Throwing good money after bad

Dear Editor

The Sask. Party, testing the water with small “P” privatization, sold the Information Services Corp. and heard little outcry, most objections being stifled by PostMedia. This set, in Sask. Party philosophy, an acceptable precedent. Soon the need to reward political backers became more critical, as an election loomed, so off to privatization went the SLGA liquor stores. That caused a more noticeable furor, but the skills learned from the Conservatives’ wording of the Canadian Wheat Board vote stood them in good stead. They could point to a public poll giving them carte blanche to proceed. The fact they blithely ignored any vote for the status quo and added the rest of the responses together to form a self-made positive seems to be lost on most people.

Now the worm has turned to SaskTel, with much made of how it is now a small fish in a big pond, and maybe it could be turned into a lucrative sale, of course with bafflegab pronouncements of referendums and elections to allow the proceedings. It certainly seems that Wall et al could use the money, what with paying millions too much for the Global Transportation Hub land acquisition, pouring good money after bad into carbon capture, rewarding John Black to further cripple our health care system and paying friends of the government millions to set up a fast food hotline. Apparently cutting assistance to the disabled, reneging on funding of teachers’ salaries, closing northern health offices and putting hundreds of public employees out of work hasn’t saved as much as has been wasted.

On some social media sites, comments are made that seem to cheer on this eradication of the public service, with calls to fire all the “government” workers and privatize everything. The “government” doesn’t need to own those corporations and SLGA members and others should be washing dishes somewhere. To me this attitude is just sour grapes. The authors can’t get a decent job, so they don’t want anyone else to have one either. What people forget is that we, the people of Saskatchewan, own these things, not the government. They are a part of our legacy, and to sell them to the highest bidder does nothing for anyone, except the corporate giants. The services that we expect, and are provided every day by skilled and dedicated public employees will be lost to greed, and more and more people will be forced to have two or three McJobs to exist. Our taxes will not go down one iota, especially considering that the millions the crowns now contribute to the provincial budget would be at forfeit.

The loss of these core services will have far reaching implications in our future as a “have” province, and if you doubt that check the fallout that was started by the dissolution of the Canadian Wheat Board. Our only Northern port, Churchill, is now by all measurable standards, closed, commodity prices at the farm gate have generally retreated to break even levels and the giant international grain companies are rubbing their hands in glee, with massive profits now in their bank accounts, stripped from producers who are now basically serfs.

The Sask. Party has orchestrated the raiding of our treasury, spending our rainy day fund and driving the province to Devine-esque debt levels. Amazingly this was accomplished during one of the richest resource periods in our history. They spent like drunken sailors and now the ship is listing badly, apparently selling the ship rather than balancing the cargo is their only solution. If they are allowed to use our assets to cover their own inept governance, we can only wait for the inevitable crash.

Lyle Comstock

North Battleford