The federal election campaigns, and in three local ridings, Discover Humboldt is keeping up with the candidates looking to distribute information on their parties’ platforms. In this edition of Candidate Profiles, we catch up with Britt Baumann who is running in the riding of Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan for the New Democratic Party. The riding includes the communities of Lanigan, Watrous and many others in our area.
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?
One of the chief concerns we have right now is the current trade war with the United States. As everyone is fearing, there have been tariffs supplied and two products such as canola for instance from both China and from the United States. This is a great concern because the family farms in Saskatchewan are the backbone of our community and of our economy, and we need to protect these family farmers from the impacts of these tariffs.
Of course, what we want to do is to reciprocate the tariffs. We also want to put in place some sort of protection if there are going to be serious losses so that people do not lose their land, and we need to work on diversifying our markets. Right now, Canada does about $100 billion worth of trade in agriculture with the United States, and I think that we're too dependent on them. What we need is to get new markets, for instance the European Union in regard to canola particularly.
People are using canola to manufacture biofuel now. in the European Union, they want to expand on the use of canola-based biofuel, so that's a market that we could contribute to. We could also create the biofuel here in Saskatchewan too, which would help our economy.
The other things I think necessary are that we need legislation for the right to repair. I know that people are using farm equipment that they are unable to get parts for. They should be able to get parts for it and they should be able to manufacture their own parts for it if they need to. They shouldn't be forced to upgrade and spend millions of dollars on new equipment when the old equipment is fine, except for a few repairs. I think that needs to be legislated because the consumer needs to be protected and it's the only way.
I think that we need to work with farmers more about mitigation for climate change, and when I say work with farmers, I mean that we need to consult with them about what their needs are for climate change and what they think will assist them in protecting their lands from the effects of climate change. So, I'm a believer in collaborative construction of policy, and that means that the people that the policy impacts should be part of creating the policy.
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?
One of the things that Canada is good at is extracting resources for export, and I'd like to see more of Canada and Saskatchewan manufacturing goods out of them ourselves instead of sending them away to some other country to be manufactured, and then we purchase those.
The way to do that often is by investment in business development. There are programs available already, and I think that we need to fund them even more so that people who have ideas about manufacturing are able to get the funds and the help that they need to bring their dreams to reality.
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?
It is true that the housing crisis is affecting everyone. Here in Saskatchewan, we've got a problem where the rents are high and where renters don't have very many protections. There are a lot of people who have been living in the same dwelling for the last 10 or 15 years, and they're suddenly being evicted because if the landlord gets rid of them, they can suddenly like charge three times the rent that they were charging before, and that's unacceptable.
There are so many people becoming unhoused because they can't even afford to pay rent anymore. People with full time jobs are unable to rent an apartment. They can't afford a one-bedroom apartment. They still have to have roommates.
So, it's very difficult to buy a home. The average home price in Canada right now is about $855,000 and that is very expensive. Very few people can afford that, especially first-time buyers.
We have to do more to build affordable housing. As part of that, the New Democrats are pitching ideas such as special very low interest mortgages for first time buyers. We are talking about releasing federal lands so that we can build nonprofit affordable housing on it. We want to expand funding for cooperative housing.
We want to make sure that the most vulnerable people are getting into housing, so that means seniors, for instance. There has to be safe, good quality housing that seniors can afford. There has to be housing that's available for people with disabilities.
What we want to do is to build more homes to subsidize some of these homes so that people can afford them, and to do it quickly, because the crisis is now, and I often say that if there was a purely market solution for the housing crisis, we would not be in a housing crisis. The magic invisible hand of the market has not made it possible for Canadians to buy a house, so what we have to do is rely on other methods like you expanding social and nonprofit housing, expanding cooperative housing, and building homes - modest homes that people can afford.
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?
The most important thing right now are the Trump tariffs and this aggression from the United States about being the 51st St. We need to protect our sovereignty, to assert our sovereignty, to protect our way of life, to protect our values.
One of those values is healthcare and expanding the universality of healthcare. When during this last part.
I know that the Liberals shave said for years they're going to give us dental care, how they're going to get pharma care, how they're going to give us affordable daycare, but they did not do it until they were in a minority government, and they needed us.
So what we did get through was our $10 a day daycare, and if only our premier would sign on, a lot of people in Saskatchewan would be able to take advantage of affordable daycare, which would allow parents to work. Not only that, but they would be working and alleviating the labor shortage in Saskatchewan
We have dental support, and I believe a million people have already had their teeth fixed. and this program is expected to expand. We've got the first national Pharmacare framework in Canada, and we're able to get diabetes supplies and medications for free. And we want to expand Pharmacare. Neither of the other parties have committed to expanding Pharmacare, and Poilievre has even voted against it. So.
These are the things that are important to the New Democrats - that we care about. We can care for workers and farmers and regular people to make sure that you have access to healthcare, making sure that we have access to education, to the social programs that we need. We're in it for you, not for the billionaire class.