Saskatchewan Party Leader Scott Moe was in Moose Jaw yesterday, joined by MLA candidates from ridings in the Moose Jaw and Regina areas, declaring his party’s commitment to promoting active lifestyles for Saskatchewan’s children through increased support for playground projects and community rinks throughout the province.
“The Saskatchewan Party's goal, and the Saskatchewan Party's focus, is to provide every opportunity for our children to take part in extracurricular activities,” Moe said. “That's why we doubled the Active Families Benefit a number of days ago — when they take part in extracurricular activities, they live healthier lives.”
During his address, Moe announced that if reelected, a Saskatchewan Party government would greatly expand the Community Rink Affordability Program to assist 585 community rinks across the province.
“During the 2011 campaign, and I remember this well as that was my first campaign, we promised to create the Community Rink Affordability Program: We kept that promise. Very quickly after that election, we had the honour to form government in the 2011 campaign,” Moe continued.
“That program provided $2,500 for ice surfaces in skating and curling rinks across the province, and today I'm announcing that if a reelected Saskatchewan Party government is the choice of Saskatchewan people, we're going to double that program yet again. We're going to bring it to $5,000 per ice surface to help with the rising operational costs that we know these community-owned facilities, community-operated facilities are experiencing.”
A new fund to assist schools with the procurement costs for new playground equipment was also announced during his address.
“We’ll also bring in a new School Playground Equipment Fund. The $3.75 million fund will be available to cover 50 per cent of the cost of new school playground equipment. We know as there’s new schools being built, and in existing schools, (that) there are school community councils and active parents that are fundraising for playground equipment and adding playground equipment to our schools.”
The School Playground Equipment Fund will function as a matchable grant, up to a maximum of $50,000. Funding from the program is set to benefit the 300 ongoing playground projects across the province over the next four years.
Moe explained that the School Playground Equipment Fund will be a great asset for fundraising groups and school boards to tap into as there are 28 schools that are either recently built, currently in construction, or in planning in Saskatchewan.
“All of those schools and more will be fundraising for playground equipment. So, in bringing forward the School Playground Equipment Fund we're going to make that a reality much sooner.”