There was noticeable interest in the Battlefords and area last week by some leading members of the provincial NDP.
Provincial leader Cam Broten was in North Battleford Sept. 17 as part of his listening tour of the province, focusing his efforts mainly on the issues of health care and senior care.
The following day it was deputy leader Trent Wotherspoon's turn to visit the community.
He told the Regional-Optimist he met with Mayor Ian Hamilton and city council, and later had meetings set up with the Light of Christ Catholic School Division. He was not able to meet up with Living Sky School division that day, but said he planned to follow up with them in the future.
Wotherspoon later headed to Lloydminster where he was scheduled to meet with both the public and separate school divisions there.
The deputy leader said he had a "wide-ranging discussion on local issues" with Mayor Hamilton, "discussing successes and opportunities as well."
He said some of the pressures he's heard is "the need for dedicated funding for municipalities, to make sure that our growing communities are supported in that growth and that does not fall on homeowners and businesses."
Of infrastructure, Wotherspoon said it was the "wrong time for the government to sit on the sidelines with regard to infrastructure." He said he was hearing across the province the need for the provincial and the federal governments to put forward a plan to fund infrastructure and "not tie the hands of local leaders."
"What local leaders need in North Battleford, what they need around the province, is a meaningful infrastructure funding plan from the provincial and federal government."
Wotherspoon, who acts as the NDP's education critic in the legislature, said a primary focus of the day for him was meeting with education stakeholders and with teachers.
In education, he said the provincial government "has to put in place some commitments and a plan for school repair and building the schools that we need."
"Right now they're in limbo, they're sitting on the sidelines - that's government - and school boards certainly are needing some clear communication and commitments around repairing the schools that we need, and building the schools that we need."
Wotherspoon said he also continues to hear about pressures within the classroom, including growing class sizes, and "really a failure by government to recognize these pressures and a failure to properly support those pressures."
As for the recent departure of Russ Marchuk as minister of education, to be replaced by Don Morgan, Wotherspoon repeated what leader Broten has been saying publicly about Marchuk, calling it "awfully hard for someone to push a flawed agenda that's pushed from the top."
Wotherspoon said education "has been in disarray for some period of time," predating the previous minister.
He pointed to cuts in educational assistants and decisions he says weren't made with enough consultation.
"We certainly call upon the new minister to embrace the need to listen to those on the ground," said Wotherspoon.
"That includes teachers, that includes parents and to recognize there's a lot of pressures on student learning that need to be addressed."
