It’s been an eventful year for Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman MP James Bezan, and he anticipates that 2024 will be another busy year ahead.
He’s been working hard in Ottawa while keeping the needs of his local constituents in mind.
“We’re dealing with the issues that Canadians care about, such as the cost of living. We’re trying to get costs down, interest rates down and get inflation under control, and we’re making positive suggestions to the government,” Bezan said.
“Everything from inflation to carbon taxes to higher mortgage rates impacts everyone in our riding. I think those are the biggest factors facing our riding. I hear it all the time when I’m at events and when I’m meeting with constituents.”
Another key focus is the state of the local lakes.
“We continue to have challenges on the quality of Lake Winnipeg in particular and Lake Manitoba as well. There were issues this summer again with massive algae blooms and not seeing the right measures being taken by all levels of government to get on top of it,” Bezan said.
“I think that continues to be one of the greatest challenges that I face and that all levels of government are needing to seriously address.”
Bezan also reflected on the state of agriculture in the region in 2023.
“In the agriculture sector this year, the weather was spotty, but overall it was a better-than-expected year knowing that we had less rainfall than we would’ve liked,” he said.
“We didn’t have a lot of regions in our riding complaining about drought or overland flooding or lack of feed for livestock — and commodity prices are decent.”
From a national and international standpoint, Bezan faces many top-of-mind issues through his national portfolio on defence.
“The war in Israel and Gaza and the war in Ukraine continue to occupy a lot of my time, as well as addressing the challenges that we have in our own national security and defence of our country and continent,” he said.
“It’s been frustrating in making sure that we have the military equipment as well as the defence production apparatuses to procure and produce things like artillery shells, more ammunition, more weapons that can be used both by the Canadian Armed Forces and our allies in Ukraine.”
At the same time, Bezan will be keeping close watch on the next U.S. presidential election.
“We are America watchers as a nation. It is something that will keep many of us up at night because of the state of foreign relations in the world. The Canada-U.S. relation is paramount to our own well-being,” he said.
“So we will be interested in that outcome and how Canada fits in from a trade perspective, from a national security perspective, from having a reliable ally in the president and congress. They’re all up for grabs again this year, and I will be spending time in Washington to maintain strong relations with my counterparts in the senate and in the house of representatives.”
Although his federal national defence portfolio occupies much of Bezan’s time, he stresses that his first priority is always to represent the people of Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman.
“I want to move our issues forward and to provide service for our constituents, particularly for those that are dealing with issues with the federal government,” he said.
“We’re always there to provide that support — and it’s the most tangible work that we do because we can actually see the result of it, while policy development and debate on bills often take years to come to fruition. It is very rewarding is to provide that grassroots support in the riding.”
Looking ahead in 2024, Bezan plans to bring attention to local issues at a national level. At the same time, he’s preparing for the possibility of a federal election in 2024, although the next fixed election date is not until 2025.
“I’ll continue to advocate for more infrastructure dollars to keep our communities growing and to support a healthy population. We’ll also be proving our competitiveness and productivity as a nation so that we are able to sell our goods and our services around the world,” he said.
“As well, I’m also going to continue to ask for everyone’s support as their representative in Ottawa.”
