Reed hoping Kildonan-St. Paul will go Green

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This article was published 30/09/2019 (2504 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rylan Reed is the Green Party candidate for Kildonan-St. Paul in the upcoming federal election.

A consultant by trade, Reed has a master’s degree in Indigenous governance from the University of Winnipeg and has spent over 20 years working in departments of provincial, federal, and First Nations governments. Before he and his wife, Kelly Francis, started their own consulting firm, Reed had most recently worked in senior positions for Manitoba Housing and Renewal Corporation, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and Fox Lake Cree Nation.

Reed, who ran provincially for the Liberal Party in 2003 in the Wellington riding, decided to run for the Green Party because he felt connected with many of their policy proposals, particularly with regard to housing, education, and the environment.

“Housing is a huge issue,” Reed, who has lived in Kildonan-St. Paul riding now for over 10 years, said. “I think there’s a disparity when it comes to funding. Conditions in some houses (in First Nations communities) are regrettable. People really need to see it first-hand.”

Providing more funding for housing, and empowering First Nations rather than relying on bureaucrats, can help address the crisis on many reserves.

As a father of four, Reed knows the value of education — and the cost. He would like to see post-secondary education provided to students for free.

“I don’t want to see anyone having post-secondary debt,” Reed said. “We should provide post-secondary education for everyone. I want to see as many kids go and meet their full potential.”

Reed added that he was disheartened when the Liberal Party failed to live up to its 2015 campaign promise to introduce proportional representation to the federal electoral system. 

“If you receive 10 per cent of popular vote, you should have 10 per cent representation,” Reed said, adding that he lives in the provincial riding of McPhillips, where PC candidate Shannon Martin beat out the NDP’s Greg MacFarlane in the province’s closest race last month. “When it comes down to it, what happens to those folks who voted NDP in this riding, how are they represented in the riding?”

Reed wondered. Naturally, as a Green Party candidate, the environment is of concern to Reed. He feels that the situation in Lake Winnipeg, and the downstream contributions coming from the Winnipeg, are of grave concern.

“My biggest issue is the North End Sewage Treatment Plant,” he said. “That’s my first priority, to work with city and province. We need to come up with something. If we don’t, the cost of fixing it is just going to rise.”

Sheldon Birnie
Managing editor

Sheldon Birnie is the managing editor of the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

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