Tell us about yourself and what got you involved in politics
I care about quality of life and standard of services that I think living in Saskatchewan should afford to all of us.
That's ultimately why I decided to join the Saskatchewan NDP. I wanted to serve in affecting change that we need, in my opinion, so badly for our communities and families to continue to be healthy, happy and enjoy the quality of life that living in Saskatchewan should always provide for us.
I am a teacher, I have been a teacher, this is my 20th year, and I have worked rurally, and I have worked in urban centers, both inner city and suburban. I've worked for the Catholic School Division of Regina for 18 years, and then I decided to move back out to rural Saskatchewan–which is my roots– I grew up on a farm just outside of Wawota Saskatchewan, near Kenosee Lake area.
My dad is still on the farm there, and rural Saskatchewan is my is my home. And so I moved to Regina after high school to go to university at U of R, and when I finished my degree in education I had with a major in English education, I ended up getting my best offer in Regina with the Regina Catholic School division, where I worked and committed my career to them for 18 years and had them have an amazing career.
I think that education is at the forefront of all things good in society, and I believe that through education we can accomplish anything as a society, that we do important work and I know I'm biased because I am a teacher. So obviously I think that the work that teachers do is just invaluable.
I decided to join Prairie Valley School Division because I wanted to work and contribute to the school division in rural Saskatchewan education because that's where I grew up and that is also where I will be having my children go to school. I wanted to contribute to rural Saskatchewan through my career.
Last year in education, ultimately, things were getting more difficult, more difficult, more difficult than I was thinking to myself after, you know, not 18-19 years in education, things shouldn't be getting more difficult. The support should be there for students.
The needs should be met. Things should not be getting more difficult in 2024 and last year was the hardest year in my career and on top of that, I knew that teachers were having a hard time.
Education is at a crisis point, and Healthcare is at a crisis point. For me, it finally came down to the fact that I have a young family that's going to need the education system, and I want my children to receive an exceptional education to teach them all the things they need to know, to be able to be highly functioning in a 21st century society.
I want them to have critical thinking skills. I want them to be able to research and learn everything from several different perspectives and worldviews, and I have high expectations for education.
I also have aging parents, and heaven forbid, or not necessarily if they need the healthcare system, but when they need the health care system. I also want it to be there for them because they've contributed to this province and worked their entire lives and careers contributing to an amazing Saskatchewan.
Ultimately it came down to that, healthcare and education are at crisis point and I wanted to be able to create another option and voice for rural Saskatchewan, if I could be able to have an option that would prioritize those two areas, among others.
What are some of the other pressing issues for your constituents?
The Saskatchewan NDP listened to the people of the province and we listened to their top priorities and issues. Their pressing issues across the constituency and the province also include the cost of living and the economy. That's how the Sask NDP came up with their priority factors in their platform.
How would an NDP government improve housing in the province?
The first thing we're going to do is create an app to protect tenants, so that we can ensure that there's affordable rent. We're going to get 500 units opened within our first year, if we have the honor of forming government, through Saskatchewan Housing.
We want to just make sure that these tenants are protected so that they can have housing that's affordable and safe.
What is the NDP’s plan for healthcare in Saskatchewan?
Our plan for healthcare is at the forefront because it's really, really important that we make sure that we can address these issues and fix our public healthcare system.
It's time for us to reverse the cuts that the Saskatchewan Party has made, and place the focus on healthcare by doing that we will staff up, with more doctors and nurses by creating more full-time permanent position so that people can really lay their roots in the community.
So many people want to live in rural areas like I do. However, it's difficult to plant our roots in rural Sask if we are only offered temporary positions and so we are going to make sure we offer full time positions and permanent positions and get rid of all of these small, temporary contract positions.
We're going to train up Saskatchewan people with a grow your own strategy which is focused on hiring and training local people to work in healthcare in their own communities.
We're going to hire more doctors and nurses, paramedics and healthcare professionals to work on the front lines.
That’s really important, because that's what we've heard by listening to local voices, that we need to respect healthcare workers and ensure that they are valued by bringing in a different approach than the Saskatchewan Party did and ending the culture of fear in in healthcare.
We're also going to retain the healthcare workers that we already have on the front lines by treating them with respect and ensuring that they have all the tools and resources that they need to do their jobs. They're excellent at their jobs, we need to start stepping up for them.
We're also going to increase staffing in emergency rooms across Saskatchewan, that relieves the pressure and so that people have the healthcare services at their fingertips when they need them.
They've heard so many horror stories of people driving to their local or closest emergency room, only to see a sign on the door that it's closed. We've heard more stories of what has happened after that. So, we really have to address those front-line issues and make sure that our healthcare system is reliable.
What is the NDP’s plan regarding policing and public safety?
We have to make sure that our policing and public safety is prioritized, because people need to feel safe in their communities. Right now, we have the highest rates of crime, violent crime and domestic violence in the country. Also, crime and homelessness have been made way worse by Sask Party cuts to the most vulnerable people. The fact that they have created this plan to invest $20 million in a Marshall service that hasn't put one boot on the ground yet to improve public safety.
So, what we're going to do is: we're going to scrap the Marshal Service and we're going to put half the money into the local police and the RCMP. We're going to get more boots on the ground for both of those police services that already exist because we care about them and we support the local police and the RCMP.
The other half (of the $20 million) we’re going to put into mental health and addiction supports that people need because we need to be tough on crime and also tough on the causes of crime. We have to take a two-pronged approach here.
How would an NDP government grow the economy?
The first thing is that we want to keep contracts – that the Sask Party has sent out of province previously – we want to keep them local. We want to keep them in our province.
We want to make sure that we support small businesses, we're going to be offering a $40,000 start up loans for small businesses. We're going to freeze the small business tax at one per cent for our entire term.
We're going to create a PST rebate on construction costs. The economy is so important, and nourishing the economy has to be addressed, and we are addressing it.
Like I said, (the economy) in the top priorities for the Saskatchewan NDP, we've got to attract new investments and create good jobs.
We're not going to increase taxes per our four-year term and we need an all of the above approach to creating good jobs and growing our economy in every sector here in Saskatchewan.