Tell us about yourself and why you got involved in politics
My name is Megan Torrie. I am a 60’s scoop survivor. I grew up in the Moose Jaw and Chaplin area as I was adopted into the Torrie household when I was about three years old.
We moved around quite a bit, but we established in Moose Jaw. I claim Moose Jaw as my home area. I’ve always been very interested in politics because of my life and my history as a 60’s scoop, I've always been curious, and it did lead me to politics. When I was up North, I did work with some people with the NDP, and I was asked to sit with Sask Rivers NDP up north for a little bit. So, I got a little bit of experience there and then things just didn't work out with us, I guess. So I moved here to LaFleche about six months ago, I followed my sister, whom I was raised with. She came back to be with one of our last foster families and I followed her here.
I was working with the librarian with Meet the Candidates, and I was introduced to Clint Arneson when he was with the Buffalo Party and so we started discussing, and then I was wanting to help him out a little bit because I think he's such a good guy and he is really interesting to talk to.
So I went to an Assiniboia barbecue, where I discovered that he had jumped over to the PC party. We sat down, we discussed things, he invited me to run in this election. He also introduced me to Rose Buscholl, and it was it was just so awesome because they took me right to Regina.
I sat with Rose, the leader, for a few hours, she was very interested in the things I had to say, and honestly, I met Carla back with the NDP. I've been up against different situations with the Sask Party, being from Ahtahkakoop First Nations.
So, I've fallen through a few systems, and I've written correspondence to all of these systems, but again I just feel like I'm not heard.
So, I feel that Rose in the PC party has given me an opportunity to help myself, help my people, and I do feel, growing up in Moose Jaw and these areas I feel very dedicated and loyal to these areas as well too.
I do want to help out my team. I want to help out Saskatchewan, being part of forestry advocacy up north. I do relate to a lot of the farmers in this area and their wants and their need for resources to stay here in Saskatchewan to really to look after our Saskatchewan people first.
That's what's driven me to join politics, and because I feel living within First Nations communities within rural municipalities within the cities, going through all these systems, I think I have a great insight, some knowledge and I just I want to share that I want to help and since I've been invited to the table and I've made my candidacy, I've just been dedicated to meeting my constituency.
I've been out there every day. I've faced all these barriers, but I have overcome all of them and I'm really enjoying it. I'm really enjoying meeting my constituency and hearing people issues. I bring it back to my table every day.
I talk with my team every day about things because I'm learning and it's been a really excellent experience for myself and I encourage everybody like to get out there and vote because honestly, that's the only way we're going to bring some viable and beneficial change to Saskatchewan.
With myself being very new, I'm not going to say very very new, but to the political systems, I understand completely too, so I encourage the vote, I encourage the vote in our First Nations communities because we do want to have a strong voice.
I really feel that the PC party is really willing and ready right now at this time, to assist all of Saskatchewan, all of our reserve communities, our RM's, in bringing forth this and they've got an excellent team this year. That’s why I joined.
How would the Progressive Conservative Party address housing in the province?
Oh, that's an excellent question. And I know that we've and I've actually, I've bought some of that forward, actually just recently, because of the importance of forestry, being out within the RM's too as well with the housing situations out here. I know that we do have a lot of housing issues within the First Nations communities. I've asked questions as such and so we know a lot of it has to do with some of the crime that's happening.
We have to start addressing those issues as well. The housing issues like our shelter policy and I think ignoring the real issues at hand, like we do have mental health issues, we have addiction issues. I think that causes a lot of homelessness, but I think all the policies that are in place for our homeless.
I know that when I was part of that in Saskatoon, I did a walk for the homeless shelter with SPC and because of that situation, I looked into some of our housing policies and even for something for myself, being Indigenous.
I think it has a lot to do with addiction, and being at one point an extreme addict myself, I understand those barriers. So for them to be placing barriers on people such as in these homeless shelters saying ‘Oh well, you're too addicted. We can’t help you.’
You have to find another resource, and that isn't helping us at all. That isn't helping any of our homeless people. That isn't helping any of the mental health situations, again, I've been through the social services systems. I actually just recently dealt with our social services systems because my own housing. I was fighting for my own rent, so I faced those barriers as well.
