QUESTIONS FOR CANDIDATES - Kelvington-Wadena from Joan Eyolfson Cadham, Foam Lake Review jcadh@sasktel.net  ( October 2007)

1.Name, home town, occupation
Elaine Hughes, Archerwill, SK - Retired
For more information, please check the Green Party of Saskatchewan Platform 2007 at: http://www.greenpartysask.ca/GPS_Principles_Platform/Platform_2007.htm

2.What is the ONE major issue facing the province at the moment?
The ONE major issue facing the province at the moment is the threat to the health of our residents and our environment posed by the expansion of uranium industry.
The long-term environmental and social costs of this dangerous industry will be left for the people of the province, especially in the north, to bear for thousands of years to come. As it pushes for increased extraction and export of uranium, for the construction of a uranium refinery in Saskatchewan, and the creation of the world’s nuclear waste dump in our back yard, this industry is concerned only about its own bottom line. And, since Canada is the world’s largest uranium producer, we are also party to the death and mutilation of millions of innocent lives wherever the war machine brings its Depleted Uranium bullets.
3. What is the ONE major issue facing rural Saskatchewan at the moment? (They can be the same or different.)
The ONE major issue facing rural Saskatchewan at the moment is the loss of our small communities, our small family farms, our rural schools and our rural lifestyle caused by the spread of large agribusiness which degrades the quality of our environment, the quality of our food products, and the health of local economies.
4.What will you, personally, and your party do to resolve those two (or that one) particular problem?
- Uranium issue:
The Green Party of Saskatchewan is the only party which opposes the expansion of the uranium and nuclear power industry. The future health and social impacts on industry workers and residents as well as the contamination of our environment for hundreds of thousands of years into the future far outweigh the short-term, short-sighted financial gains from this dangerous, highly subsidized industry.
For us, and the world, the sure and steady path is for simple and clean technologies such as wind, solar, energy efficiency and conservation. They will provide plenty of good decentralized employment worldwide; there is no way that a complicated and dangerous technology like the nuclear industry can compete with them.
Personally, I will continue to oppose the continued mining and development of the uranium industry, and will continue to inform the public about its true dangers: it is not safe, it is not clean, it is not cheap.
- Loss of family farms, rural schools and our rural lifestyle:
We need a “Green” vision and leadership to bring our rural and urban society together to create community-based, sustainable standards and practices that value the health of our food, land, water and air, focussed on producing top quality, world class products by methods that earn recognition from environmentally conscious people around the world. They will come to know that “Saskatchewan” means “Quality”.
A Green Party of Saskatchewan Government will support the family farm system of production and will encourage the Federal Government to also finance the transition to ecologically sound, sustainable and organic agriculture that supports independent farms and farm co-operatives rather than large agribusiness ventures.
Personally, I will continue to buy my food as close to home as possible - from producers I know and trust to produce it using humane and sustainable methods, and encourage others to do the same.
5. Realistically (with the emphasis on realistic), what do you think is the best route to increasing the population of rural Saskatchewan? That includes - do we move people out from the cities, do we encourage immigration, or is there a third way. And, if we encourage immigration, as the old song says, “How do we keep them down on the farm” in the face of the call of multicultural cities?
A Green Party of Saskatchewan Government will support the family farm system of production and will encourage the Federal Government to also finance the transition to ecologically sound, sustainable and organic agriculture that supports independent farms and farm co-operatives rather than large agribusiness ventures.
According to the May 2006 Census of Agriculture, we have had 44,329 farms in the province, a 12.4% decrease in the last 5 years, and 59,185 farm operators, which is a 10.7% decline in the same 5 years. We must stop this runaway train! A Green Party of Saskatchewan Government will support a series of initiatives, which would result in the creation of a “Quality Saskatchewan” program. It would promote Saskatchewan agriculture, industry, products, institutions and communities nationally and internationally as being certified high quality, environmentally responsible and economically sustainable.
The next two questions are Foam Lake and District specific:
6 How will your party, if successful, fund rebuilding of the RURAL Portion of the Highway system? Let's use 310 as an example.
Saskatchewan’s resources belong to Saskatchewan people of today and to all future generations but we are losing revenue by giving them away to large foreign corporations. Unless we are willing to confront this issue, we will continue to have cuts in government services and high personal taxes. A Green Party of Saskatchewan Government will reform the province’s taxation system from a property-based system to an income-based one - making adequate funds available for maintaining all our roads and highways.
7 When can we expect to see our Health Centre return to a facility that can provide 24-7 emergency care? (We can get the staff, we just need co-operation from the Sask Health and Sunrise to begin the comeback.)
A Green party of Saskatchewan Government would create a democratic participatory process for an effective community voice in determining health policy at the local level, will support the introduction of more community health centres and home care, and will ensure adequate funding is available to maintain the five principles of Medicare, one of which would be emergency services.
The next two questions are on a topic dear to my own heart, given that literacy is a serious concern, and given that libraries can provide books, computer access, and other learning tools to portions of the public which cannot afford these tools:
8 Provincial funding for Public Libraries has failed to keep pace with the rate of inflation. What would your party, if successful, do to rectify this serious shortfall?
Assuming the accuracy of your question, it is no surprise that funding for Public Libraries has failed to keep up with the rate of inflation. The loss of revenue caused by giving away our resources naturally results in cuts to government services and programs such as libraries.
If successful, a Green Party of Saskatchewan Government would focus on restoring the voice of local communities and funds through fair taxation and increased resource royalties in order to continue such government programs such as public libraries.
9 Public Libraries have deferred staffing, major maintenance and replacement of facilities and equipment, are you and your party willing to make the general funding needs of Public Libraries a priority?
As mentioned earlier, a Green Party of Saskatchewan Government would reform the province’s taxation system and restore local decision-making powers so that it is more just and more effectively supports the development and maintenance of local community programs, including their local libraries.
10. What would you do to increase voter turnout? For example, Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, Fiji, Luxembourg, Nauru, Singapore, Switzerland and Uruguay strictly enforce mandatory voting.
A Green Party of Saskatchewan Government would introduce a system of proportional representation accepted by the people of the province through a referendum process during its first 4-year mandate.
Saskatchewan people deserve an electoral system which ensures that their voice is heard in government. As people regain control of their decision-making powers about things which affect them directly, voter turnout would increase. I’m not sure if we need mandatory voting.