In March, 2005, when Brad Wall was leader of the Opposition Saskatchewan Party and Paul Martin was the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr. Wall said in the legislative assembly "I think all sides in this legislature can agree on at least one thing today. The federal equalization formula does not treat Saskatchewan fairly."
As a matter of fact, Mr. Wall and the Saskatchewan Party felt so strongly about the issue that they released a 10 point plan to deal with the matter, which included the concept of launching a Constitutional challenge if negotiations with the federal government weren't successful.
Over the next several years, Mr. Wall spoke passionately about how Saskatchewan was continuing to lose hundred's of millions of dollars a year as a result of the unfair equalization formula.
In 2007, after repeated attempts to negotiate a better deal with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the NDP government launched a Contstitutional challenge. A challenge based on two important principles - equitable treatment with other provinces and provincial ownership of non-renewable natural resources. At the time, Brad Wall and the Saskatchewan Party supported the idea in principle.
Shortly after the Saskatchewan Party formed government, Mr. Wall acknowledged that Stephen Harper had personally requested that the province drop the Constitutional challenge. In July 2008, the Saskatchewan Party did just that.
However, Mr. Wall also noted that he had no intention of releasing the legal opinion surrounding the challenge because it might have to be dusted off for use against some future federal government.
Brad Wall has scrapped a Constitutional challenge, that he himself once promoted, because he was asked to do so by his friend Stephen Harper. Meanwhile, billions of dollars in resource revenue continues to flow out of Saskatchewan.
Saskatchewan deserves better.
After the escape of six prisoners from the Regina Correctional Centre, the Sask Party denied the existence of gangs in Saskatchewan jails.
"They’re looking at, for lack of a better word, some surgical tourism. People coming up to British Columbia, spending some time in British Columbia, being able to get the procedure."
- Minister of Health, Don McMorris
Wall short on financial brilliance...
May 29, 2010
As Premier Brad Wall prepares to brag about his trip to China, I have to wonder why he is the only person to have a signed agreement with China? Is it because of his financial brilliance? After our last deficit budget I doubt it. I suspect China spotted the weakest link and most gullible person on the trip, and decided to exploit the premier's weak mind and extreme ego. -Tim Lalonde, Adquith, The StarPhoenix
