View from the Cheap Seats is an extension of the newsroom, which is frequently a site of heated debate on topics ranging from the extremely serious to the utterly ridiculous. This web edition features the views of print edition columnists Thom Barker (Wednesday) and Calvin Daniels (Friday), as well as web exclusive content by Devin Wilger (Thursday).
This week: Should the Saskatchewan government be allowed to sell 49 per cent of Crown corporations?
Hands off!
It’s not often we tackle serious issues from the cheap seats, but seriously, what the hell are Brad Wall and the Sask Party thinking?
The people of Saskatchewan should not have to suffer because of their bad fiscal management and suffer we will if they sell off any of Sasktel.
There are, of course, the shortsightedness of the one-time cash grab hobbling future government revenue streams and the unfairness of enriching individual investors (many no doubt from out-of-province) at the expense of everybody else.
I want to key on one issue that seems to always get overlooked, however.
My son runs a Visions store in Alberta. He sells more Sasktel mobile phone service than all other mobile phone services combined. Why? Because it is cheap.
We are so fortunate in Saskatchewan to have SaskTel. How long is it going to stay cheap after greedhead investors get hold of 49 per cent of the stock?
It will be measured in microseconds.
All governments outstay their welcome. This one had done that before the last election, but unfortunately there was no credible alternative. The Sask Party has proven itself to be so self-serving however, we, as a population, can still stop them from selling off our Crowns by telling them loudly and clearly to cease and desist.
Greg Ottenbreit’s phone number is 306-783-7275.
-Thom Barker
Follow the money
I’m going to keep this focused squarely on SaskTel because, let’s be honest, it’s the crown corporation that people want to buy. It’s a profitable telecommunications company that also happens to be a real thorn in the side of other telecoms in the country. Bell, Rogers or Telus would likely want to buy it simply to get rid of it. After all, as a profitable corporation, it’s evidence all on its own that people in the rest of the country are being ripped off, and their own billing practices admit this.
I can say this because I see my own phone bill every month. It’s not through SaskTel, but it is through a company that is influenced by the pricing at SaskTel. They have a Saskatchewan-only plan, which is $48 a month and has 5GB of data. Their website does not actually tell you what they charge in other provinces, but according to whistleout.ca the same plan is $90 if you go to Ontario. Exact same amount of minutes, data and text messages, only difference is the price.
SaskTel saves us money, then. It also makes us money, because it’s profitable and much of the profits go to the provincial government. So we have a company which does two good things for the province, simultaneously. Only an idiot would want to sell it.
So why do idiots want to sell it? The argument is that it can pay off some provincial debt, but it can do that better if it’s still here – some portion of the profits could be used if it’s absolutely necessary. Profits you wouldn’t keep collecting as much of if you sold off half or more of the company. It could be misplaced ideology, the idea that having everything private is always better even if the evidence doesn’t bear that out – again, look at my phone bill, and then look at the phone bill of someone from Ontario. Or it could be someone is being quietly influenced by one of the country’s other telecoms who rather wishes that SaskTel wouldn’t make their price gouging obvious, but that seems like a crazy conspiracy theory doesn’t it?
-Devin Wilger
