Saskatchewan NDP details ag sector wishes ahead of provincial election

The Saskatchewan Provincial election is just a week away, with the province's parties looking at what they can do for the agriculture sector.

That includes working with other provinces and the federal government and responding to disaster years such as the droughts that have come up through the 2020s.

Trent Wotherspoon is one provincial candidate, who served as the Saskatchewan NDP's official critic for agriculture, finance, and transportation during his previous term.

During his reelection, Wotherspoon says that agriculturally Saskatchewans stands tall in the country.

"I mean, we have a world-class ag sector. We have world-leading producers who lead the way, an incredible Agribusiness and research community in this province. So we really are the envy of the world and we play such an important role in feeding the world. So we need to make sure that agriculture is always positioned for incredible success today and for the long term on that front."

To that end, Wotherspoon says that the Saskatchewan NDP would call for a number of improvements for the sector.

"We would like to make sure that we build and improve livestock business risk management programs to ensure fairness, protection and flexibility for producers. Livestock producers have definitely dealt with protracted drought in many areas. They've dealt with unfairness when it comes to meat pricing and what they deserve is a solid backstop and fairness."

"The reality right now is that you have a program like livestock price insurance, which is a good program. But it doesn't receive provincial or federal contributions to the premiums and that's a matter of fairness that should be addressed. We've pushed for a long time for that to become a national program and for federal and provincial contributions to be there as well, to make sure that livestock producers have a backstop that they can count on, and this positions them well into the future, including dealing with pressures around drought."

Additionally, Wotherspoon says he hopes to see an expanded industry in Saskatchewan which would help out the ag sector.

"We're also pushing for the development of a larger meat processing industry in Saskatchewan, creates jobs and opportunities across our province and in rural communities, creates opportunities and value for livestock producers in this province and also creates a product that consumers can be very proud of."