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Leadership candidate promotes her experience

By Greg Nikkel Weyburn and area business and community leaders gathered to hear Sask.
Alanna Koch

By Greg Nikkel
Weyburn and area business and community leaders gathered to hear Sask. Party leadership candidate Alanna Koch lay out her platform, as she promoted her experience in government and ag organizations as assets for a premier and party leader.
She spoke at a luncheon at the Captain’s Hall, put on by longtime party supporter Murray McGillivray, who explained he knew Koch for many years through his involvement as a rancher in agricultural and government organizations.
Koch said many people who know of her varied experiences in ag, business and trade asked her to run for the leadership when Premier Brad Wall announced he would be retiring.
Her experiences include eight and a half years in government, including under former premier Grant Devine, and the last 10 years where she has been in the public service, including most recently serving as deputy minister and cabinet secretary under the premier, as well as a deputy minister of Agriculture.
In between those times, she served as executive director of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers during their fight against the Canadian Wheat Board, eight years as a consultant, then some time on the boards of several companies and groups, including as a director with Agricore United (the former United Grain Growers company), serving on the board of the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership (STEP) and president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance.
Through these involvements, she’s been involved in trade negotiations and trade missions, accompanying Premier Wall on all but one of his international trade missions.
Some of her platform points include creating a competitive business environment, promoting free market solutions, taking care of the most vulnerable in society, making science-based decision-making, running a fiscally responsible government, and ensuring all Saskatchewan residents benefit from the province’s growth and prosperity.
On the province’s finances, Koch said she wants to see a return to a balanced budget, but feels it will take a year longer than Premier Wall had initially set out, and she wants to revisit the provincial sales tax on insurance, saying this was something the party could have considered more carefully before putting into the budget.
If she is chosen to be leader and premier, Koch said she will enact a premier’s council with regional leader dinners, in centres like Weyburn and Yorkton, to help the party stay connected with the residents in outlying communities. She said this was something the party did more of in past years, but has gotten away from in the last couple of years as the party has “hunkered down” due to the economic challenges facing the province.
Koch was asked what experience she has outside of agriculture, and she outlined her years of experience in business and international trade, which allowed her to interact with other countries and companies about Saskatchewan.
Asked how the party might get youths involved with the party once again, she acknowledged this is an important issue for the party to address.
“I think this leadership race was one of the best things to happen, as we’re seeing a lot of young people get involved,” said Koch, noting she’s learned from her two daughters (aged 21 and 24) that involvement via social media will be a key to reaching teens and young adults.
Party supporter Dale Mainil pointed out the party used to have very good youth involvement, but lately the party has been getting complacent.
Koch agreed, and pointed out even with party references to the phrase, “We can’t go back”, she’s had young people ask her what this refers to, as the reference to not going back with the NDP refers to a time over 10 years ago, and many youths don’t know what it means.
Asked about the importance of federal-provincial relations, Koch noted that Premier Wall has very much stood up to the federal government on different issues, such as the carbon tax issue or equalization payments, but there is a need for a balanced approach as well.
“You don’t want to fight for fight sake. You need to manage the relationships a bit, so you stand up when you need to, but also make things work when you can,” said Koch.
The candidate also had some points to make in regard to the Global Transportation Hub (GTH), as she noted first of all that the project is under investigation by the RCMP, so they need to await the outcome of that.
Secondly, Koch is making ethics and integrity a vitally important part of her platform, which she has always done in any organization she has been involved with running. Her third point is that the GTH is a legacy project that will make a difference to the province economically in helping to move goods to market.