Stewart, Cockrill weigh in on Throne Speech

“I would like to see him [Moe] acknowledge our healthcare workers, and acknowledge the reality of where we are,” she said. “People are struggling, businesses are struggling. Mostly I’m disappointed in his inaction because I feel by focusing on personal responsibility and leaving decisions up to individual communities, individual businesses and individual people, the blame falls on them instead of him.”

Stewart added now that Saskatchewan has military staff being sent to the province, it shows how dire the situation is.

“I am just disappointed with him [Moe] trying to focus on ‘we’re strong,’ and focus on the economy, when there is no economy if we don’t have a healthy community,” she said.

Battlefords MLA Jeremy Cockrill says the province has been focusing on encouraging more people to get vaccinated to reduce the risk and the spread of COVID-19.

“Our focus has been on making vaccinations as accessible as possible, to everybody in this province,” he told battlefordsNOW. “The recent cases in Saskatchewan show that, the Premier mentioned this (Oct. 28) in Question Period, unvaccinated people are six times more likely to get COVID, 13 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 28 more times likely to need an ICU [intensive care unit] bed. So we’ve been clear in terms of our position on getting vaccinated.”

Cockrill said more than 85 per cent of eligible Saskatchewan residents have received one dose of the vaccine and 75 per cent of those eligible residents are fully vaccinated.

“We do believe that strategy is working, and that’s what is going to get us through the fourth wave,” he said.

On the new Throne Speech, he said the province is also focused on building a strong economy for the future, after dealing with a tough year for businesses and the agricultural sector.

Cockrill said the province is excited with some new business investment in Saskatchewan for the future.

He pointed to the Jansen BHP Potash producing mine coming to the eastern part of the province, and a new canola crushing plant in the southern region.

“And just north of the Battlefords we have Serafina (Serafina Energy Ltd.) starting their Crude By Rail (CBR) terminal which is really exciting for oil production in our area,” he said.

The MLA discussed the province’s creation of the Saskatchewan Indigenous Investment Finance Corporation to support the Indigenous business sector.

“The goal is to create more opportunities for Indigenous communities and organizations to become equity partners in resource development in our province,” he said.

Increasing safety is also one of the province’s focuses announced in the Throne Speech. Cockrill is pleased to see that 60 new police positions and 11 civilian positions will be added around the province.

Furthermore, he added, the new Saskatchewan RCMP Crime Reduction Teams (CRTs) announced for four communities in the province — two of which will be in Meadow Lake and Lloydminster — will further help deal with criminal activity in the area.

“I am optimistic that having CRT’s in those two communities is going to help the Battlefords in the sense that it will allow our Battlefords detachment’s CRT team to spend more time in our specific communities and in the surrounding region,” he said.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow

by Angela Brown

Stewart, Cockrill weigh in on Throne Speech

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