Outgoing Battlefords MLA Herb Cox, left, and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe shown during Moe's visit to North Battleford Friday. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Premier visits Battlefords

Premier Scott Moe thanks Cox, talks about hot topic issues during visit to the Battlefords

Feb 21, 2020 | 4:40 PM

Premier Scott Moe visited the Battlefords Friday to visit MLA Herb Cox and community leaders on his current provincial tour.

Moe said his tour has allowed him to engage with many municipalities and community organizations in rural and urban sectors to see “what’s working well and what may not be working with their relationship with the people they serve and with the Government of Saskatchewan.”

During his local stop, the premier thanked Cox, who is not seeking re-election this year, for his long service.

“I’d like to say to the community, first and foremost thank you for providing Herb to the people of Saskatchewan over the course of the last two terms of government,” Moe said. “It’s been a true honour for me personally to serve with Herb in so many different capacities.”

He recognized the outgoing MLA for his work in environment, advanced education as well as chairing the Caucus Committee on Crime Reduction. He added the government put into action any important recommendations to come out of the initiative.

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Moe also discussed some issues that have been in the news recently.

On the Saskatchewan NDP’s ongoing criticism of the new Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford construction, Moe said the project to replace the former 100-year-old building would not have happened if the current government did not initiate the process.

“It’s pretty rich that the NDP have chosen this construction project and the way this project has been built to criticize it,” he said. “The fact of the matter is that this over-100-year-old facility that is so important to so many families across this province and served so many families so effectively over the course of the last century would not have been replaced under an NDP government.

“Despite some of the challenges with the facility, those challenges will be rectified, and they will be rectified not at a cost to taxpayers because of the model that was chosen to construct this facility,” the premier added. “We will work through the short-term challenges with the contractors involved at their cost. We are very thankful that we have a facility that will be there to serve Saskatchewan families for decades to come.”

MLA Cox said while the work is being done to correct the new hospital roof, patients can be moved to another wing within the facility with minimal disruption.

He said the new hospital is “a good news story” for the community and the province.

On the issue of rail blockades across the country in support of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, Moe stressed while discussions are important it is essential to note the protestors’ blockades are illegal.

“I’ve talked numerous times over the course of the last two days with the deputy prime minister and the prime minister, and all the premiers across Canada trying to work together to find a peaceful resolution to these rail blockades that are popping up across the nation,” he said.

“First and foremost, I would say that time after time injunctions have been sought in provinces and they have been acted on by the enforcement agencies in British Columbia and other provinces,” he added. “There are a couple that have yet to be enacted on but we would look for that to happen fairly quickly.”

He said the blockades have caused a significant challenge to the country and the province’s economy.

“The injunctions from courts have deemed that they are illegal,” Moe said. “There is an opportunity for dialogue of which we talked about on our calls with the prime minister and the other premiers, however that opportunity is not a long one. They are illegal, and at some point enforcement will have to occur on all of the blockades for the betterment of the Canadian economy, for the opportunity for communities to access the products that they need and for us essentially to allow our democracy to work.”

On the labour dispute between Unifor and the Federated Co-operatives Limited, the premier said he is hopeful the appointed mediator will help the two parties come to some type of resolution.

“The labour dispute between the Federated Co-operatives and Unifor has been a very challenging labour dispute, not just for those directly involved, whether they be Unifor members or management members working in inside defence, or indirectly truckers and other trades people that would normally be going in and out working at that plant. It indirectly came very close to affecting communities right across this province, which is at the point that the Government of Saskatchewan felt it necessary to step in and take some action where we have tools to take action in what is predominantly a private-sector labour dispute,” Moe said.

He said it is not common for the government to appoint a special mediator in this type of dispute, but the province believed it was necessary in this case.

“I think all reports are is that they are sitting down at the table and doing some work on just figuring out where the lines in the sand are and where the points of contention are, and as well as where the opportunities to come to an agreement are,” Moe said. “There are a number of issues that will be talked about at the table. [The mediator] has looked to get things ready in his reputation and his capability to lead both parties hopefully to an agreement, but for sure lead them much closer together than they are.”

On the issue of the Northern Village of Pinehouse Lake and a lack of cooperation and non-compliance to Freedom of Information requests over many years regarding the village’s finances and governance, the premier said it’s important for all communities to have transparency.

“We have taken every step necessary with respect to ultimately the investigation in the Pinehouse situation. We have taken the recommendations that have come throughout that process very seriously and will continue to enact on them,” he said. “I think if we look at the most recent communication coming out of various individuals involved directly with the situation we ran across in Pinehouse is that we are heading for a better place and more transparent place, and not just for Pinehouse, but for more transparent initiatives in place for all of our communities, not even just in the North.”

The premier also commented on the issue of the layoffs of 25 workers announced at the Westmoreland Coal Mine in Estevan due to a drop in demand for coal. SaskPower said the federal carbon tax is forcing it to change the way it runs the plant at Boundary Dam and its Shand station.

“The challenges in the coal industry in Canada, and that includes Saskatchewan, Alberta and other areas of the nation we live in, are due to not only federally-imposed carbon tax but also to a federally-imposed phase-out of coal that was accelerated by the current Liberal federal government” he said. “We are looking at opportunities that we have to transition our energy source, and for us that means an investment in renewables.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow