Belanger busy setting up regional office in La Ronge
Valerie Barnes Connell Jordan
Northern Advocate
Since his first day in the House of Commons, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River MP Buckley Belanger has been on his feet speaking out for Northern Saskatchewan.
Particularly with a mass evacuation of people in the north due to wildfire activity, Belanger has been focusing his time between the house and being with the people in his home riding.
Initially, Belanger faced a few hurdles to taking his seat. It took until May 26 for Belanger to be sworn in as an MP due to a backlog of election procedures. He was sworn in with the Cabinet as the Secretary of State for Northern Development earlier.
In regard to his appointment as Secretary of State for Rural Development, Belanger said, “that’s a great opportunity to be able to serve northern Saskatchewan as well. It gives us access too many, many more resources and much more information.”
In the beginning, his most time-consuming task was setting up an office for his riding. To begin with, Belanger operated out of his cellphone.
“It was a bit wild,” he said.
There was training to show new MPs the ropes.
“I find the folks that navigate you through some of the processes, like the orientation, the preparation for my role, they’re all very helpful,” Belanger said. “They know their stuff. It’s a matter of teaching us how things work.
“You don’t need to have a PhD in administration. You need to know some basic skills in terms of what to watch out for and so forth in how to do it correctly.”
Next on the list was setting up a regional office—which will be situated in La Ronge—and the hiring of staff.
Belanger said he wants to have it set up, designed, and developed properly so it would be highly functional—serving a lot of people—and well integrated not only within the regions, but with the Ottawa office as well.
