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NDP visit Battlefords; blast public safety and education record
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Village Lights Up
Community often gets a bad rap
By Miguel Fenrich Staff Reporter
Nicole Sarauer (MLA for Regina Douglas Park) joined Tom Kroczynski (the NDP candidate for The Battlefords) on Wednesday, Dec.13 to see what the Battlefords had to say about the government’s record on policing and public safety. “First of all, Tom [Kroczynski], we’re really happy to have him as our candidate for the general election in 2024. In every place we’ve gone, everybody’s known him already, which is fantastic. It’s always good to have a candidate who is well-known in the community and has already established that trust in his ability to be able to serve,” Sarauer began. “It’s one thing we see as a challenge of this current government. Just being long in the tooth, they’ve stopped listening to those who are on the front lines, those who are experts in [the] community,” she said, adding that the solutions are there, but only if you listen to the community. “And we’re not seeing that with this current government.” The pair met with the
Town of Battleford, the City of North Battleford, the RCMP and Battlefords and Area Sexual Assault Centre (BASAC). She noted that when it comes to policing and public safety in the Battlefords, the community often does get a bad rap from the national media. “The challenges you see here, we see throughout the province, issues with poverty, homelessness, mental health and addictions that you see in the Battlefords exist throughout the province. And I do think that Battlefords has a really great story to tell. And they’re often painted in an unfair light.” But beyond the stigma attached to the Battlefords, she also noted that changes to the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program, better funding for mental health and addiction treatment, and supporting existing policing services rather than the recently announced marshal program would be of greater help. “And how that has really forced a lot of vulnerable community members to become homeless, where they’re not able to
get any mental health or addictions, treatment supports. You see more of that visibly, and that’s a direct result of changes to the Social Assistance Program ... that’s something that government could solve tomorrow if they chose to,” she added. Regarding BASAC, she said they do incredible work on a shoestring budget, but also teach children about healthy relationships. Now they’ve been removed from the classroom poses a danger to the community, she says. “When we don’t do that, we see a higher rate of violence, a higher rate of crime, and then that falls on police, again, an already overstretched resource,” she said. “We have a government and a minister [Jeremy Cockrill] that’s the MLA for this area that has removed healthy relationship education from schools. And he doesn’t have to go far in his own community to hear the devastating effect that’s had on students and on our rates of violence. “And when we have a province that has the Continued on Page 5
Holiday lights shine at the Western Development Museum’s Heritage Village as 2023’s Light Up the Village offers a tour through the streets by vehicle. Light Up the Village is open nightly from 6 to 9:30 p.m. until Jan. 7, 2024. Just $10 per vehicle or $30 for a season pass. Note, it will be closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and News Year’s Day. | Photo courtesy Western Development Museum
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