Not much has gone right for the Saskatchewan Party government since it presented its budget a month ago.
Notwithstanding the ineffectiveness of the NDP Opposition, Premier Brad Wall’s government has faced a barrage of criticism for its 2017-18 budget’s billion dollars in tax hikes and program cuts.
And as is usually the case, people have a right to be frustrated with some of the government’s choices.
Rural voters have reason to be frustrated that half this year’s highway’s budget will go to the Regina by-pass, which has skyrocketed from $400 million to $1.9 billion. This seems a very unreasonable distribution of precious highways’ dollars throughout the province.
Similarly, the Wall government has poured substantial sums into Regina’s Global Transportation Hub (GTH).
This shouldn’t necessarily be offensive, given that this project stands to benefit the entire province.
But with business and political associates of the Sask. Party walking away with $5- to $6-million after flipping GTH land and with the Sask. Party government giving away 300 acres of GTH land to CP Rail for free (and not telling us), voters have a right to raise questions about how their money is being spent.
But regardless of how we got there (and another reason why we got where we are is a decline in resource prices so far showing no sign of recovery), there is no question Finance Minister Kevin Doherty’s had to address the $1.3-billion shortfall in last year’s budget.
There is an equal certainty that some of proposed budget cuts like the shutting down of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) will be painful.
That said, with STC failing to turn a profit since 1979 and with private sector options a possibility, can you necessarily blame the Wall government for not at least considering some of these hard choices?
But sometimes when governments make hard budget choices, they do make the wrong ones.
It quickly became clear to the Sask. Party government that its $4.8-million cut to municipal and regional libraries was a very wrong choice.
Ample protests in front of their own MLAs’ offices told them that. So did the less organized feedback to Sask. Party MLAs.
So what did the Sask. Party government do in the wake of this feedback?
Well, it did something that governments just don’t do often enough; it reversed its course and restored the full $4.8 million for library funding.
The Sask. Party government listened and did the right thing. For this, they deserve full credit.
“Premier Wall has always said that we would be the kind of government that would admit our mistakes and then fix those mistakes,” Education Minister Morgan stated in the news release. “There were many necessary, difficult decisions taken in this budget, however the reductions in library funding without giving libraries the tools to meet the new challenge was as mistake."
Morgan later told reporters that it was especially wrong to cut online library services because that service is actually growing.
Morgan acknowledged that libraries can’t generate their own tax revenue, so they could simply not survive the large-scale cuts his government was proposing.
But complicating matters is the reality that Saskatchewan libraries are changing: fewer items are being borrowed. Online availability of information means people do have other options.
Libraries will look very different in the future.
In answer to that, Morgan vowed to engage “with libraries, municipalities and the public to develop a long-term strategy."
One can complain that this is what the Sask. Party government should have done in the first place.
But it’s more important for government to know when it has done the wrong thing and fixes it.
Credit the Sask. Party government for doing just that. It doesn’t happen often enough.
