Progressive Conservative Party leader Ken Grey (right) with deputy leader Shaun Harris at the P.A. Exhibition Parade Monday. (submitted photo)

By Glenn Hicks

Saskatchewan's almost forgotten party

Progressive Conservative Party tries to reconnect with voters

Jul 30, 2019 | 4:57 PM

The Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan (PCP), which barely commands any political traction in the province, is trying to bolster its presence and awareness in P.A.

Leader Ken Grey and P.A.-based deputy leader Shaun Harris had a float at the exhibition parade Monday and part of that was just to inform people they exist.

“We’ve undertaken some advertisements, and we’re taking part in events like these in the summer, just to remind people that number one, we’re around,” Grey told paNOW. “A lot of people don’t seem to know that.”

Grey, who took part in last year’s Regina Northeast byelection, finishing a distant third, said it was important to get out and about in the lead-up to next year’s provincial vote to let people know who the “true Conservative party is.”

“The Saskatchewan Party is really the mushy, middle, liberal type government as far as we’re concerned,” Grey claimed. “Our appeal and our base is folks that really identify as being truly conservative. We should be conserving our resources and look after our people first, and I think that message is resonating lately.”

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Diefenbaker Bridge and government priorities

He said he’d been hearing concerns from P.A. residents about the idea of tolling the Diefenbaker Bridge as a way of generating funds towards a second crossing over the river and how that would hurt rural residents and negatively impact business in the region and the North. He called out the Sask. Party government’s spending priorities.

“The $2 billion the Saskatchewan Party spent on the vanity Regina bypass project could have built a number of bridges across P.A. if common sense had prevailed at that time,” he said.

Future of the P.A. pulp mill

Deputy leader Shaun Harris meanwhile, who runs a trucking company and intends to announce his candidacy in P.A. soon, has been speaking to locals about the PCP’s idea for the still defunct Prince Albert pulp mill. He figures a two-year moratorium on dues and fees to government on lumber from the North could help boost several businesses and employment.

“We have stands of timber up north and up to seventy per cent of it is pulp and yet it gets piled up and burnt because we have no market for it,” Harris said. “That means the government is not getting any resource revenue off it either.”

He suggested the special two-year period without fees would be an ideal regional economic boost ahead of the mill’s re-opening.

However, Harris also criticized the government and Paper Excellence, the current owners of the mill, for not yet coming up with a clear plan on how to boost the industry and be prepared for the potential energy generation the site could produce.

“This is all stuff that has to be pre-planned for, regardless of whether it’s 2020 or 2021 when a fire-up date can happen,” he said. “You’re not going to turn the switch and expect your yard to be full of wood. Now is the time to initiate these plans and for a company to invest their dollars and work with a SaskPower or the government to make this project viable.”

Earlier this year Paper Excellence said they could not say when the mill might re-open as an engineering study was first needed to see if the mill was viable and to see if the company wanted to go ahead and open it.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow