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Statement to SaskForward from Chief Cadmus Delorme, Cowessess First Nation

“Success within Saskatchewan is about enhancing our greatest asset, our people. First Nations have endured a lot throughout generations and continue to strive for success and equality while maintaining what is core to ones self, proud to be First Nation. Inclusion and empowerment is the driver to successful First Nation people.” – Chief Cadmus Delorme, Cowessess First Nation

Josef Schmutz on sustainable energy and tourism

Saskatchewan covers 651,036 km comprising 6.5% of Canada.  Saskatchewan was settled by indigenous peoples as soon as the glaciers retreated roughly 11,000 years ago.  Saskatchewan includes four ecozones: prairie, the boreal transition, boreal forest and taiga.  Our province is home to at least seven First Nations and six Treaties are meant to guide our relationships on the shared lands, signed 1871 – 1906.  Initial European contact began with the fur trade (1690 – 1820) and this contact increased dramatically when Saskatchewan became a province in 1905.[1]

Saskatchewan’s diverse landscapes, its indigenous cultures, and the historical developments since settlement by a largely agrarian European population provide spectacular experiences for today’s visitors from both inside and outside our province.  Data showed that 52% of tourism expenditures in Saskatchewan came from Saskatchewan residents.[2]

My thoughts on fostering a sustainable and high-quality visitor experience in Saskatchewan and a promising future for all people in the province are as follows.

The tourism multiplier effect

Saskatchewan has many spectacular attractions for visitors that enable recreation, learning and personal growth.  Attractions include the sand hills of Lake Athabasca, fishing in northern lakes, Prince Albert Park, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, the Western Development and Royal Saskatchewan museums, the T.rex Discovery Centre at East End, Grasslands Park and the Cypress Hills to name a few.  These attractions have well deserved support from people and various levels of government.   The ‘big attractions’ create a multiplier effect beyond user fees, by supporting a host of tourism-related activities in the local and provincial transportation and services sectors.  The small attractions created by enterprising people in the ‘shadows’ of the bigger attractions, are not always the credit they are due.  What kinds of support do these initiatives need?

One of many examples of a smaller attraction in the shadow of a bigger one, is the Bluff Creek Ranch offering day and multi-day horse-back rides for visitors.  The ranch borders the East Block of Grasslands National Park, in the Wood Mountain Hills south of North America’s North/South continental divide.  Bluff Creek Ranch collaborates with the Park and both benefit from each other’s attractions.  Louise Popescul writes:[3]

“Because of what the land has provided for us, there have been spin-offs in other areas of the community as well.  Visitors have been able to enjoy the Wood Mountain area that is so rich in beauty and history.  They have been able to experience the Old Post Historic Site, Wood Mountain Regional Park, Wood Mountain Rodeo Ranch Museum and the Bar F Bed & Breakfast.  All of these sites are functioning today because of what this landscape has had to offer not only us but many generations that have come before us, albeit in very different ways.”

The Bluff Creek Ranch’s experience provides several subtle but important insights for advancing sustainable tourism in Saskatchewan.  Some of these are:

  • Advertising costs can be crippling for small tourism operations. Here, Grasslands Park attracts many visitors and Bluff Creek Ranch expands the local options that are available to those visitors.   The Bluff Creek Ranch advertises primarily locally, to reach visitors that are already there to see the Park.  On the other hand, Bluff Creek Ranch provides access to remote areas of the park via horseback, not otherwise available to most visitors.  Both support one another.
  • Bluff Creek Ranch has guided visitors ranging from U of S university classes to visitors from Japan. These visitors found the landscape impressive and moving.  The landscapes in Saskatchewan are impressive, and too often taken for granted.  The landscape alone is valuable and provides value.  This should be considered in planning and resource use, as in protecting the ‘view-shed,’ for example.
  • Louise Popescul mentions the value of historic sites and local museums. These local treasures should not be ignored.  Often relatively minor investments by local people, and local, regional and provincial governments can multiply the benefit of such investment.
  • All levels of government and regulatory agencies should consider that small operations can nonetheless provide great value. Small operations should not only be respected but fostered and given considerations that can facilitate their success.  For instance, an excessive permit cost was evident in a small tourism operation where the owner transported visitors in a small bus no more than 30 km from the base.  The permits required by the province for this small operation were the same as if the owner were operating a bus company operating across Canada (Personal Observation).  This and similar administrative insensitivity can be crippling to small operations.
  • The above suggestion is not to say that there should be no regulation, but that regulation should be smart, reflect broad rather than narrow interests and be helpful rather than exercise undue command and control. For an example of inadequate regulation, an expansion in the outfitting and hunt farm industry was lead largely by the agriculture department in the provincial government.  There was inadequate attention by Cabinet to environmental protection.  There was an enormous expansion in guiding and bait pile hunting, and rearing of game on hunt farms.  The tourism operators were inadequately trained for the challenges they faced.  It lead to a necessary adjustment in the guiding industry and many bankruptcies among hunt and velvet/farms.  The damage was North-America wide and introduced a serious disease into North American deer and elk.  Efforts to reverse the spread failed.  Data suggest that the disease (Chronic Wasting Disease) was not present in the wild before.  It is now widespread and a great risk to wildlife and some risk to people.[4]
  • The value hunting by individuals, by residents and those visiting hunters not needing a guide, remains significant, for the value of wild food harvested and the recreation derived in doing so. “According to a recently released report commissioned by Saskatchewan Environment, hunters from the United States and other Canadian provinces spend nearly $15 million in the province each year.  That money, combined with another $55 million that is spent by Saskatchewan hunters, creates the equivalent of 270 full-time jobs each year.”[5]

Mismanagement and loss of a multiplier effect: The PFRA Community Pastures.

  • Canada’s Community Pasture Program was a world class initiative that provided an impressive range of benefits from land restored and diversification on family farms.  It also satisfied some of Canada’s obligations within the United Nations.[6]  The “…total annual value of private and public benefits derived from PFRA pastures is far greater than the total annual operating costs of the Community Pasture Program.”[7]  When this pasture program was unwisely abandoned its replacement by Saskatchewan continued to provide some, albeit reduced, benefits to ranchers.  Many additional benefits such as recreation and heritage values remain lost.[8]

Both the velvet/hunt farm and the PFRA pasture dilemma are attributable to one government department making decisions that reached far beyond the departments’ administrative strengths.  Overall, the important values that arise from tourism, both from experiences that Saskatchewan people seek on their own and the business-type of tourism, are deeply connected in our land, in nature, our society and our institutions.  Perceptive and cooperative governance is best able to protect those values for Saskatchewan’s peoples today and tomorrow.  Complex decisions should be made with corresponding input from across sectors and from a broad segment of society.

Managing energy production, distribution and use in Saskatchewan

SaskPower has been given the unenviable task of providing energy to the people of Saskatchewan at affordable rates, wherever people live and consistently 24/7.  SaskPower has served Saskatchewan well in the sense that unlike other provinces, we’ve had no major black-outs in southern Saskatchewan.

SaskPower has not been given a strong enough mandate to achieve deep energy conservation or to move more rapidly toward renewable energy.  Saskatchewan’s reluctance to do so, to contemplate taking the federal Government to court, is an embarrassment for me as her citizen.  Even if one adopts climate skepticism as a personal value, it is irresponsible to take whole province with it, in the face of so much urgency recognized around the world.  The transition to renewables needs to be made at some point in time, the time is now.  Many examples exist of paths taken by other jurisdictions.[9]

Community renewable energy

SaskPower deserves to be applauded for its net-metering program and grants to facilitate adoption.  Many Saskatchewan homeowners have moved to renewable sources of their own volition, well ahead of provincial policy.  The SES Solar Co-operative Ltd. (https://sessolarcoop.wildapricot.org/ ) is an example where social capital was harnessed for progress.  The Solar Co-op now has two projects already producing solar power and two more are planned.  The Solar Co-op is poised to provide a promising return to its members as well as providing renewable energy.

Other renewable power projects in Saskatchewan, notably the Chaplin project of Windlectric Inc., a subsidiary of Algonquin power corporation, has been rightly rejected by public opinion first and then by the Ministry of Environment.  A new site for this project has been proposed by Algonquin.  Needless to say, there is some opposition to it also.  Wind power projects, as much as they are needed, are not benign, and neither are coal, oil & gas or hydro projects.

Energy projects of any type will require some local and regional adjustment.  To minimize the not-in-my-backyard type of opposition, and more importantly, to achieve the best possible locally relevant design, local people should have an opportunity to invest and thereby become part of the solution.  A study of wind projects in Ontario has shown that projects with local ownership were most accepted.[10]  More importantly, the people of Saskatchewan should be involved in the design, management and the benefits of an energy transition.  Describing such an involvement in Europe, Dirk Vansintjan[11] writes:

“Twelve partners from eight countries worked together in the framework of the European Union’s Intelligent Energy Europe programme. Between March 2012 and April 2015 they realised REScoop 20-20-20, a project that highlighted the initiatives citizens are taking at local level, how they are overcoming obstacles, how they organise themselves, how they finance their projects… and how in all of this they demonstrate a remarkable ability to adapt to financial and legal obstacles and impediments.  This publication contains a strong story. It was written at the local level, by highly motivated citizens committed to current and future generations. This story is a source of inspiration for many others in recapturing and developing a common good: renewable energy sources, energy transition and the democratisation of the energy market.”

For people living in northern Saskatchewan, power outages are an all-too-frequent occurrence.  Power lines break from trees falling during storms for instance.  Here also, local ownership and involvement is important.  Saskatchewan’s power grid might be de-centralized encouraging local initiatives to produce the power they use in their own region.

SaskPower also deserves to be applauded for allocating some of its support to community power initiatives.  However, we should go much further.  We should enable that every energy project, if it is not locally owned, has a portion of its investment coming from Saskatchewan.  This will require an enabling institutional adjustment and advising the people of Saskatchewan of this opportunity.

Governance and attitudes

Several of the above recommendations involve the need for broad-based decision making in Saskatchewan, for putting the common good first and sharing the power of decision making.  There are examples where our levels of government involve experts at academic or other institutions in decision making.  This is most often directed at technical solutions where research is invited.  Saskatchewan has many bright people in educational institutions.  These people should be invited not merely for product know how but management and governance know how.  Social science and socioeconomic input will help let Saskatchewan be its best, as much or more so than gadgets or high-tech practices.

Recent newscast addressing the social milieu in Saskatchewan have been troublesome.  There are examples of overt racism, disregard for public safety and drunken driving.  One gets the sense that this province, once rightly proud of its socially and common-good minded citizens, is becoming increasingly divided.  Perhaps at the root of this trend is an overblown sense and misplaced entitlement, leading to carelessness in thoughts and action.

For an example, some calls exist in Saskatchewan for payments to land owners for the ecological services that belong to all of us and require all of our care.  “If people in the city want clean water,” a statement might go, “they have to pay for it.”  These dichotomies are troublesome, city vs country, land owner vs non-landowner.  What is the logical extension to this kind of thinking?  Will we need to pay for air next?  Will we pay people for driving on the right side of the road?

One can only speculate where and how these harmful sentiments arose.  I for one would like to hear an explanation from social scientists, philosophers and from perceptive Saskatchewan elders of any culture.  I would also like to hear their suggestions for a way forward.

If any of the above suggestions require support from my taxes, so be it.  I can buy gadgets on my own, but I cannot buy a healthy environment, an esthetically pleasing landscape or a tolerant citizenry on my own.  These are goals that we need to support jointly and we need to provide the money required.  Saskatchewan is too great a province not to let it grow forward and not to let it be the best it can be.

 

NOTES

[1] Canadian Plains Research Center. (2005). “The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan: A living legacy.”  University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan; 1072 pp.

[2] Fung, K.-i., Bill Barry and Michael Wilson, Eds. (1999). “Atlas of Saskatchewan.” University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK.; 336 pp.

[3] Schmutz, J. K., Allen Patkau, Ken Belcher, Renny W. Grilz, Peter E. Joyce, Wade and Louise Popescul, Kerry Holderness (2007). “Value and Preservation of Ecological Services of the Northern Great Plains.” Pp. 131-186 in Robert Warnock, David Gauthier, Josef Schmutz, Allen Patkau, Patrick Fargey and Michael Schellenberg, Editors.  2007.  Homes on the range: Conservation in working prairie landscapes.  Proceedings of the 8th Prairie Conservation and Endangered Species Workshop, Regina, SK.

[4] Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre (2003). “International Chronic Wasting Disease Workshop.” August 15, Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre and Saskatchewan Department of Environment, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.

[5] Cross, B. (2007). “Hunters spend big bucks in Saskatchewan.” The Western Producer: 33.

[6] Kulshreshtha, S. N., and George G. Pearson (2006). “Determination of a cost recovery framework and fee schedule format for the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada – Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration community pasture program.” Unpubl. Report, Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon.

[7] Kulshreshtha, S., George Pearson, Brant Kirychuk and Rick Gaube (2008). “Distribution of public and private benefits on federally managed community pastures in Canada.” Rangelands: 3-11.

[8] Monk, S. (2012). “Death of the PFRA: Destroying Canada’s “Greatest success story.” Cowboy Country Magazine, October/November, p. 31-35.

[9] Dolter, B. (2016). “A Response to Saskatchewan’s Climate change white paper.” Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: October, 20 pages.

[10] Holtz, S. (2013). “Redirecting anti-wind energy:  Individuals, communities and politicians can turn a debate stalemate into an opportunity for collaboration.” Alternatives Journal 39(5): 44-47.

[11] Vansintjan, D. (2015). “The energy transition to energy democracy: Power to the people.” Final results oriented report of the REScoop 20-20-20 Intelligent Energy Europe project.  De Wrikker, www.dewrikker.be, Antwerp, Belgium

Doug Mader on transforming our energy system

It is my view that our province should increase investment in both wind generated and solar generated electricity much faster than is currently being planned. There are many places where wind farms and solar generators of various types could be built with little or no significant affect on humans or the environment. Neither of these electric generation types would be in production all day every day since the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. However, Saskatchewan is blessed with a great deal of both and already has a strong hydroelectric sector already in place. All three of these generating systems get their input energy free since the sun supplies them all, and all three produce essentially no greenhouse gasses. For too long Sask Power has used hydro electric energy as first choice for its base load because once the dam and generator is built it has the lowest production cost per kilowatt hour.
I would suggest that once sufficient solar and wind capacity is built it should replace hydro as base load source and hydro should be used as the battery (backup system). Extra energy not needed at the time could be used to pump water into reservoirs built on high locations to add to the hydro backup system or even as a rural local base system in some places. It is my belief that fossil fuels must be phased out on the planet. Global warming is real and we are already late at mediating it. For Saskatchewan, we now have a large supply of former oil industry unemployed workers, many of whom have already got mechanical and building skills. I would like to see the province pay them to be trained to build and operate wind and solar facilities so that they could build our solar and wind farms and would have a sustainable full time job operating them thereafter.

Our province has for far too long depended far too much on revenue from natural resources like petroleum, potash, and mining ores and diamonds. These activities have over the years yielded a lot of financial return but there does not exist today a fund which has been set aside so that the inevitable swings in revenue from this type of economy could be weathered and a different type of economy developed. It is a fundamental principle of investing that wealth should be diversified for stability. Natural resource deposits are by definition unsustainable so it is a given that our provincial governments over the years have been short sighted in managing the economy of the province. It is essential that we get serious about diversification and that means there needs to be establishment of business of new and different types in this province.This would mean a whole new mindset for creating and envisioning new paths to follow for the province. That in turn requires a group of young people with different methods and creative ways to view and do things.

Further to this point , In my view this would demand a change in how our education system deals with the very brightest and talented of our school system children, particularly when they are in their grade twelve graduating year. For many years our province has lost the majority of them to other locations mainly because other universities offered much larger incentives for them to get further education. I would suggest that our universities offer more to get students enrolled here at home. If the offer included a guaranteed research job to them after graduating in return for living and working here for a set number of years, I believe the results would lead to what I describe above. This is an elitist program, but real innovation is seldom done by those of us who are just average, in my opinion. With our small population, just a few bright ideas could get us started. One Bill Gates might solve our economy for us all.
I hope that what I have written will be seriously considered by our government. I am aware that it would require going further into debt, but I believe that doing these two major things would fairly rapidly correct that situation.

Dr. Charles Smith on provincial electoral reform

The Saskatchewan Party government has stated that it is interested in transforming the provincial state. Recognizing that much of the “transformative change” rhetoric is coming at a time of fiscal stress, there will undoubtedly be calls by some to drastically scale back important areas of the social welfare state. This would be a mistake.

Yet, what if we did not see transformative change as simply a cost-cutting exercise but an opportunity? What if we imagined a radically transformation of the state that was prefaced on making government more democratic and more accountable? What would such a change look like and how could it assist the Saskatchewan people through these troubled economic times?

The answer is a complex one, but begins by rethinking the government’s relationship to citizens and voters. Too often, re-elected governments forget or are structurally distanced from the voters that elected them. Too often, governments are elected with false majorities or are given a larger proportion of seats in the legislature than the actual support received by voters. These problems lead to a structural disconnect between government and voters, leaving too many citizens outside of the decision-making process.

Under our current electoral system, political scientists have argued that political parties competing for power rush to a mythical policy “centre” that they believe will placate a large percentage of voters while hoping not to alienate the rest. Our current electoral system is called Single-Member-Plurality (SMP) or First-Past-the Post. Historically, elections in Saskatchewan over represent certain parties and the mandates they receive from voters. For instance, the NDP wins in the 1990s gave the party super legislative majorities far exceeding the actual number of votes received. Even more egregious, third parties such as the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan saw most of its votes count for little or nothing as their votes did not translate into equal amounts of seats. In essence, Saskatchewan voters who cast ballots for non-NDP candidates virtually had their voices silenced.

We are seeing a similar trend in the current decade. Few would doubt the popularity of the Saskatchewan Party from 2007-2016. Yet, even their large electoral majority is over-inflated in the legislative assembly. Throughout this period, the Saskatchewan Party has been rewarded with thirty percent more of the seats than their vote warranted. This leads to a weaker opposition to question government priorities.

Think also of the voices that are virtually silenced under our current system. Unless a certain demographic make up a large plurality in specific geographic ridings, their voices carry little weight. For instance, urban Indigenous voices have little weight in our current electoral system because they are dispersed throughout the urban centres rather than in larger rural ridings. Is there a way to empower these voices?

Were the provincial state to be transformed in a more democratic way, we could imagine a system of proportional representation that would seek to better balance percentages of votes to percentage of seats. In other words, voters would be given more authority to speak with their ballots. Recognizing that Saskatchewan citizens are committed to local empowerment and local representation, a move towards a Mixed Member Proportional System (MMP) would serve Saskatchewan well. Under MMP voters would cast two ballots: one for a local representative and one for a party. In each constituency, voters are freer to vote for a local representative regardless of party affiliation. Once the local representatives are elected, parties receive a top-up in the legislative assembly from party lists distributed before an election.

Once a more representative legislative assembly is constructive, governments are then forced to work more closely with the opposition, recognizing that elections will not always give parties false or extremely large majorities. Recognizing that voters will have more power to transform the provincial state through their ballots will force governments to take those voices more seriously, especially in between elections. Parties too will be forced to better reflect the voters they are courting, because every single vote will count. In short, we’ll have a radically more democratic state. Such transformation will give citizens far better ability to openly influence any future transformative change agenda from government. It is time to transform our democracy to reflect the wishes of voters and citizens.

Stacey Strykowski on transforming healthcare

The transformational change needed in Saskatchewan is in health care. Our health care system pays out millions upon millions to CEOs and VPs each year while cutting front line staff – the people who actually make a difference in this world. By cutting management positions and putting some of that money towards front line services, Saskatchewan would have a quality health care system we could be proud of and will actually work for the people. Health care facilities should have LOCAL VOLUNTEER (or per diem) boards that report to the ministry as no one cares about their facility more than local people. They will be able to balance budgets and put the health of their communities first, not their paychecks. Health care is the most vital service in our province and often receives the most cuts in the most important places. Primary care is only making money for the province, it does not focus on the needs of the people. Yes, preventative medicine is a wonderful theory, but other situations arise that cannot only be solved in a clinic environment.

