Battlefords MLA Len Taylor has a new role in advance of the return of the legislature in March.
He will take on duties as the opposition critic for Highways and Infrastructure. Taylor was appointed to the new role Feb. 15 following a shuffle of positions in Dwain Lingerfelter's shadow cabinet.
He was one of 10 NDP MLAs who received new responsibilities in the shadow cabinet. However, Taylor will not be leaving behind his old responsibilities, as he continues on as critic for Enterprise, Innovation Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Research Council.
In an interview with the News-Optimist, Taylor says he looks forward to his new responsibilities, which will include dealing with issues of great importance to the Northwest region.
"This is very interesting, and exciting for me," Taylor said, because "here in northwest Saskatchewan we have quite a number of highways issues."
He drew attention to Highway 4 north and south of North Battleford and Highway 378 extending to Rabbit Lake and Spiritwood. Taylor also pointed to the issues around the Highways Connectors program that affects urban municipalities.
For all these reasons his new role "will give me even more opportunities to represent the Battlefords and area, because highways issues are important to us."
Taylor notes there has been considerable discussion in the past few years about either twinning or widening Highway 4 north accommodate an increasing traffic load, suggestions the highways department hasn't acted upon to his liking.
"There's a tremendous amount of traffic on Highway 4 north," said Taylor, including big trucks related to the forestry industry.
Taylor said Highway 378 has had "virtually no upgrading" to it in the past number of years and also needs considerable upgrades to accommodate the truck traffic on that road as well. He also pointed to the need to deal with the issues of the highways going directly through the Battlefords, such as Highway 16.
The infrastructure portion of his role promises to be interesting as municipalities "are finding infrastructure financing a challenge," said Taylor.
He notes the infrastructure issue was a major one for municipalities at the recently concluded Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association convention in Saskatoon. Taylor hopes to be able to be of even more assistance to municipalities on those issues.
Taylor will be shadowing current Minister of Highways Jim Reiter when the legislature resumes sitting March 7. The provincial budget is expected to come down later on in the month.
Other shadow cabinet changes include the appointment of Buckley Belanger as SaskEnergy critic, Kevin Yates as SaskTel and SGI critic, Ron Harper as Capital Commission critic, Frank Quennell as Corrections, Public Safety and Policy critic, Doyle Vermette as Northern Affairs critic, Kim Trew for STC, Pat Atkinson for privatization, Cam Broten for education and Danielle Chartier for the status of women. All other posts are unchanged.
Opposition leader Dwain Lingenfelter says the new critic assignments should take the NDP into the 2011 election this fall.
"We plan to work hard in the coming months and are looking forward to the spring session of the legislature," Lingenfelter said in a statement.
