With Oct. 24 quickly approaching, Moose Javians are starting to wade through candidate clutter with a fine tooth comb to better understand who they will decide to give their votes to during the upcoming election.
Of course one of the hot topics has been the looming closure of the Valley View Centre (VVC), as it should be since it employs 500 residents and helps provide care for those who need it the most.
VVC Matters, is a community based group that wants to see quality of care and services provided continue in the area by the current caregivers in Moose Jaw and offer the same or a higher level to residents when they transition out of VVC.
VVC Matters posed the following questions to each of the municipal candidates:
1. With the recent announcement of the closure of Valley View Centre, one of the largest employers of Moose Jaw citizens, what would your approach be to ensure that the jobs and services they provide remain in the City of Moose Jaw?
2. If a resident of Valley View Centre and/or their family wish to stay in the community of Moose Jaw with the caregivers they know and the services they currently receive, what steps are you willing to take to facilitate this?
3. $1.8 million in payroll is injected into the Moose Jaw economy each month. How do you plan to regenerate this lost income into the Moose Jaw economy?
4. Over 500 jobs will be eliminated, already some employees have resigned to take other permanent employment, and even moved to other communities to do so. What will you do to ensure that there are replacement jobs for these 500+ people at comparable wages?
All but two of the city council candidates answered and provided their comments back to VVC Matters.
To find out if you agree with certain candidate’s answers to help in your upcoming voting decisions, their responses may be found at: www.vvcmatters.ca/378/.
