Town Lagoon
It was somewhat amusing to see that in council discussions around the decision to limit access to the town’s lagoon until they come up with a firm policy on future access from outside parties, a perfectly logical decision in my estimate, was challenged by our Deputy Mayor as being done too hastily! He went on to add this decision is “shutting out” other locations on the edge of town and went on to name a few.
The town might well engage in discussions with the R.M,, however, I cannot see where the R.M. would be overly interested in an issue that involves, I assume, private businesses that are in the business of picking up and disposing of waste from outside our municipality.
The town owes its due diligence to the ratepayers of the Town of Outlook, they are the ones who bore the financial responsibility of building the lagoon. There is absolutely no reason or responsibility on the town to make access to our lagoon for any reason to outside parties, unless there is a fee set out and agreed upon between the town and the third party, and some way to monitor access and quantity. I would surely think that any waste business would be more than aware that when you pick up waste you will have to dispose of it, therefore, the disposal will surely be part of the cost, probably borne by the customer.
There is no “slamming door” as our councillor so dramatically put it! This is simply a decision that has to be made in the interest of the town and ratepayers they represent, a direction I believe they were quite rightly headed.
Bob Stephenson
Outlook, Sask.
Canola Concern
Recently, the Chinese government canceled the canola import permit for one of Canada’s largest grain processors, Winnipeg-based Richardson International, citing insect infestation concerns.
Conservatives know that the issue at hand is not Canada’s canola product. Canada produces the best canola in the world. Rather, this calls into question Justin Trudeau’s ongoing failure to handle Canada’s relationship with China.
It is clear that Canadian agricultural producers are paying for Justin Trudeau’s mistakes on the world stage.
I am deeply concerned about the impacts that these unfounded actions by the Chinese government will have on Canada’s agriculture and canola sector, as approximately 40% of Canadian canola exports go to China, with a value of approximately $3.6B in 2017.
Canada’s Conservatives have requested an emergency meeting of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Committee to discuss the Trudeau government’s lack of action on this important file. Justin Trudeau must stand up for Canada’s canola industry and demand that the Chinese government stop these baseless actions against Canada’s agriculture sector.
Sincerely,
Tom Lukiwski, MP
The Solution for SNC-Lavalin
This may not surprise anyone but I went to see Elizabeth May on her recent tour through the province. She presented a practical solution to the SNC Lavalin affair that could be win win all around. She is always looking for logical, affordable solutions.
SNC Lavalin, one of Canadas biggest companies and employers has assets that could see court cases tying up our government in expensive litigations for a long time. If they are convicted the penalty is loss of extremely lucrative government contracts for 10 Years. This could cause some major turmoil like loss of thousands of well paid, skilled jobs plus the spin off economic activity those incomes create. Lost taxes of course. Quite possibly the stress might cause the entire company to choose greener pastures outside our borders which would be a huge loss in technological as well as physical capacity that is presently helping to pave Canada’s way into the modern, hopefully respectable and peaceful future.
May’s brilliant solution is don’t forbid them to bid on the contracts just get the company to do them for cost for the same amount of time the penalty would entail. No profit for those 10 years. Maintain those jobs in Canada. Logically maintain the company’s location in Canada. Competition on projects would be reduced substantially if they didn’t have to consider a profit margin on their bidding process. Canada saves a ton of money by getting infrastructure done at cost so we retain more money for our federal coffers, goodness knows a government might even be able to balance a budget with a move like that. It could even benefit Mr. Trudeau’s embattled Liberals by soothing over some of the rough edges of this divisive, election loosing, scandal. More importantly it would legitimize the value of integrity within government considering Jody Wilson Raybold and Jane Philpott resignations from cabinet precisely because of that issue.
Also, May’s proposal is an ultimate litmus test that is overdue. Would a truly multi national company the size of SNC Lavalin agree to such a demonstration of good corporate citizenship with in this Country? Would the share holders stand for that temporary loss of Canadian profit in exchange for great public relations? Would the executives walk off the job because they weren’t getting the bonuses from their Canadian operations? What strategic, humanitarian even environmental value does Canada and its visions have in the ledger books of the SNC Lavalin’s of the World? These are interesting questions with international implications like what is the status of nation states positioning themselves within a global corporate world where the Corporations have more power than most of those nation states they operate in? These questions beg to be answered and could be if both government and SNC Lavalin were progressive enough to entertain such a practical solution such as the one Elizabeth May is suggesting.
Greg Chatterson
Fort San, SK
