Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall has assigned several of his MLAs to look at the biofuels industry and how farmers could best benefit from it.
Speaking to delegates at the annual Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities convention, Wall announced that Bob Bjornerud, Lyle Stewart, Wayne Elhard and Glen Hart would examine ways to put more money in farmers’ hands from ethanol and biodiesel.
He sees those industries as key parts of a new generation of farm policy.
Wall said a federal mandate requiring ethanol and biodiesel use would be a farm program that creates value-added industry, jobs and spinoffs.
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Commodity prices would rise, he said, pointing to strong corn prices that reacted to a burgeoning American ethanol industry.
“We have a serious, serious crisis with respect to grains and oilseeds,” Wall told delegates during his speech.
“Out of crisis, if there is resolve and vision and leadership, there comes opportunity.”
Aside from biofuels, Wall supports the Alternate Land Use Services initiative that would see landowners paid for their land stewardship and environmental management.
Wall said a bridge needs to be built between rural and urban Saskatchewan and it’s up to voters to decide who can best do that.
The current government is in the third year of its mandate.
Rural Saskatchewan should demand leadership that understands the need to invest in infrastructure that will develop the natural resources found outside the cities.
There are no oil pump jacks on Regina’s Albert Street or Saskatoon’s College Avenue, he said.
