To the Editor:
On Nov. 18, the provincial government announced it was selling off public liquor stores in 36 towns across rural Saskatchewan. The Sask party was keen to talk about how this would benefit Saskatchewan people – but it doesn’t seem concerned about the damage it will do to those living in the province’s small communities.
In rural Saskatchewan, about 150 decent-paying jobs will be lost to liquor store privatization. People whose wages supported their families, and their local economies, will be thrown out of work in dozens of communities.
If any new jobs are created to replace those lost, they’ll pay a fraction of what public liquor employees earned. But it’s doubtful whether small towns will so much as break even on jobs. The private retailers that take over will likely incorporate liquor sales into existing businesses, using existing employees.
That also means that the buildings which housed public liquor stores will sit empty. Municipal revenue, from the grants that they paid in lieu of property taxes, will be lost.
And to make it worse, liquor probably won’t be any cheaper. It might cost more. The public retail system guaranteed you’d pay the same price, whether you were shopping in Regina or Raymore. Almost everything else costs more in a small town than in the cities. Once those fixed prices are gone, why would liquor be any different?
Whoever liquor privatization is meant to benefit, it isn’t the people of rural Saskatchewan.
Donna Christianson
Watson, SK
