Golden West reached out to each of the political parties running in the Saskatchewan Election to get their perspectives on Agricultural issues and priorities.

Saskatchewan Party Statement from David Marit a Candidate in the Wood River Constituency 

Agriculture is a priority for us in this province and the provincial economy. That's why we do have a growth plan out to the year 2030 and the details of that plan are quite huge when you look at the increases. We see the agri-food exports increasing to $20 billion.  We're really going after the increase in crop production to 45 million metric tonnes.  We also want to see increase in livestock cash receipts to $3 billion or greater. We made the announcement here a few months ago of the expanded irrigation and that 10 year commitment of funding to expand the irrigation here in the Province of Saskatchewan. The one thing we're really proud of doing and want to increase is value-added processing and to increase that to well over $10 billion.  So those are some of the key things we want to do on the Agriculture side.  Obviously we announced earlier that with the opening of trade offices around the world. If we're going to increase our agriculture business we have to increase our trading partners.  We felt that was very important, so we've opened up offices in Japan, Singapore and India. I think the one thing I also want to touch on is our commitment to working with the ag sector here in the Province of Saskatchewan.  We built a good relationship with all the ag sector here, both with the grain side and the livestock side that we're proud of, and we're very open in discussing obviously issues with them at any time.  COVID has brought some challenges,  we introduced a set-aside for the livestock sector here in the Province of Saskatchewan to get us through this period where there allowed to set-aside the feeder cattle to delay the process of them going to the slaughter plants.  So that's really our platform, we're very proud of what we're doing here in Agriculture.  I think if you ask farmers and ranchers of this province who they best trust to get them to that growth strategy they'll tell you it will be the Sask Party.

You'll find the complete party platform for the Saskatchewan Party here.

Saskatchewan New Democrats Statement from Yens Pedersen a Candidate in the Regina Northeast Constituency 

I want to tell you about Ryan Meili. He's a farm kid from Southwest Saskatchewan. He believes our solutions have to be practical and backed up by evidence. His personal record is one of getting things done and helping people. He's a dad, he's a doctor, he's an author, he's a shining example of the best talent that rural Saskatchewan can produce. Scott Moe on the other hand wants to take credit for things that Brad Wall and Lorne Calvert accomplished. He wants to talk about Trudeau and Joe Biden and other things that happened 30 years ago because he would rather talk about anything other than the Sask Partys record over the past four years. They cut rural bus service leaving people stranded, they cut our schools, they closed rural hospitals. Last year when farmers asked for help because of a terrible harvest, the Sask Party said you can call the Farm Stress Line. When farmers asked them to fix Agri-Stability at a cost of $20 million, the Sask Party said there was no money, but they can always find money to resurface football fields and build stadiums and award contracts for their big corporate donors. The NDP  is committed to expanding rural high speed internet and cell service. The Sask Party tried to privatize SaskTel and we all know that private phone companies will not invest in rural connectivity. Under the Sask Party the main streets in our hometowns are more empty than ever before. They squandered the boom and now we're left holding the bag. The Sask Party is taking rural Saskatchewan for granted, and they think they can get away with it. They're stuck in a rut, but we deserve better. The NDP will invest in rural education, will lower crop insurance rates for young farmers, and we're committed to fixing Agri-Stability. We'll invest in connecting rural Saskatchewan on the ground and on the internet. We'll make sure that Saskatchewan people are the ones who build our roads, our schools and our projects. It's time for change!

You'll find the complete party platform for the Saskatchewan New Democrats here.

**  The Saskatchewan Liberal Party did not respond to our request for a Statement on Agricultural Issues. **