Bonnie Galenzoski is the NDP Candidate for the Melville/Saltcoats riding. Raised on a farm in rural Saskatchewan, Bonnie has lived most of her life in rural communities. With over 30 years of experience volunteering as a member of a small community club, she knows how much more difficult it is to acquire resources for small rural communities. When the village decided to remove the old unsafe playground structures and sell the four playground lots as residential lots, Bonnie led a team to approach the council and offer up a compromise. The solution allowed the team to fundraise over four years for a smaller but safety-approved structure and, as a bonus, start-up funding was donated by the town from the sale of the other two lots.
Bonnie volunteered as a cub leader for a number of years and as a hockey parent to assist in fundraising and hockey tournaments. She has also volunteered with the Regina Open Door Society in welcoming new immigrants to Saskatchewan.
Bonnie has completed a BSc in Geography and served as the student representative for the Department of Geography. She has worked primarily in government, previously at the Ministry of Environment, followed by work with the Ministry of Agriculture, Elections Saskatchewan and has been employed for the last four years with Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation in Melville. Her work as a GIS Analyst keeps her current with new technologies and, in 2018, she was a recipient of the Deputy Minister’s Award for Value and Innovation.
Bonnie, and her partner Garth, spend their time between Yorkton and his family farm. In her spare time, Bonnie gardens, quilts and manages a small vintage and antique home business. She has 2 children, one who works in Regina and another who is working on completing a degree at UBC.
I decided to enter the political field as I saw an ever-widening gap in Saskatchewan between the rich and poor, urban and rural, north and south, Indigenous and non-Indigenous and between immigrants and Non-immigrants,” explained Galenzonski when asked why she decided to enter the political field. Galenzoski continued with, “There are so many opportunities for people in Saskatchewan, but too many people in Saskatchewan are unable to contribute their strengths because they don’t have equal access to these opportunities. Our plan aims to close some of these gaps by investing in public services like health care and education, and building a strong economy. I believe in the Saskatchewan motto ‘From Many Peoples Strength’ and that we need to include everyone in Saskatchewan for a society to be successful.”
Bonnie said, “I hope to represent all constituents and create better access to health, education, and the necessities of life. Too many people are being left behind. I hope that by investing in people that we can close the gap. New Democrats will make life more affordable for families by increasing the minimum wage to $15/hr and implementing $25 a day child care. We’ll improve health outcomes by investing $100 million to hire hundreds of doctors, nurses and continuing care aides. We’ll ensure all students are successful in the classroom by investing $125 million to hire more teachers, EAs, mental health nurses and classroom supports—and we’ll spend an extra $3 million for rural schools. With these supports, I hope that I can personally help close gaps for the constituents of Melville-Saltcoats.” Galenzoski proudly exclaimed when referring to what she personally wishes to achieve for her constituents and province.”
As for Galenzonski’s personal pet project for her term, she said, “As a New Democrat, I believe every family should be able to access timely and quality health care, no matter their postal code. I know families in Melville-Saltcoats are struggling to get the care they need when they need it because of a shortage of staff, shuttered facilities and restricted ER hours. The NDP is committed to investing $10 million to address chronic short staffing in our health care facilities. We would convene a panel of experts, with local community representation, to design a plan to improve care, recruit and retain staff and fix our crumbling health care facilities.”
Finally, Galenzonski was asked what the NDP and herself will do to help small communities become stronger, especially during the pandemic and economic situation. “Even before the pandemic, too many people in our province were living paycheque to paycheque, with one in four children in Saskatchewan living in poverty – and more Sask. Party cuts would make things worse. Cuts to healthcare and education were a bad idea before – during a pandemic, they’re downright dangerous.
New Democrats have an economic plan that puts people first. We will get people back to work with a Sask-First procurement plan that focuses on hiring local companies for our infrastructure projects. We will eliminate the PST on construction to help stimulate the struggling construction
industry. We’ll provide much-needed aids to local producers with increased investment in the AgriStability program. And we’ll lift everyone up, especially working women, by increasing the minimum wage to $15/hour.
By putting people first, we will build a healthy economy that can weather bad times and take advantage of good times” was her reply.
With provincial residents going to the polling stations the political parties have stepped up their promises, Ryan Melli Leader of the Sask.NDP has been very vocal in what he and his party are promising the citizens of Saskatchewan.
Ryan Meili promised to invest $10 million to improve mental health care and create an addictions strategy.
The NDP said $7.8 million would be used to create dedicated mental health emergency rooms in Saskatoon, Regina, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw.
An additional $2 million would go toward developing and implementing an evidence-based strategy to tackle Saskatchewan’s opioid and crystal meth crisis.
The party said it would also introduce a legislated suicide prevention strategy. Ryan Meili said a new surgery and outpatient centre will be built in Regina if the NDP forms government.
The centre would include diagnostic imaging, a pharmacy, rehabilitation and outpatient cancer care, according to the NDP.
The cost is estimated at $60 million.
Ryan Meili is promising $50 million to hire 700 additional home care staff.
The proposal includes the hiring of approximately 200 certified care aides, 100 licenced practical nurses, 70 registered nurses, 100 caretakers, 40 carpenters, 50 cooks, 80 groundskeepers and 60 occupational therapists.
The NDP leader said this would allow more seniors to stay in their homes. Ryan Meili promised an investment of $100 million to hire health-care staff. This would include hiring 100 doctors, 150 nurses, 300 licensed practical nurses and 500 continuing care assistants, according to the NDP.
Meili said he would work in partnership with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, professional associations and unions in developing the hiring plan.
The NDP promises to enact legislation to close the gender pay gap. Additionally, the party said it would ban dress codes at workplaces that have mandatory high heel policies. Ryan Meili said he wants to make the government more transparent and accountable. As part of that promise, Meili said he would call a public inquiry into the Global Transportation Hub and the Regina Bypass.
The NDP would also bring in measures to strengthen conflict of interest rules for MLAs and require all lobbying to be made public.
The Saskatchewan NDP said it will commit $125 million to reduce the size of classrooms if it forms government in the upcoming election.
The NDP said the funding could support 1,000 teachers, 750 educational assistants and 400 caretakers.
This is in addition to $10 million previously promised by the NDP to address mental health support in schools.
The NDP proposed a wealth tax of one per cent on everyone in the province with a net worth of over $15 million.
The party said this would raise an additional $120 million in revenue annually and would be used for education and health-care spending.
Party Leader Ryan Meili also pledged to build a new bridge and hospital in Prince Albert during a campaign stop in the northern Saskatchewan city.
The NDP did not put a cost on the promise.
The NDP said it would reopen rural emergency rooms closed by Scott Moe and commit to keeping all existing rural acute care centres open. The NDP said they’ll invest an additional $10 million to address chronic short staffing and recruitment challenges in rural health care. The party said it would also invest in rural health infrastructure as part of its capital plan to fix crumbling rural health-care facilities and convene a panel of rural municipal, health-care, First Nations and Métis leaders to advise on improving access to health care in rural areas. They said they would also work with the health science faculties on an aggressive rural training program to recruit and retain young people from rural Saskatchewan in health-care careers. The NDP said it would ban corporate and union donations to political parties and bring in a cap on contributions that would align Saskatchewan’s rules with provinces throughout the country. Ryan Meili announced that an NDP government will invest $5 million to hire 50 mental health nurses for schools and an additional $5 million to work with school divisions to reverse cuts and hire child educational psychologists, counsellors, speech-language pathologists and other mental health supports.
The NDP said that as part of a platform commitment to reaching 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and a legislated target of 100 percent emissions-free electricity by 2050, they would work with SaskPower to explore a major expansion of baseload geothermal power capacity.
Ryan Meili said he would enact legislation to protect the province from privatized health care and reverse steps taken by the Saskatchewan Party toward a two-tiered system. He said the Saskatchewan Medicare Protection Act would be modelled on British Columbia’s Medicare Protection Act to prevent further expansion of American-style patient pay services and double-billing that he said undermines the public health care system.
The NDP said it will lower SGI premiums for drivers by seven percent — roughly $85 a year. It also said all drivers would receive a $100 rebate.
Ryan Meili said the money would come from SGI’s one-billion-dollar reserve fund. In its first pre-election campaign promise, the NDP said it would bring in $25 a day child care. Ryan Meili also promised to increase the number of child care spaces by 2,200 and conduct a review of the system with experts.
He didn’t specify how much the program would cost.
By Gary Horseman
(Local Journalism Initiative Reporter)
garyfourtownjournal@gmail.com
Four-Town+ Journal