The Saskatchewan Greens are the first party to nominate a full slate of 61 candidates for the next provincial election.
This includes candidates in the two northern ridings.
Max Morin will represent the party in Athabasca and Samuel Hardlotte in Cumberland.
Morin has been involved with the Committee for Future Generations.
Green Party Leader Victor Lau says they are happy to have found two candidates in the north that are in line with the overall vision of the party.
“They represent a kind of vision of the north that the Green Party wants to really annunciate and hopefully campaign on as a different northern development strategy,” he says. “One that is inclusive of the community, works with people on the ground – we’re going to really start talking about solutions to the social problems that have been plaguing the north for over 40 years.”
A number of Aboriginal organizations in the province, including the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, have been calling on the Sask Party government to share revenues generated from resources directly with First Nations in recent years.
Lau says the Greens favour setting up a fund for resource revenues that could be used to fund programming for all the province’s citizens rather than sharing these revenues directly with First Nations.
“We’re pushing hard for a provincial savings bank that would basically put away a share of the resource revenues that does come in and, as well, our main idea in terms of sharing these resources is not just to share with Aboriginal people, that may need the resources desperately, but to share with everyone in Saskatchewan.”
The Green Party leader says such a fund could be used to set up a guaranteed livable income for all Saskatchewan citizens.
The two northern ridings have traditionally been NDP strongholds.
However, Lau says the Greens are hoping to make inroads in the north in the next election.
As a result of riding redistribution, there will be two new seats in Saskatoon and one in Regina.
The election is expected in 2016.