Ron Kostyshyn has put his name forward and is running as the NDP Candidate for Dauphin in next year's provincial election.
Kostyshyn has a long career in both provincial and municipal politics, previously serving as the MLA for Swan River, and during that time was the Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Initiatives. He most recently served as Reeve of the Mossey River Municipality.
"Often when you get involved with municipal politics, you always get involved in other areas of politics. So I'm proud to say that I was involved with the Intermountain Watershed for a number of years, had the opportunity to be the Manitoba conservation district association president in the province of Manitoba as well, sat on the planning district for a number of years, and also was the AMM board member for 8 years."
Kostyshyn says that the first topic that comes to mind when thinking about issues that are affecting the Parkland on the provincial level, is healthcare.
"For example the Grandview situation, and I know that our leader Wab Kinew has brought it up at questions period. You've got a community like Grandview, who are trying their best to keep the hospital going as best they can in partnership with the regional health authority and the province of Manitoba. Unfortunately, there are challenges that they're facing right now, and I'll give you one example, is the fact we've got a number of retired nurses that are preparing to come back to help out in the emergency situation."
Kostyshyn says that the promises that've been made by the Conservative government to have retired nurses re-registered at Red River College don't seem to be happening.
"We discovered that Red River Community College, at this stage of the game, has no opportunity to provide those services to have nurses re-educated or re-registered, to provide their experience."
Another topic that Kostyshyn Focused on was the jail closure in Dauphin.
"I'm not okay with the jail closure that took place a number of years ago. In perspective, when we talk about rural economic development, when you start to lose 80 jobs, and an estimated cost of about 9 million dollars into the Dauphin constituency economy, that was probably one of the largest challenges that the Dauphin constituency had to deal with."
Kostyshyn says that's one of the driving forces behind a number of issues that made him want to run for MLA.
"To take the 80 jobs that were lost in the Dauphin constituency, it's like losing 8000 jobs in Winnipeg. I wonder if it was in Winnipeg whether that would've actually happened."
On top of a career in politics, Kostyshyn has been a producer for over 40 years in both the cattle and grain sectors. He says that helps him know what the issues that are important to the area are, including the crown lands act which he views as the most troubling issue.
Kostyshyn says he was talking to someone in the Eddystone area, and there are around 20 family farm ranches that have disappeared since the act was introduced. He says it's a very bad sign for rural economic development.
"That's 20 families that have now relocated somewhere else, only to have one individual or one corporation now running the operation. That is a sign of challenges for rural economic development. That is 20 families that now have no more children going to schools, so then it becomes a domino effect of business closures simply because you have school closures because you don't have as many children, you have less population. I guess to sum it up, population drives economic development, no matter what community you're from, and once you start to lose population, that's a challenge that all communities in the Dauphin constituency will be faced with."
In 2018, the province went through the process of re-drawing the borders of nearly all ridings, meaning the Winnipegosis area, which Kostyshyn is a resident of, is now a part of the Dauphin riding.
The provincial election is currently scheduled for October 3rd, 2023, but the Progressive Conservative government has the ability to call the election early if they chose to do so.
