Liberal MP Buckley Belanger as seen during an announcement in Air Ronge in October. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

winter break

Belanger reflects on first months as Liberal MP for Northern Sask.

Dec 10, 2025 | 4:50 PM

Buckley Belanger is reflecting on his first seven months in office as the Liberal MP for Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River.

“First of all I want to say that in this role as MP for Saskatchewan and for Northern Saskatchewan we are doing quite a bit of work to meet some of the demands of both those constituencies,” he said in a year-end interview with larongeNOW.

“By virtue of being the only Liberal MP from Saskatchewan, a lot of the Saskatchewan issues and files land on my desk. We don’t forget the people who got us to Ottawa, so Northern Saskatchewan is really important, the Province of Saskatchewan is also very, very important, and the new title of rural development across the country is another job we assume, so we have been keeping really busy.”

Some of the major announcements Belanger wanted to highlight is the $1.6 billion deal struck with the provincial government in recent weeks to update their agreement for $10 per day daycare, as well as the $105 million commitment to bring high speed internet to 6,500 rural and remote households in Saskatchewan.

In addition, Belanger spoke about the $69.5 million being invested into infrastructure projects through the Canada Community Building Fund.

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“You look at the opportunities in some of the buckets of money in housing, in infrastructure that the federal budget has touched based on, there’s a lot of opportunity,” he explained.

“We’ve done a lot of things thus far, but there are more opportunities coming forward.”

While becoming a Liberal MP has had its challenges, Belanger noted he has been able to overcome many of them quickly because of his extensive history as an MLA. There are changes in procedure in the House of Commons, and his role as Secretary of State for Rural Development comes with significant travel obligations.

“The management of Canada as the Government of Canada is very complex as well, so there’s a lot of things we had to learn quickly and we are continuing to learn, but all the while knowing we wanted this job, so we are going to do our very best to learn, to continue working and doing the very best to represent the people of Desnethe-Missinipe-Churchill River,” Belanger remarked.

With members of the House of Commons now on their winter break, Belanger will be travelling to various communities with the constituency meeting with residents and leaders to learn more about what needs to be done. He said those conversations are important and it will give him an idea of what constituent’s needs are when he returns to the House of Commons in 2026.

Belanger also hopes to make time to return home to Ile-a-la Crosse to spend some much deserved time with family and friends.

“It is important to understand and enforce and emphasize the fact that folks want certain issues dealt with in Northern Saskatchewan,” he said.

“Whether it’s issues around crime and security, we’re going to put in some tougher laws in that regard. If it’s investments into industry, we’re telling PrairiesCan we have to do more work on that front. If it’s looking at protecting our communities and responding to the fire situation a bit better and certainly coordinating with the province is key. The whole notion is we need to find a really good balance between making sure I’m out in the riding, to making sure I’m doing my job as the Saskatchewan rep and, of course, fulfilling my obligations as Secretary of State for Rural Development.”

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com