Dr. Marc Spooner on transforming education

We must get away from the standardized testing– skill and drill– “quick fix” approach to improving educational outcomes– that would be my number one suggestion for real transformational change with regard to education policy in Saskatchewan.

More tests won’t help, It’s just not that easy. If we don’t improve upon poverty rates, determinants of health indicators, and structural and individual racism, educational outcomes will not improve. As Pasi Sahlberg (2015) reminds us,

..research on what explains students’ measured performance in school concludes 10-20% of variance in measured student achievement can be attributed to classrooms– that is, teachers and teaching– and a similar amount of variance comes from factors within the schools– that is, school climate, facilities, and leadership. In other words, up to two-thirds of what explains student achievement falls beyond the control of schools. (pp.134-135) Sahlberg, P. (2015). Finnish Lessons 2.0. NY: Teachers College Press.

Furthermore, a substantial portion of the differences found on standardized tests results can be attributed to the background socioeconomic conditions of the students’ family and peers. In fact, combined, these two factors alone accounted for 50% of the variance on PISA tests in reading, math, science.

Although our province has not adopted provincial-wide standardized testing per se, Saskatchewan students are actually being administered several standardized tests on a regular basis, throughout their school years; among these, depending on the division, are: the Early Years Evaluation (EYE) reading tests for Kindergarten-Grade 1 students, the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark reading assessments in Grade 3, the Diagnostic Numeracy Assessment (DNA) tests for math in grades 3, 6, and 8, and the Reading Assessment District-36 (RAD) tests in grades 6 and 8, as well as several other tests not mentioned. Combined these tests cost the education system millions each year.

We, as province, cannot continue to mandate more of the same “testing approach” to teaching and learning, and expect to find improvements. If we truly want to effectively address educational concerns, inequity, and positive improvements in graduation rates and later life outcomes, we must once again place our trust in our talented professional educators and increase the opportunities for our students to be taught by teacher-role models from a wide-diversity of backgrounds, with improved supports made available to classrooms as required. All of these must be implemented within a context where we as a collective seek drastic improvement to the deplorable socioeconomic conditions that wrongly hold so many back throughout our province.

Phil Johnson on an Ecologically-friendly Carbon Capture

Saskatchewan people are per capita the largest producers of climate changing greenhouse gases in Canada, and consequently nearing the top in the world. At the same time, the fertility of our agricultural lands is being degraded through large-field mono-cropping, over-tillage, and the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These current conventional agricultural practices play a significant role in the creation of greenhouse gases, and in the destruction of valuable carbon sinks.

 
Carbon sinks include the soil, pastures, wetlands, and forests. In a healthy condition, through photosynthesis these environments will naturally remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, convert it to carbon, and hold it in the plants, trees and soil. Carbon is essential for healthy plants and soil. The key is that these environments must be conserved and enhanced.

 
I think it would be transformative if the province took a more ecological and socio-economic perspective on the capture and storage of carbon. Its current Carbon Capture and Storage facility is expensive, and the carbon is used by Cenovus Energy to flush more oil from the ground and consequently add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Instead, we should look at our soil, forest, and wetland resources in a different way. If we conserve and enhance them, rather than till, poison, clear-cut, and drain them, they will both remove carbon from the atmosphere, and retain valuable carbon in the soil and in trees and plants.

 
In the case of agriculture, there will have to be incentives. I propose that government develop contracts with farmers to sequester carbon. The amount of carbon sequestered can be measured, and the farmer would be paid based on the amount they have added and retained through more ecological practices. Farmers would also get the added advantage of healthier soil and healthier crops, which should improve productivity and income. We could look at Portugal’s soil carbon offsets program, begun in 2009, as a starting point. This program pays farmers for dry-land pasture improvement if they establish bio-diverse perennial grass/legume pastures to improve soil carbon and fertility, soil water holding capacity, and livestock productivity. The carbon sequestration part of this is one way in which Portugal is meeting its Kyoto Protocol commitments. The added advantage is that the new farm practices will result in more productive land and better bottom line for small farmers.

 
My proposal would go further than the Portugal example, to include improved forestry and wetland protections/programs. Of course, farmers, foresters and communities will require education and some convincing to change their practices. Financial incentives may be needed. Agri-business will lobby hard against such a program, seeing it as a threat to profits, since the chemicals it sells are incompatible with effective carbon capture and a healthy ecosystem. However, those farmers and foresters that do change would see considerable reward, and the rest of us could feel better about our reduced carbon footprint and much healthier environment.

Dr. Rachel Engler-Stringer on Food Insecurity

As a researcher who works in the area of household food insecurity, I would like to see policy and programs that ensure everyone is able to have the financial means to access the food they need to be healthy (whatever that means to them). This means ensuring we have a living wage in this province (rather the current wholly inadequate minimum wage), and providing assistance to those who cannot work that guarantees their ability to meet their basic needs (some sort of guaranteed minimum income that reflects the cost of living). Poverty is closely linked with food insecurity and both are closely linked with poor health, and poor educational and social outcomes in children. Rather than cut supports when people need them the most which creates other problems that cost money to rectify (in the health, social services and justice sectors for example), why not deal with the root of the problem and give everyone the means to fully participate in our communities? Dealing with root causes of problems we face as a society is the kind of transformational change I would like to see put forward.

Trevor Herriot on transforming agriculture

Globalization and industrialization have driven agriculture to the margins of Saskatchewan’s economic and cultural life, converting farming into an undervalued activity that provides the raw material for food processing and delivery industries that provide unhealthy food to fuel an overheated, profligate, carbon-emitting economy. One way to transform Saskatchewan, renew our commitment to our treaties, and begin to share responsibility for, and wealth derived from, the gifts of the land, would be to elevate the growing of good food—healthy for people and the land—to the status it deserves at the centre of a more sane, moral, and sustainable economy.

Saskatchewan has the agricultural land base, climate, and know-how to lead the world in renewing the economics and ecology of growing food in the temperate zone. With the right tax policy, land reform and a community-based approach to sharing at least a portion of the wealth that comes from the use of all lands, private and public, Saskatchewan could begin to change from systems that provide incentives for the unsustainable exploitation of land to systems that produce food, fuel, and fiber while safeguarding farm lands and natural lands for the benefit of current and future generations.

To create a more just and ecologically sustainable agriculture, we need to transform the way individuals and communities divide the costs and benefits of using land. How? First, by creating policy, community-enforced regulations, and economic mechanisms that share the value of land–both privately-owned and Crown lands–with the surrounding community; Secondly, by reversing systems that incentivize the depletion of local resources while increasing income inequality and driving up the costs of land; and lastly by supporting agricultural practices that re-connect people and communities to the land in ways that create both wealth and ecological wellbeing (healthy water and soil, carbon sequestration, biodiversity).

Iron and Earth on a just transition plan for energy workers

Over the summer we conducted our Workers’ Climate Plan in response to the federal governments National Climate Strategy consultations. We surveyed tradespeople and the public across the country to get their views on what a just transition for Canada’s future energy needs looks like and what is important to them when developing future energy policy.

The federal government has a responsibility to represent all Canadians in their future energy policies, and a responsibility to consider all possibilities to make a healthy, happier place not just for Saskatchewan but for the country as a whole.

These are the recommendations we made through our Workers’ Climate Plan Report based on the feedback we got, we think this is a plan all Canadians can get behind.

Our Three Energy Development Priorities:
1. Energy development must ensure continued job opportunities for Canada’s skilled
workers.
2. Energy development must be aligned with climate commitments and the goal of
nearing net zero emissions by 2050.
3. Build a thriving international export market of renewable energy products, electricity,
and services.

Our Four-Point Plan:
1. Build up Canada’s renewable energy workforce by rapidly up-skilling energy sector
workers through short term training programs and expanding apprenticeship
programs.
2. Build up the manufacturing capacity of renewable energy products through the
retooling and advancement of existing manufacturing facilities.
3. Position existing energy sector unions, contractors, manufacturers and developers
within the renewable energy sector through incubator programs and multi-
stakeholder collaboration initiatives.
4. Integrate renewable energy technologies and industrial scale energy efficiency
projects into existing non-renewable energy infrastructure.