Tell us about yourself and the key issues in your constituency
My name is Raymond Carrick, I'm the candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party for Dakota-Arm River. I live in Eyebrow on a farm that's been in the family for 78 years.
The reason that I got into politics is that I spent 26 years on municipal council.
During that time, we were having problems getting decent service when it comes to healthcare in rural Saskatchewan. I realized that we had a pretty reasonable health care system up until 1991 and the government of the day, led by Roy Romano and the NDP did a lot of damage to rural health in in Saskatchewan.
I thought that when the Sask Party came in, they would bring (healthcare) back when in fact it actually got worse. The other item was the water conveyance in the area. I'm a firm believer and responsible use of water and we got nothing more than lip service from the present government. I got involved with the Progressive Conservative Party, people that had the same motives and the same ideas that I do.
I believe that it was the right move.
I noticed one of the questions that came up in Saskatchewan is: What would the Progressive Conservative Party do as far as affordable housing? And one of the things that they have in their plan is that they will have tax credits, relief and interests and grants to make it easier for first time house owners. The other is there's plans to have 5000 new houses built.
Another question that comes up is what would you do about healthcare? And the answer is that we would eliminate several bureaucratic positions and have the government of the day be more responsible for what's happening in health care. In the old system, we had doctors and nurses making decisions, worked quite well, and there's really no need to have a buffer zone of bureaucrats.
In regard to the water supply, one of the things that I was quite involved with is the system of water conveyance from Lake Diefenbaker to Buffalo Pound. After doing a lot of research on this project, we came up with the conclusion that the cheapest and the most beneficial way of moving water from Lake Diefenbaker to Buffalo Pound would be in a pipeline and along the way, we'd be supplying considerable amounts of water for irrigation.
The other thing that has come up in the last six months is the foreign ownership of farmland, and having a farm that's been in the family for 78 years I know how valuable farmland is, and I do not support the idea of foreigners coming in and buying our farmland when it could be owned and operated by our own people.
What is your party’s take on public safety and policing?
This morning, our leader Rose Buscholl, gave a press conference dealing with the (Saskatchewan Marshals) plan. We feel that it's far cheaper to put the money towards the RCMP and not duplicate services with the (Saskatchewan Marshal) plan.
What would the Progressive Conservatives do to improve Saskatchewan’s economy?
Going back to the water conveyance and supplying Moose Jaw and Regina with fresh, clean drinking water and getting an ample supply of water to look after the industries that need it.
Putting in more irrigation – and when you start looking at what's going on in Lethbridge – over in the 1960s was about the same size of a city as Moose Jaw, but because they brought in irrigation and processing, Lethbridge has gone from around the 30,000 population mark and now it’s almost four times what it was in the in the 1960s.
Moose Jaw, because they didn't have that advantage of irrigation, has only increased 1000 during that time. I think if you start looking at irrigation, it does provide benefits to the farmers that are putting the irrigation in, but it also brings in processing, which helps the country to become more self-sufficient when it comes to food.