It has a lot to do with our addictions, a lot to do with crime and just not being compassionate or even not understanding the people that are maneuvering these systems, and so this is why I through my hat in the ring as well.
I'm going to be very honest that I am very ignorant to things like real estate and the cost of housing and all of those types of things like that.
I do understand the impacts of addiction on homelessness and the society that we have to maneuver because they do come from that life as well, I do come from a life of addiction. I was on the street. I was homeless myself for a few years but now I've gone to treatments and been 12 years sober and working on my life.
I think it gives me a little bit of insight into these policies too. Up until this point, I really felt like I hadn't been heard. I think that this position with the PC party is going to be beneficial for all of us really.
How would the Progressive Conservative Party improve healthcare in the province?
I really like what Michael had to say about healthcare, for myself and even for all of Saskatchewan.
I'm sorry that sometimes I do kind of hone in on the Indigenous issues, but only because I come from an indigenous community and I find that all of the complaints are across the board are very similar, are very the same.
Our healthcare issues fall upon management and leadership. We have these, we have a lot of EMS people. We have a lot of people on call, and I think what Rose had said about utilizing our EMS, our emergency people in these emergency rooms at times, when things are at a high rate.
I had somebody say to me that ‘You're taking these resources away from emergencies on the highway.’ and stuff like that. But actually being part of that system, utilizing our EMS services out in these communities, I think all of our first responders are trained to a point to keep us comfortable, keep us breathing until we can get to an emergency room.
I found that even being in the waiting room, or in the emergency room, there are people that are on call.
Clint Arneson our Wood River candidate, is a first responder and he's let me know certain things about our first responders, what they're trained on, and the willingness of a lot of the to come out at any hour when on call. The fact is, is that they’re not being called out and help and assist our health system, but currently they're not being utilized in the appropriate manner. I really have to agree as well as on that.
I also think things are being overlooked too within our First Nations communities because we are part of these health systems we have, it does come back to lot of our mental health issues, we are being brought to these hospitals and I've often said there is an abuse of that Mental Health Act with the police in the in some of those First Nations communities and that has a lot to do with the holdups and the waiting lists.
I've voiced in some of our communities that perhaps another system or committee needs to be called in for, say, domestic abuse disputes between families.
I know that I've had to call the RCMP a few times when, you know, say my adult children have gotten out of hand and that causes a lot of dysfunctions within our homes too as well. Then they our drunk children or whatever, take them to the hospital because they use the Mental Health Act, and most of the time, it's not a Mental Health Act issue.
I see it as one issue being sent to another facility or service; it's just passing that buck on.
I think it has a lot to do with the management has a lot to do with the communication and our systems working together, our systems really have to start communicating at a different level.
I know our RCMP do not communicate with hospital. I know it's very much silo thinking and a lot of people are falling through the cracks. That's where a lot of our wait times are too because there's a lot of confusion.
I know I've been in the situation at the hospital, where the doctor came in and said, ‘Well, I don't know what to do with you.’ I waited an hour and a half to have a doctor come in and say, ‘Well, what do you want? What? I don't know what to do with you.’ because I was taken in under the Mental Health Act and there was no proper communication.
What is the Progressive Conservative Party stance on policing and public safety?
That's extremely important for me because I have again been through these systems and I've come up against different forces and honestly, I guess I was a little confused about the (Saskatchewan Marshal Service). I do feel like we do need some more funding for our RCMP officers. I think some more training, definitely more training within the RCMP.
I'm going to talk about the Indigenous resources, and I guess also because we do have a lot of immigration happening right now, too, right? I've seen it across the board, I think we do have to have a little bit more compassionate training honestly, because they come from the northern territories and they're now living in southern Saskatchewan, the mindsets are really different.
I think it's because up north there's a lot of situations that are happening with health, mental health issues, addiction, our officers do feel very unsafe you they never know what they're coming into.
We all have to work together on all fronts. I guess with mental health, some therapists, that compassionate training definitely has to come into play and then utilizing some of our resources up north with our First Nations elders and communities, to bring maybe some of that security back to our officers as well. I know on both sides of the fence up north our officers and our people do live in fear of each other because there is a lot of dysfunctions there. I do find that, the addiction issue is covered everywhere. The addiction issue is prevalent everywhere and I don't know how to explain it.
