Newly elected Spruce Woods MLA Colleen Robbins is set to step foot in the provincial Legislature on Oct. 1. She was voted in as the newest member of the assembly in an Aug. 26 byelection. Brandon Sun reporter Alex Lambert spoke with her on Sept. 9 about the new job. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Alex Lambert — Thank you for making time today. I’ll start with the Chinese canola tariffs. China put a 75.8 per cent tariff on canola last month. What do you think Manitoba should do about that?

Colleen Robbins — Well, I think Manitoba should be out looking for either new markets or a way of helping the farmers with the tariff loss, but they need to do something quickly. I’m only on my second day as an actual MLA, and so I’m going to sit down with MLA Jeff Bereza, our agriculture critic, and some farmers. But in the meantime, I just think that something needs to be done, and I honestly believe that we need to be looking at other markets to sell. We shouldn’t put all our eggs in one basket because this is the situation we get.

AL — You represent a mainly rural riding that has a lot of farmers. As someone who represents these farmers, what will you do specifically to help the pressures that they’re facing?

CR — Well, I will take their concerns to that to the legislature, and I will advocate for them for what they want or need.

AL — Have you talked to anyone so far?

CR — Well, you know just a few of them have just said to me, “make sure that you’re fighting for our canola with the tariffs,” but with harvest on right now, it’s sort of hard. You don’t want to distract them from getting their crop off. So, some will reach out, they said, “On a rainy day, we’ll set up something,” and come and meet with them and see what their losses are and what they would like to see.

AL — Premier Wab Kinew made a plethora of funding announcements ahead of the byelection call. Are those something you want him to keep and why?

CR — Oh, absolutely. Well, it was mostly all infrastructure, and it needs to be done. (Highway) number 2, just for an example — they filled the potholes on election day, but the potholes are already back, so it definitely needs a whole new pavement, like all new roads.

We’ve got (Highway) number 5, it is just brutal. And I’ve had a few people reach out to me there and say — friends from Dauphin — their friends won’t come back, they love it at the provincial park Spruce Woods, but they can’t. They don’t want to come back into that roadway, because they don’t want their camper to be damaged, because it’s awful. I took that road during the election, and it is brutal.

We had a five-year project, and now we’re on year two, and nothing’s been done, nothing. So suddenly he (Kinew) comes and reannounced it all during the election. He has seen and heard that the project needs to be done, and I’m going to make sure I hold him accountable.

AL — Highway 2 west of Souris was something you mentioned was in need of fixing during the campaign. NDP candidate Ray Berthellette partially ran on fixing that road. Is that something that you want to see fixed?

CR — Oh, absolutely. He wanted it fixed to Deleau. Well, it needs fixed right through the Saskatchewan border. It is brutal. Just past Deleau is the Spruce Woods area, so he’s just advocating for Spruce Woods, I guess, I don’t know. But I want to see it right through the Saskatchewan border. Like, number 2 is a very busy highway. It’s your No. 2 highway in Manitoba.

AL — Infrastructure was a big topic throughout the campaign. What else do you want to see happen infrastructure wise?

CR — Well, definitely the highways. Kinew’s promised to fix the dam in Oak Lake that’s been promised a few times by us, then we lost the election, but also a few times with Wab, my understanding, already this government. And then in the end, when they were supposed to start the project, they have something come up, and they said, “You know what, we have to take this money. It’s a bigger priority over here.” So, it never did get done or started. We’ll see if this is another one of them. I talked to one of the councillors, and he said he will be very shocked if this is not taken away because of the funding for the fires, they always have an excuse.

AL — What specifically will you do to advocate for the governing NDP to put more money into infrastructure here in the riding and across Manitoba?

CR — Well, I will speak for my riding. They promised over $300 million in this riding during the election. I’m going to advocate so that every project that they claimed they would do for Spruce Woods constituents — I’m going to make sure that I remind them all the time about this promise. I’m going to be advocating for these to be done.

AL — On the health-care front, you are a former nurse. What will you do to fix health care now that your voice can be heard in chambers?

CR — You know what, I will be meeting with some real important people that are involved in health care. And I’m going to hear the truth. I want to hear what we need to move forward to see a successful health-care system. I do know we desperately need people, but how are we going to go about getting these people to come to Manitoba, we need to work with our health-care system, listen to them.

This government also said that during the last election that they were going to listen and sit down and hear them. And I believe that they sat down with them, but they never listen. We need to listen to the people in the front lines, we need to listen to the people in health care, to see where the problems are other than staffing, and how we can get staffing.

I do believe, when we were in government before, we did get a whole bunch of Filipino nurses, and that was very successful. And I would just like sit down and go, ‘did that work?’ See if that works really good, or what more we can do. But we just need to listen to the people that are there.

In my time, honestly, we had an abundance of health-care workers when I was a nurse. We had lots of staff. Now, I’m not saying we never were short once while, like a bad flu season or something like that, then we would be short, but nothing like they are today. They’re running short every day, and we need to address the shortage.

We’ve got our neighbouring province giving $50,000 for a three-year contract to a nurse right now, and 30,000 for a lab tech in certain hospitals in rural Saskatchewan. Go to our next-door neighbours and ask — this is working really well. What is working to fill these positions? Because we’re going to burn the nurses and doctors out.

AL — Something that the Sun heard as the byelection was ramping up, was that municipalities need more money, especially with rising costs. What will you do with that information?

CR — I know some have talked about that, and I have not sat down (with them), but our leader (Obby Khan) had told me that they were working on meeting with RMs on a new way of structuring funding, and some really liked it. I have not been sitting down long enough to know, but I will be sitting down to find out, and then I would like to address that with each and every RM board, all the councillors in my riding, and see how they feel, and get everybody’s input.

What might work for one RM, they might say, “no, that won’t work for us.” So I like to hear everybody, and then I would advocate for what I hear, but I haven’t sat down with anyone yet on that, so I’m not sure even what the new structure is, so I can’t even speak with it right now. But I just know there’s talk, and that was brought up in our election.

AL — With a riding that’s about 80 per cent rural and 20 per cent Brandon’s North Hill, how will you juggle working for different interests?

CR — It doesn’t matter if you live on the North Hill or if you live in a rural part of the riding, I will listen to them, and I will advocate for them. Once my office is set up and they phone me, I’m not going to say, “Oh, well, Brandon doesn’t matter.” It all matters. Everybody matters. Brandon is one big city, and I’m looking after a little part, and Wayne Balcaen’s looking after another part, and Glen Simard another part. And then we’ve got the city hall. So I’m going to sit down with this city hall and meet with them and see what their concerns are.

AL — As an opposition MLA, what do you think you can do once the legislature restarts on Oct. 1?

CR — Well, every time you get a chance to do anything, you will advocate for what your constituents are giving you. When I get issues or certain things coming to me that I know that this government can fix, I will advocate for them, I will fight for them.

As a government, whether you’re opposition or not, you’re supposed to be working for all the people. Just because those people didn’t vote for me doesn’t mean that I’m not going to work for them. I absolutely will work for each and every person, and that’s what the NDP and the premier should be doing today, is taking care of the people. If the people are upset about certain things, then the government needs to listen.

AL — What’s your No. 1 priority and why, heading into the legislature?

CR — I don’t know if I have any No. 1 priority right now. I’ve got people calling me about health care. I have people about the infrastructure. I have people calling me on the canola tariffs. So I wouldn’t say I have one issue, I have several issues that I will bring to the table.

AL — What’s something that you care about personally, that you want to tackle?

CR — You know, personally, all of it. Health care, of course, because I was a nurse, and it upsets me to see that our health care is in this situation. But at the same time, I look at crime and I think, “It was so wonderful when you felt safe and warm in a small community”; all of that has gotten out of control. Drugs is a big thing for me, because I just feel that it belongs in the mental state of mind, and I think people become addicted, and they need so much help. You want to be that person that can reach the hand out and help them. I would just want to be there for each and every person.

AL — What’s something you bring to the table that will help the opposition PCs and help Manitobans?

CR — I think that we all work as a team. So I will bring stuff from my riding, and the other MLAs will bring from there’s, and we work as a team. If we’re all getting the same messages, we know which will be priority and which will be important to our constituents. I think that what I can bring is Spruce Woods to the table in every matter. I’ll be listening to each and every person, and I will advocate for them. I’m a good listener. I will listen.

AL — Are you looking forward to getting to work on Oct. 1?

CR — Yeah. I’m going to do a private member statement on the first day.

AL — Thank you very much for the time.

» alambert@brandonsun.com