Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek is an expansive federal riding which extends from Highway 6 on its eastern boundary to Maymont in the west. It includes the cities of Humboldt, Martensville and Warman. Running in the riding for the Liberal Party of Canada is Katelyn Zimmer. We talked to Zimmer as she busily crisscrossed the region about some of the key concerns facing prairie voters.
Question 1. Agriculture is dependent on numerous factors including weather patterns, market conditions, and input costs, among others. If elected, what does your party intend to pursue in terms of programming to protect and support the agriculture industry in the province?
A liberal government will double the revenue protection from $3 to $6 million per farm in case of revenue drops caused by the impacts of tariffs and extreme weather events. This will be through the AgriStability program, which in Saskatchewan is delivered by the Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation.
We will build more domestic processing capacity, including food processing capacity in rural and remote areas just like our riding with the new $200 million domestic food processing fund. We will increase support for farmers, ranchers and producers to access new markets for their food products, which, with an additional $30 million in the Agri-marketing program.
Finally, a liberal government will help to increase the ability for farmers and ranchers to buy new, more efficient farm equipment with a $30 million top up to the agricultural Clean Technology program.
Question 2. Saskatchewan is resource rich, but it also has a well-established core of manufacturing, particularly in rural centres in or bordering on your riding. What would your party/government ensure to undertake to help small to mid-sized manufacturing and value-added ventures to prosper?
As the liberal government has already done, we will fight the US tariffs with retaliatory trade actions of our own that will have maximum impact in the United States and minimum impacts here in Canada. We will continue to protect our workers and industries while building a new Canadian economy and we will build a stronger Canada by creating one Canadian economy, not 13. A Liberal government will invest in trade and productivity, enabling infrastructure like ports, railways, airports and highways to ensure we have the foundations for Canadian products to move to markets.
Question 3. Affordability and housing are of heightened concern, not only in large urban centres, but also in rural communities, some of which are poised to see expansion. How would your government help support consumers in the face of rising costs and foster an environment that promotes affordable housing?
Well, Mark Carney's first action once he was elected as leader of the Liberal Party was to officially cancel the carbon tax. This has saved Canadians, on average, 18 cents a liter on the price of gas, and that makes a big difference when you do a lot of driving. The liberal government will deliver a middle tax, middle class tax cut, saving a two-income household like mine up to $825 a year.
A Liberal government will get back into the business of building homes, doubling the pace of construction over the next decade to almost 500,000 homes a year. They will eliminate GST for first time home buyers on homes at or under $1 million. This has the potential to save Canadians up to $50,000 on the purchase of their first home.
Finally, a liberal government will expand dental coverage to Canadians ages 18 to 64 to provide access to around 4.5 million Canadians, so more people can get the care they need, and this will help to save Canadians around $800 in dental care costs.
Question 4. What do you see as a key critical issue that you and your party, if elected, would need to step up to address in your riding?
I think a critical issue in our writing is representation. We need more representation of rural and Western Canada. It will be so impactful to once again have a Liberal MP from Saskatchewan.
Individual Western Canadian MP's actually have great strength in addressing rural concerns because they are the ones with first-hand experience and are therefore most qualified to speak on the issues.
If you think about it, they represent the same number of voters as those MPs from Ontario and Quebec, but a much larger and more diverse geographic area of the country. And as we work to efficiently transport our resources from coast to coast, I believe rural and prairie perspectives will become increasingly important.