The following letter to the editor was submitted to the
Regina Leader-Post on Friday, November 9, 2007.
Dear Editor:
In his column
Sask. Party should be cautious (LP Nov. 8) Leader-Post financial editor Bruce Johnstone said the party’s
Enterprise Saskatchewan scheme should not be used “as an excuse to slough off responsibility for decision-making on economic development issues.” Yet that is precisely how it has been designed.
In an
October 2004 article he wrote for
Investment Executive, a national newspaper for financial service industry professionals, Johnstone said: “Under Wall’s “bold new vision,’’ a Saskatchewan Party government would cede control of economic decision-making to Enterprise Saskatchewan, a joint government/private-sector body that would assume the economic development functions of government. Instead of bureaucrats or politicians,
Enterprise Saskatchewan’s independent board of directors would make the big decisions about such issues as key economic sectors, the barriers to growth, taxes to cut, businesses to attract, and investments to make. In essence, Wall would privatize the economic decision-making functions of government to this new body.”
The
Saskatchewan Party Policy Book states that
Enterprise Saskatchewan is “the foundation for the economic development plan of a Saskatchewan Party government” and will operate “with the full support of the Premier and Executive Council.”
The policy book is also clear that the Saskatchewan Party’s support for
The Crown Corporations Public Ownership Act extends only to the four major Crown utilities: SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy and SGI.
Enterprise Saskatchewan will “identify and remove barriers to growth.” However, party policy effectively undermines the plan’s credibility by pre-determining that labour legislation and Crown corporations and their policies are barriers that must be addressed. It would seem that even the major Crowns might not be completely immune.
In his March 2, 2006, Saskatoon Leaders Dinner speech Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall said
Enterprise Saskatchewan was “non-negotiable”.
Unfortunately, the media neglected to inform voters of these things during the election.
Joe Kuchta
Saskatoon, SK
1 Comments:
Joe......in this and previous postings about Enterprise Saskatchewan you dwell on the fact that the Sask Party views some pieces of current labour legislation and the business of the crown's as "barriers to growth." You seem to defend to the death both as being untouchable.
Did it ever occur to you that in fact there could be some truth to pieces or parts of them being a hinderance to growing the province.
What if in the investigation of both by a bi-parisn group that some policies of the SFL and the crown's are actually found to be "barriers to growth". Would you want to hinder the growth of the provincial economy by sticking to strict ideological dogma, or would you want the best for the people of the province?
In other words Joe are you just a mouthpiece for disgruntled deafeated NDP'ers and nervous members of the SFL or are you working in the best interests of all Saskatchewanites? Would you be willing to embrace change or would you continue to practise "comtempt prior to investigation"?
If you want to expand your blog musings you have to quit preaching to the choir!
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