Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has decreed that the government won’t be selling SaskTel.
He says the public support isn’t there, so the government isn’t going to venture down the road of privatizing the last remaining government-owned telecommunications company in the country.
We could have told the government that the people want SaskTel to survive. Yet the government still ventured down the costly path of exploring a sale. So we’re skeptical whether public support is truly the reason they’re backing away from privatization.
SaskTel isn’t perfect. Everyone who has spent a significant amount of time can tell you a story of frustration in dealing with the Crown corporation.
But those who want to see SaskTel sold seem to be suffering from “the grass is greener on the other side” syndrome. Do you honestly think it would be better with Rogers, Bell or Telus?
There are pockets of the province where the cellular service isn’t very good, but other service providers would have holes in their delivery, too.
A lot of people in other western Canadian provinces would likely be pretty happy with the service we get from SaskTel.
So we’re likely better off, in the short-term and medium-term, with SaskTel.
In the long-term, that’s another story.
One day, the Saskatchewan government will likely have to sell or abandon SaskTel. It’s not likely to be in the next 10 or 20 years, but as the larger telecommunications companies continue to grow, it will become harder for SaskTel to compete.
There is a reason Saskatchewan is the last jurisdiction in Canada, and among the few in North America, to have a Crown-owned telecommunications corporation. Those who had them recognized a need to sell, so they sold while they could.
SaskTel has likely peaked, or will soon peak, in terms of the revenues it would generate in a sale.
We doubt the government received the offer they were looking for, so they could justify a deal with taxpayers. If the government wants to sell SaskTel, it has to go through a referendum. Saskatchewan residents weren’t going to authorize a sale unless it was worth several billion dollars.
Instead, the government is now pushing this hokey idea of being able to sell up to 49 per cent of a Crown corporation, which means they would avoid a referendum.
It’s a sneaky move that has been widely criticized, but at the same time, private sector firms might be leery to partner with governments when the government still owns more than half of a corporation.
Saskatchewan has long had a bloated number of Crown corporations, and supporters of the Crowns might not realize how many government-owned businesses we have, or where the government is in business where they don’t belong.
But ultimately, for now, SaskTel will play a big role in the lives of Saskatchewan residents. And that’s the way it should be.
