There is no doubt the 2017-18 Saskatchewan budget hammered both rural and urban Saskatchewan people.
Most everyone has a legitimate beef over something in Premier Brad Wall’s budget with its near-billion-dollar in tax hikes and series of cuts.
(The latest such budget cut to cause controversy is the 45-per-cent reduction for funeral costs for welfare recipients to $2,100 from $3,850.)
As is the common practice in this politics-mad province, there are now ample second-guessers questioning which cuts are more appropriate than others.
There are also ample analysts measuring who fared better and who fared worse … and, of course, how the Sask. Party government could have avoided the mess in the first place.
(Goodness knows, I would be the last one to criticize anyone else’s right to criticize.)
And there are those who have seen the budget as a wonderful opportunity to express their views in protest, mostly in a reasoned way, but sometimes in a ridiculous manner like the yahoos jumping on cars on their way into the premier’s recent Sask. Party fundraising dinner in Saskatoon.
Sadly, there aren’t people coming up with better ideas.
Worse yet, amidst all the political arguing and protesting, it may be that what few really good ideas there are out there are being missed.
There are a lot of good ideas worth your time and trouble that came in the form of the TransformSK report.
Officially called “The Upstream Economy: A Generational Dialogue for Transformative Change”, the 45-recommendation report was a project of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce, Saskatchewan Construction Association, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Mining Association and Canadian Manufacturers and Exporter.
Now, given the business-nature of these groups, one might expect strong business-minded recommendations focused on the long-term economic prosperity.
There were ample practical considerations that included the following:
•A five-year rolling financial planning cycle within the Government of Saskatchewan and all Saskatchewan municipalities;
•Transition deputy ministers to departmental, competency-based chief executive officers;
•Reintroduce mandate letters for all cabinet ministers and public sector CEOs (formerly deputy ministers), aligning staff and budgets to measurable outcomes;
•Build a culture of effective governance by requiring all ministers and CEOs (including Crown, academic, and agency CEOs under their purview) to take regular governance training. This same training should also be taken by Members of the Legislative Assembly;
•Enact and maintain regulation only if it is outcomes-based, evidence-based, risk-based, and economically achievable;
•Embed entrepreneurship as a core part of the K-12 curriculum. A provincial youth industry-education strategy would serve as an effective mechanism for co-delivery, and
•Clearly define the long-term role of Crown corporations.
However, it was actually in the social policy and governance areas where the business leaders don’t necessarily have the most expertise where the TransportSK report most succeeds.
Consider the social-policy based recommendations coming from the business leaders in this report:
•Fully consult on a review, and execute a ‘Saskatchewan response’ to the calls to action outlined within Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) report;
•A graduated plan to expand the role of Indigenous peoples in government procurement;
•Commit, at all levels of government, to a Saskatchewan Students’ Charter;
•Ensure ‘money follows the need that schools receive the necessary funds to react to changing special needs realities throughout the year;
•Immediately shift policies and resources toward preventative and community-based service to reduce the ‘downstream’ financial pressure on the acute care system,” and
•Pilot, for full-scale evaluation, a universal basic income (UBI) program.
There are big economic and budgetary problems in Saskatchewan today. For this, Wall’s government bears full responsibility.
But perhaps an even bigger problem right now is our disinterest in listening to each other’s ideas to solve things.
TransformSK shows we can still listen to each other.
