The Sask Party Wants to "Privatize By Stealth"
Everything the Sask Party does with the crowns, the Sask First Policy, Contracting out services, and jacking up utility rates is all part of their long-term plan to privatize the crowns.
Sask First Hurts Bottom Line and Impacts Recruitment Retention of Crown Employees
In an article in the Oct 30, 2008 Star-Phoenix called “Restricting Crowns Short-Sighted”, Professor Heather Heavin of the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, U of S, quite rightly points out the danger the Sask Party policy poses to the Crowns: “If investing outside the province is not an option and investing inside the province will only be allowed if there are no other private investors interested in a particular project or business venture, what left for the Crowns? High risk, low return projects?”
Ms. Heavin also points out, “It is not good business strategy to deny opportunities for growth and development for employees. As Generation Y enters the work force and Crowns are competing for energetic and enthusiastic employees, ensuring that they have interesting and challenging opportunities for their workforce must be a key recruitment and retention strategy. When opportunities for growth are lost, so too are opportunities to attract key individuals who would have enjoyed these new challenges and worked at turning these opportunities into successful enterprises.”
Heavin’s article concludes with this, “Crowns should be encouraged to find new and innovative business opportunities… there may be opportunities outside the province that fit well within the business activities, skill-set and expertise contained within the Crowns. If the time is right to hold on to investments or invest in other opportunities, either outside or inside the province, those decisions should be made without unnecessary political interference.”
Ms. Heavin also points out, “It is not good business strategy to deny opportunities for growth and development for employees. As Generation Y enters the work force and Crowns are competing for energetic and enthusiastic employees, ensuring that they have interesting and challenging opportunities for their workforce must be a key recruitment and retention strategy. When opportunities for growth are lost, so too are opportunities to attract key individuals who would have enjoyed these new challenges and worked at turning these opportunities into successful enterprises.”
Heavin’s article concludes with this, “Crowns should be encouraged to find new and innovative business opportunities… there may be opportunities outside the province that fit well within the business activities, skill-set and expertise contained within the Crowns. If the time is right to hold on to investments or invest in other opportunities, either outside or inside the province, those decisions should be made without unnecessary political interference.”
Utility Rates and Support for the Crowns
Saskatchewan people had enjoyed the lowest utility rates in Canada for years under the NDP but that is changing.
Your NDP government ensured you paid less by giving a strong mandate to the Crowns to ensure that average Saskatchewan families paid less for utilities and when that was not the case they worked to put the difference back in your pocket. When world events meant unexpected and short-term jumps in energy prices your NDP acted to shield consumers from the shocks.
With the election of the Sask Party it is clear that Saskatchewan families can no longer count on their government to keep life more affordable.
The Sask Party has announced they will not promise Saskatchewan people the lowest cost utility bundle and will not intervene when prices put additional strain on Saskatchewan families. Instead they are telling Saskatchewan people to brace for higher utility rates.
That’s a far cry from what they said in 2005. In an October news release Brad Wall said he would offer rebates and introduce energy conservation measures in order to address rising utility rates but once again we see the Sask Party saying one thing to get elected and then doing something very different after the election.
In July 2007, eight months after the Sask Party was elected, Sask Energy announced they would seek to increase their rate by 40 per cent- a $35 per month increase for the average household.
CIC Minister Ken Cheveldayoff didn’t even bother to attend the announcement. Apparently the Minister doesn’t think Saskatchewan people being told to brace for one of the highest singe utility rates increases ever is worth his time.
Your NDP government ensured you paid less by giving a strong mandate to the Crowns to ensure that average Saskatchewan families paid less for utilities and when that was not the case they worked to put the difference back in your pocket. When world events meant unexpected and short-term jumps in energy prices your NDP acted to shield consumers from the shocks.
With the election of the Sask Party it is clear that Saskatchewan families can no longer count on their government to keep life more affordable.
The Sask Party has announced they will not promise Saskatchewan people the lowest cost utility bundle and will not intervene when prices put additional strain on Saskatchewan families. Instead they are telling Saskatchewan people to brace for higher utility rates.
That’s a far cry from what they said in 2005. In an October news release Brad Wall said he would offer rebates and introduce energy conservation measures in order to address rising utility rates but once again we see the Sask Party saying one thing to get elected and then doing something very different after the election.
In July 2007, eight months after the Sask Party was elected, Sask Energy announced they would seek to increase their rate by 40 per cent- a $35 per month increase for the average household.
CIC Minister Ken Cheveldayoff didn’t even bother to attend the announcement. Apparently the Minister doesn’t think Saskatchewan people being told to brace for one of the highest singe utility rates increases ever is worth his time.
When people stop seeing the benefits of the crowns in their day-to-day lives, public support for the crowns will drop.
| Privatization by Stealth | What the Media is Saying |
Under the Wall government we went from having $2.3 billion in the bank to a $1.05 billion deficit in less than 2 years
"Under our old definition, we would be in a technical deficit."
- Minister of Finance, Rod Gantefoer
NDP opposes Bill 80...
December 10, 2009
The NDP also blocked the government's Bill 80, affecting construction-industry labour relations, from passing and refused to allow estimates to come to a vote. -The Leader-Post