Like down here, I don't see it as bad as up north, but I know it is prevalent and I know that it seems like for a lot of our officers, their hands are tied when they want to deal with these situations. Everybody's extremely aware of who's doing what. But when we talk to the officers, and we talk to our RM’s.
You know everybody is like ‘Well, we've got our hands tied. There's not much more we can do.’
We have to take another look at some of those policies we do have, maybe make some amendments and really address some of the situations we're facing today in society. You know, we didn't have a crystal meth issue a few years ago or even 20 years ago, we didn't have this crystal meth issue. And so that is another system that everybody in society is learning to maneuver, including our officers.
With crystal meth it causes many other things, especially mental health issues.
I've seen a lot of that within my own family. I've seen a lot of that within our community and I think that's also delaying a lot within the hospitals. That's what I see being coming from First Nations communities living out here. Honestly, all of the communities are pretty much the same across the board, so I don't realize I don't understand why we're segregating so much.
I think it's a Saskatchewan issue across the board and you need to start working together in unification across the board, with health, and policing to bring this under control.
I would definitely say more money for policing services, revamp their systems and maybe look at some of their policies and definitely bring in some mental health insights there too as well, because you're dealing with different types of societal issues nowadays.
How would the Progressive Conservative Party improve the economy?
That is a great question because I am studying it right now.
I've done some forestry work up north and I've done some advocacy for (forestry) and that is actually a renewable resource here in Saskatchewan. It gave me a little bit of insight on other resources here in Saskatchewan.
I've actually talked to some of my constituents in our rural areas about the farmlands and the businesses and farms that are affected by big businesses coming in and buying up all our rural lands and shutting down our Saskatchewan farmers and even, you know, moving to our small towns.
Being out in my constituency and driving around I see these small towns. I often go to their museums and for me it's very flooring and very disappointing to see that, seeing our little shops shut down because there just isn't enough business or because our smaller farmers have to move to urbanized areas.
I see a lot of that up north too, with our First Nations communities where a lot of our youth feel like we have to move to the urbanized areas to survive.
Honestly today’s cost of living has gotten extremely ridiculous. I think one thing I was really impressed with in some of these small towns was their bread basket that was available to the communities to help people feed themselves.
I really feel our First Nations communities should go along with our farmers because we do have indigenous farmers and the complaints are all the same.
But they stay very segregated within that too. Right now we've got different situations happening amongst different levels of government in regards to our lands but it's very segregated.
I think that if some of our farmers come together with some of our leadership in our First Nations communities and we all get together and discuss these issues at hand, I think that we can work together because we've done it before, we've seen it happen before.
The more mindsets we get at this table on how we can improve, maybe bring some of our economy back to the Saskatchewan and keep it in Saskatchewan. I'm going to be very honest is that I am very new and I'm very ignorant to what's going on with the farmers, but I'm out here talking with our farmers.
They've given me some documents to research and so I am looking for a viable solution to how to help bring some of our businesses back and maybe bring some nourishment and flourishment to our small towns.
I live here in LaFleche and I'm listening to the people around me and LaFleche is a beautiful little town. We do have some beautiful little stores and stuff there. We do have some disgruntlement here too and there's fears that some of our shops are going to close down. And how do we fix that? So, you know, even at this level, I'm trying to help out my little town here too, to find out how we can perhaps bring some businesses in and perhaps keep this economy growing.
I think it does start with our farmlands and our farmers because they are first and foremost, and the strongest in Saskatchewan to bring that economy up and keep it here.
We do have a lot of disgruntled farmers because of what's happening, the selling off of our lands to foreign investors and whatnot.
I saw it up in the reserves with the forestry and honestly, there's too much homelessness in our First Nations communities that are involved in the forestry industry.
I've often asked the question, so I'm definitely motivated down here to try and advocate for our farmers and find some answers and some solutions because it seems like everybody's just dancing around these issues and nobody wants to hit them head on
Rose and the PC party are ready to ask those hard questions and bring that change and work with the people to do it because we really have to get back to the people, get their opinions, listen to their advice and work with the people on these solutions.