“I can’t do it alone.”
That’s newly re-elected Cumberland MLA Doyle Vermette’s message for constituents hoping for better treatment from the Saskatchewan government.
“The MLA is not going to go there and do it all,” says Vermette, re-elected last week as a member of the opposition NDP. “He needs the community, the leadership. He needs residents [to make themselves heard], whether that is letters, petitions, meetings face-to-face. We have to work together to raise the issues. And at the end of the day it’s going to be up to government whether they’re going to listen to the citizens, the leadership [and] the MLA.”
While he cruised to re-election April 4 – securing 63 per cent of the vote in what many predicted would be a tight battle with Saskatchewan Party star candidate Thomas Sierzycki – Vermette’s victory was tempered by yet another dismal showing by his party.
He is one of 10 NDP MLAs in a legislature where Premier Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party occupies 51 seats. First elected in a by-election, Vermette is the fifth-most experienced member of the NDP caucus.
At 52, he has spent nearly eight years in the legislature, all of them in opposition. He doesn’t know why the NDP didn’t do better this time around, though he says he respects the will of the voters.
All that time in opposition appears to have done little to dull Vermette’s passion for the job or his constituency. He pledges to soldier on, fighting what he describes as the Sask Party’s custom of ignoring the needs of northern Saskatchewan.
In Creighton, that means joining ongoing efforts to bring a housing facility for intellectually disabled adults to the community. It’s a need that several residents have identified.
Vermette also backs a personal care home for Creighton, an effort for which he led a petition drive last year.
He has concerns about the general increase in the cost of living, including utilities. Much like the opposition Tories in Manitoba, the Saskatchewan NDP has blasted the provincial government over rising electricity bills.
Vermette also remains a strong advocate for the Northern Saskatchewan Trappers’ Association, which, as its name suggests, represents trappers across the northern part of the province.
“That needs to be protected and we have to make sure there’s core funding in place,” he says. “They used to have core funding. That has to continue.”
In the last legislature, Vermette was the NDP whip as well as critic for Northern Saskatchewan, SGI and STC, and associate critic for First Nations and Métis Relations.
He says he expects to know in the near future what role he will play in the next legislature, but the NDP must first name an interim leader to replace Cam Broten, who has stepped down after losing his own seat.
