The fall session of the provincial legislature ended with the Official Opposition NDP Leader Cam Broten calling for the dismissal of the province's finance minister following an adverse audit opinion by the province's independent auditor.
Broten said the province should listen to the strong warnings from the auditor.
"The proper reporting of the facts needs to occur and a recognition that the words of the auditor should be heeded," said the Opposition leader. "What we've seen so far is that the government has a very dismissive approach, saying everything is fine and that things have never been better with the work of the finance minister."
Last week, the NDP called on Finance Minister Ken Krawetz to resign from the role.
"What I look to are the words and the opinion of the independent provincial auditor, who is non-partisan, who reports to the legislature. What we've seen is for the first time ever in Canada, the independent provincial auditor has filed an adverse audit opinion on the government's central financial statement.
"That's a huge deal," said Broten. "If this was the same thing occurring in the private sector with a publicly-traded company, we know there's a possibility the company would be delisted from the stock exchange. The chief financial officer would have some major questions to answer and would be held accountable."
To have the auditor make this audit statement is something Broten called unprecedented and of "huge" concern to what information the government is providing to the public.
"It's an issue of accurately reporting the true statement of finances," said Broten, who noted the auditor called the general revenue fund statements "unreliable" and "full of errors."
"That's very strong language. It really comes down to the fact this government left stuff off the books in order to show a $60 million surplus, but the auditor said that if everything was reported as it should be, you'd actually see a deficit of $600 million. That's a huge discrepancy.
"Any time in the province there should be accurate reporting of finances, but it's especially puzzling when the economy is strong," added Broten.
Regarding the fall session, Broten said the legislature covered a lot of ground, and he added the party focused on issues that mattered to Saskatchewan families.
"We covered a lot of topics, but key areas that really stand out were a very strong focus on better seniors' care and better health care in general."
The need for the right investments and the right kind of education for the provinces' students were pointed out by Broten as well as the need for new schools.
"When we bring these new schools into being, the government has to make sure we're doing it in the smartest way, the most cost-effective way and the way that brings the best actual school building for the community," Broten said regarding the public-private partnership (P3) model the government is looking to employ.
He noted the NDP brought forward a private member's bill to help ensure transparency regarding the P3 approach.
"I was really shocked at this government's decision to vote against this bill," said Broten, who called the proposed legislation a common sense piece that was about doing what's right.
The bill called for an independent watchdog to observe any P3 project to ensure everything was done properly, along with full reporting of the construction costs and costs of borrowing. It also called for at least three bids on any project going forward.
"To have the government vote against it, for me was a real head scratcher, because it's just a common sense thing to do," added Broten.
Broten also touched on the need to diversify the economy to ensure today's prosperity will last long into the province's future.
Regarding the skilled trades shortages, Broten said the province should provide opportunities to connect people with the available training.
"If we want our prosperity to last, if we want to have a strong economy in the future, it means taking those next steps now," he said, noting job training is vital to that.
"When we look at (Estevan), with the Energy Training Institute, (we want to) ensure that it's used to its full potential."
Broten suggested there has been a degradation of seniors' care across the province. The removal of minimum standards of care, which required a certain amount of personal care time to each resident has been removed, along with any plan to respond to short staffing.
Those are issues the provincial NDP party will be focusing on going forward.
