MANITOBA VOTES 2023 – SPRINGFIELD-RITCHOT: PC candidate running for middle class, fiscal responsibility

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This article was published 25/09/2023 (629 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Springfield-Ritchot PC candidate Ron Schuler believes there are two issues this election: affordability for the middle class and fiscal responsibility.

The incumbent MLA and father of three said the PC government is committed to balancing the books in four years and he is also finding on his door to door visits with constituents that it’s difficult for them to make ends meet.

“The working men and women find issues like carbon tax are hurting them terribly. Heating our homes is not a luxury. It’s not something that we have a choice on. It’s a life and death matter and yet the carbon tax increases are hurting Manitoba and our premier has been clear that we’re going to challenge the federal government on that.”

He said the government has increased the basic personal amount (the amount one can earn before they pay taxes) to $15,000 which should help students and those that work part-time.

Schuler has been a politician for 24 years and he said he’s running this term because he’d like to see certain projects in his riding to completion such as the $110 million sewage treatment plant in Niverville, the construction of an Oakbank sports complex, and the construction of a personal care home also in Oakbank.

“There are substantive projects that I’ve worked on, you could say some for 23 years, that are now in the stages of being built and I want to make sure those are completed and that’ll take the next four years.”

Schuler believes that more recruitment should be done regarding health care. He also said the system needs to catch up on the “back log from COVID” and allow changes that were started to “settle in.”

“I think that the health-care system has had enough changes. I think what we need to do now is continue with recruitment. I think we’ve had the largest class now ever of young individuals wanting to be doctors. We’ve added substantive amount of seats in nursing as we did for doctors. We have to get our complement of staffing up to where it was before people started leaving because of COVID.”

Schuler believes the government has taken some very good steps in dealing with climate change by promoting tree planting, biodegradable programing, diverting items from the landfill, and opening eight charging stations in the province.

When it comes to one of the most important environmental issues in his own riding, the Sio Silica project, Schuler refuses to say whether he supports the project or not.

“I don’t work in the abstract. I won’t answer that question. I do not believe elected officials should answer questions where it’s in the abstract. What if what happens. We will wait to see what the report and recommendation is.”

He believes the community asked for a process and that right now that process is sitting with a peer review after the clean environment commission made its report.

“This has been a very good process. No one was turned back. Everybody was allowed to have their say. The commission did travel around various communities even outside of Springfield so everyone could have their say. It’s a solid report and now it’s being peer reviewed and that’s exactly where it should be. Interestingly enough, when this process was announced one of my opponent’s parties was opposed to it and now they’ve come out and said they agree that it should be a process and we should allow the process to take place.

“That’s what the community asked for. They didn’t ask for these fake referendums that are paid for by some wealthy people, which the outcome, I take it, will have been paid for. That is a fake referendum. There’s a proper process that the community asked for and that process has been honoured and is being honoured by our government and being honoured by myself as MLA. We’ll allow the process to proceed.”

When it comes to education, Schuler thinks the biggest challenge is there are not enough schools. He used the example of Niverville which didn’t have a central building for their high school students until recently.

“We’ve committed to building multiple schools… I know in my community a lot of retrofits, a lot of additions had to take place in Dugald and the high school in Niverville and more importantly safe spaces for community for young people to congregate… I think we’ve tried to address the difficulty that a lot of communities had with over utilized schools.”

Schuler believes the PC party will win this election.

“We’ve got a great premier. Premier Heather Stefanson has worked incredibly hard. She has put in so much time and effort. She does seven to eight events every day. We have a great team and I suspect we’ll be government on the evening of Oct. 3.”

As to why people should vote for him, Schuler said he’s an experienced politician who brought $296 million to the constituency in four years by working hard.

“That’s my commitment going forward, that I will continue to work hard and advocate for Springfield, Ritchot and Niverville.”