Provincial NDP leader Ryan Meili, along with Prince Albert Northcote MLA Nicole Rancourt and Prince Albert Carlton candidate Troy Parenteau, meet Monday with Janet Carriere, Executive Director of Prince Albert's Indian Metis Friendship Centre. (Nigel Maxwell/ paNOW Staff)

By Nigel Maxwell

Polics and poverty

NDP leader talks poverty and crime during brief stopover in Prince Albert

Jul 29, 2019 | 5:38 PM

The creation of a poverty reduction strategy remains high on the agenda for Saskatchewan’s NDP party, and leader Ryan Meili was gathering some research during a stop in Prince Albert Monday.

Meili met with representatives of the Indian Métis Friendship Centre, as well as the Métis local. Meili told paNOW he was quite concerned last week to hear where the province stood in terms of the crime severity index.

“To really address that we need to move upstream and deal with the root causes of crime, deal with poverty, deal with the things that are driving people into situations of addiction, of family breakdown, of criminal activity to help reduce that,” he said.

Police have connected methamphetamine to issues such as property crime. Meili said the province needs to work closer with police services to address the issue, but added through his own experience as a family doctor, the biggest effort needs to go toward helping people get off the drug.

Meili said at the moment, those looking to get clean are asking for help, but not getting it immediately.

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“They are hearing back, ‘Great come back in two weeks or three months or six months.’ When someone has an addiction and they are ready to change, they need to have that help available immediately,” Meili said.

Last week the NDP was calling for the removal of MLA Nadine Wilson from caucus, following her charge of common assault. On Monday, Meili had not changed his tune and said the idea the premier calls charges for domestic violence, a “personal family matter”, upsets him, considering the province has the highest rates of domestic violence in the country.

“That sort of minimizing of the seriousness of these crimes is really inappropriate,” Meili said.

Wilson, who has a court date scheduled for September, has stepped down as provincial secretary but Meili said Wilson should not be in the government caucus at all until the matter is resolved.

“She’ll have her day in court and that will be dealt with but it would send a much clearer message from the premier about how he takes situations of domestic violence seriously if he did the right thing and asked her to sit outside the Sask. Party caucus until this is resolved one way or another,” he said.

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nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell