“It’s not that we are stopping, it’s that we are moving ahead. We would not put $2.5 million into it if we weren’t moving ahead,” he said.

Hargrave explained the provincial government recognizes a new hospital is important for Prince Albert, and so wants to make sure it does its due diligence before starting construction.

Meanwhile the NDP MLA for Prince Albert Northcote Nicole Rancourt said she was still hoping to hear a firmer commitment.

“Because we already know that years ago they started that process so I was hoping the Premier would honor his promise and start building a new, bigger hospital in Prince Albert,” she said.

In response to Hargrave’s claims the budget would benefit Prince Albert, Rancourt argued there were several noticeable omissions including money for local schools, and for new passing lanes on Highway 2 north.

“Because we know that we’ve had some petty serious accidents on that highway. It’s a busy highway and it’s one that leads to our lake country so I was hoping they were going to consider putting some investment into that too,” she said.

While there are no new taxes or hike to the provincial sales tax in the budget, Rancourt added people in the region need to the know the provincial debt has tripled in the past ten years, and the Provincial Sales Tax has doubled.

“When the government talks about having a balanced budget, we’ve got to look at how much this debt will be impacting our future generations and our crown corporations and that there is no emergency plan within this budget,” she said.

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell,