Farming, heavy construction, and transportation are some of the key areas that Steve Gessner has put his energies into. He is the Sask United Party for Cut Knife-Turtleford in the upcoming Oct. 28 provincial elections.
Question 1: Who are you?
Gessner: I grew up in Cut Knife-Turtleford and have lived in this constituency all my life. I started farming with my dad. I’ve done trucking and construction. I’ve been a blue-collar worker my entire life. I retired from trucking about six or seven years ago, and I’m back to farming.
Question 2: Why do you want to be an MLA?
Gessner: Simply because somebody has to. I think have the qualifications to do so. Having spent 30 years on the road all over the continent. I’ve seen things that work well in other jurisdictions. I’ve seen things that didn’t work well. In my 64-years, I think I have 50 good years of real-life experience that I can bring to the table. When I was a kid growing up, Saskatchewan was by far, the best place to live in this entire continent.
Question 3: What is your platform?
Gessner: The absolute business thinking of our leader and the party’s platform. The province of Saskatchewan is to its government no more and no less than a large business and should be operated as such. Our leader, Jon Hromek comes from the business world. He has business sense. A lot of our future MLAs, myself included, hopefully have business sense. In our platform, we have things like the Saskatchewan First Bank. It will be designed to work with Saskatchewan people for Saskatchewan’s needs. Things like small processing plants. We can take our wheat and instead of shipping it to the west coast, why aren’t we shipping finished flour?
Question 4: What is your plan for the riding- a small wheat processing plant in Maidstone?
Gessner: Sure. I will be looking for those kinds of things in the riding. I’m not calling it a promise. The only thing I’m promising is that I will do my utmost best for the people of that constituency.
Question 5: What is your plan to deal with homelessness and the unhoused?
Gessner: I believe that some of the people that are homeless are homeless by choice. They have decided to leave our society as such. I believe if you want to be a member of our society, there are jobs out there for them. They are not high-paying jobs, but they are jobs that need to be done. And once you have a job, you can find a home. Now addiction is one of those things that a person has no control over. Until you hit your rock bottom, there is no such thing as recovery. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who are homeless are in that position. They need the help, but they also need to want the help.
Question 6: What is your plan to deal with crime and insecurity?
Gessner: The problem that I see is not necessarily with our law enforcement. Our law enforcement does need to pull their bootstraps up. But at the same time, we have a legal system that is set up to catch and release. The police are getting tired of catching the same person over and over again. Put them into a courtroom, they get a slap on the wrist, and they are turned loose again. Enough is enough. If you do the crime, it’s time to do the time. Unless we can form government, we can’t put any of these things into place. But we can certainly make a lot of noise and force those who are in government to do so.
Question 7: What are your thoughts on healthcare?
Gessner: To not have access to a (family) doctor is just out of this world. We have decided we will be underwriting the training for those doctors, and nurses in exchange for time spent in the province. That will go some distance. It’s not going to happen today or tomorrow. You want a doctor, then you have to train them. There are doctors from all over the world who want to come to Canada. Why aren’t we bringing them in and recognizing their training? Part of their training is not recognized here in Canada. Bring them up to our requirements. But we get into government red tape, to get them here and most of the time, they give up before they get here.
Question 8: What are your thoughts on the economy in the riding?
Gessner: Cut Knife-Turtleford is very fortunate. A lot of that riding has oil. We have that influx of prosperity happening. We are large in agriculture too. This year has been a much better crop than the last two or three years have been. So, those guys are floating through. They are not in too bad of a shape. Some of the local guys say the crop is not what they were expecting but they will make a go of it. In the riding, we are not in that terribly bad a shape.
Question 9: What are your thoughts on the provincial economy?
Gessner: We are in the toilet. That’s what it comes down to. We are on the bridge of the Titanic. In another half-hour, we are going to be underwater. We need to get back to a business world. We need to run this province like the business that it actually is.
Question 10: Final thoughts
Gessner: I believe the people of Cut Knife-Turtleford deserve the very best representative that they can get. Also, I hope they believe that that’s me.
