SASKATCHEWAN RIVERS – Sask Rivers Green Party candidate Alesha Bruce is seeking the vote to become the next Member of the Legislative Assembly for the constituency.
Bruce was born and raised in Christopher Lake, Sask, and Deer Ridge, Sask. Her lineage can be traced back to her great grandfather Isaac Workman who established the Village of Christopher Lake. On her paternal side, another great grandfather settled in Sturgeon Valley, Ruper Bruce, close to the land where her grandfather’s farm thrives and where her father resides.
Â鶹ÊÓƵ.ca corresponded with Bruce via email to find out the Green Party candidate's priorities and plans ahead of the coming provincial election.
What do you see as priorities for the area?
I would love to see solid confident relationships with the first owners of this land, the local First Nations of this area, while choosing sustainability of the land, forest, and water to be maintained in a healthy manner while utilizing the resources that are accessible to help build the economy of Saskatchewan.
I would like to see better relationships built between the local reservations and the communities. First and foremost, I want children and families to be supported in healing through past traumas to negate the past socially acceptable degradation which has led to severe safety issues within all communities.
I want to connect the dots between privileged and unprivileged ancestry to create a balanced holistic society within my constituency.
What is your plan on:
Affordability
I would call upon the national government to recognize that housing is in a national crisis. We need to recognize that housing is not affordable to most people living on minimum wage or less. We need to redefine affordable housing and the formulas that are unbalanced between the government idea of allowance and what reality is. We need to create and ‘empty home’ tax or foreign investment in residential and commercial properties that leave buildings/units vacant. I will also prioritize funding for non-profit and cooperative housing within my constituency.
Health
Mental health is at the forefront of my desires to ensure that our children have a better future. Mental health must be number one on our need to thrive as a community. Without the ability to feel safe, secure and without a sense of belonging individuals negate their own well-being and do not contribute to society in a positive way. My own experiences with familial mental health and addiction began at birth. I have lived through almost every possible mental health issue leading me to study and learn how to heal from and to become a positive, genuine and understanding citizen.
‘Dis-ease’ comes from the inability to live at ease, most if not all sickness comes from our inability to live without stress. We need to start at the route of the problem when it comes to sickness and disease. Starting with healthy eating, exercise and the clearing away of unnecessary stressors will help strengthen our children’s minds and bodies and in return solidify the healthy foundations of our community lessening the need for hospital visits and health care through governance. That being said, we need a strong health care system that ensures those who need to utilize hospitals are seen, heard and taken care of without being obstructed by under-funding.
Education
Public education has saved me, I remember being in the elementary schools being so scared and nervous having the most caring intuitive teachers recognize the signs of what I was going through kept me here. I never wanted to be a teacher. I hated school and dropped out of high school many times.
My best friend’s dad whom took me in, in Paddockwood at fifteen sat me down and asked me what I wanted to become, I was never asked that. After his passing his daughter found my report card that had mostly absences. I decided to go to University to become an artist, in my third year I was about to move to Saskatoon to attend the University of Saskatchewan when the father of my first born, Corey Teeter, suggested SUNTEP as I am Treaty Dene through my matriarchal lineage and Metis of patriarchal lineage… and I thought, “NO WAY! NOPE!” I did not like school or high school except for those few amazing teachers, but some other force sent me that way and I graduated with receiving the star blanket for having a good heart and also I was the president of the SRC in which I implemented the recycling program and graduated upon working with Elaine Sukava where I taught sustainably living practices within the local schools.
I then went on to teach at a local reserve and then the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division where I made life long relationships with teachers, support staff and students. All of this experience has taught me that all along the public education sector has been a saving grace in my life and the lives of all our children. Public education allows for every child’s needs to be met. As we grow together as a society, we learn what works and what doesn’t. Through my experience in the Public education system I soon realized that this sector is made of amazing humans that believe in the betterment of our society as a whole. Our children are the roots of our society, if we do not invest in the roots of our society than the tree becomes top heavy and our society crumbles leaving everyone in disdain. Investment in our children is pertinent in the creation of a strong, solid, safe and caring society. My plan for Saskatchewan Rivers is to continue to support the amazing work that’s already been implemented by the incredible school divisions and community members that I belonged to since birth.
Public Safety
Safety first/fun second… this is what I tell my students daily. A few countries that are doing much better than us have implemented a family first program. They solidified the family system by allowing families to raise their children for the first five important attachment building years. These countries do not believe in ripping their children from the family to be raised by others. These countries have also, recently gotten rid of most of their jail systems. This example of structuring the root of our system has proven that we need to work from the ground up not backwards as we have been doing wrongly since Canada and our provinces have formed. Yes, we need to continue to keep our families safe through any means necessary but whilst doing so we need to learn as to why it has gotten so bad and then we need to correct this by investing in solidifying our family systems in which will allow for humans to grow as healthy, respectful community members
Highways
Growing up with the most well respected family member who has worked for the road crew for most of his life, I have only respect for this man and the work he has done to connect communities and build our economy throughout our province. Road construction keeps our communities connected and healthy. Investing in our highways allows for us to build upon the resources that haven’t been properly researched or developed. With investment in highways we can attain these resources and built our economy which in turn can be properly distributed among our people to create a safer, healthier and more positive community.
What is your stance on the federal Carbon Tax?
More than less are there examples today of people gaining from the carbon tax by restructuring their living situations to negate harmful non-sustainable ways of being. I would ensure that the largest of corporations would pay a negotiable carbon tax while allowing for investment in households and climate action projects to ensue among local communities to solidify a balanced homeostasis between our Mother Earth and development of our economy.
Most pressing issue affecting your constituency?
The most pressing issue is safety of our children. Our children have been subjugated to an ongoing onslaught of repetitive undermining and degradation from being segregated, subjugated and learned behaviour beginning at the horrific residual effects of the stealing of children, the stealing of land and resources and the tried destruction of language, ceremony and customs.
Through recognition, education and connection our province can gain some headway on this issue. If people continue to ignore and negate the root of this safety issue than it will only continue to get worse, not better. My constituency needs to recognize past wrongs and rewrite the future through new and practical investments. We need to invest in our People and the Earth we live on first and the rest will follow.
