Under the Wall government we went from having $2.3 billion in the bank to a $1.05 billion deficit in less than 2 years

Brad Wall told the Globe and Mail that his personal political mantra is "Don't screw it up"

Saskatchewan has seen more than 4700 people lose their jobs under the Wall government.

According to Statistics Canada, under the Wall government, Saskatchewan had the highest cost of living increase in all of Canada?

Under the Wall government, Masters and PhD students do not qualify for benefits in the Graduate Retention Program?

Health regions have announced that prenatal classes, breastfeeding support, and immunizations of school children will be suspended to give H1N1 vaccinations instead.

According to Statistics Canada, under the Wall government, more people in Saskatchewan are receiving Employment Insurance than ever before?

The Wall government is spending $49,000 a month for a former Republican Ambassador's advice on how to talk to the Obama White House.

When the Sask Party hiked the price for camping in Provincial Parks, it claimed that Saskatchewan families weren't appreciating their parks enough.

After the escape of six prisoners from the Regina Correctional Centre, the Sask Party denied the existence of gangs in Saskatchewan jails.

When faced with an 80% increase in Employment Insurance claims in Saskatchewan, Minister Rob Norris said the increase was not unexpected and no cause for alarm.

In September of 2005, the Saskatchewan Party promised to take action to reduce the cost of gas at the pumps, yet they have done nothing.

People complained about the highways, and now they’re complaining about these beds. Which do they want, highways or health care?

The ILO has offered an opinion that's non-binding. The analysis is incomplete. Certainly from where we stand we have every confidence in both our essential services legislation and the amendments to the Trade Union Act.

This is non-binding and certainly I don't think this is some of the best work from the ILO.

This legislation is sound. It doesn't change our position at all. We have every confidence our legislation will withstand any challenge. (Rob Norris ignores UN's International Labour Organization's warnings that Bills 5 and 6 violate international labour laws.)

The ILO is offering an opinion that's non-binding so I think Mr. Hubich is fear-mongering on this.

It's not the most fun in the world and I can't say it's been the stellar week of my career but life goes on. (Gantefoer, after comments on the harmonized sales tax (HST) and on health user fees raised both as issues for the NDP and the media)

Deficits are like potato chips...they're not very good for your long-term health, and bet you can't stop at just one.

Using reserve funds to balance the provincial budget isn’t so bad after all.

By the end of the year there will likely be two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the province, which means Saskatchewan will be in a recession.

We’re not heading into a recession – we’re coming out of one.

They’re looking at, for lack of a better word, some surgical tourism. People coming up to British Columbia, spending some time in British Columbia, being able to get the procedure.

Under our old definition, we would be in a technical deficit.

`Have you got a visit from the police yet?’ I think that was my exact comment.

We do not have a gang or a violence issue in our provincial correctional system.

Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear for the member opposite that yes, we will impose our views on the Crown corporations.

I don't think people in Saskatchewan expect too much of whoever their government is.

In Opposition, I could say just about anything I wanted; and I did on a lot of occasions for 12 years... When you're the Minister, you're responsible and you have to do it right

Of greater concern, it strikes me, is a tendency by this government to pay 'drive by' lip service to the whole notion of consultation. Last Friday they signed a deal with Alberta and B.C. called the New West Partnership. It has huge implications for many sectors in this province, but I'm willing to bet that not all members of Brad Wall's cabinet have even read it. ...When asked if the legislature would get a chance to study the agreement, line by line and clause by clause, the Premier said the equivalent of "I guess so", with no formal sense of commitment or understanding. -Roger Currie, 620 CKRM

One hopes that the embarrassment of being discovered not to have had the consultations he claimed will be enough for Mr. McMorris to get out more and start talking, to the kidney transplant specialists concerned about the future of Saskatchewan's pioneering program, the 25,000 health-care workers who've been unable to break an impasse with SAHO negotiators, community workers, and patients who can decide on their own where their dollars should go. -The StarPheonix

The minister then dropped jaws in the assembly this week by claiming he didn't need to consult the privacy commissioner about disclosing to fundraisers the names of hospitalized patients, because the former NDP government already had done that for him several years ago. ...More precisely, Mr. McMorris made it clear that he doesn't care what the privacy commission thinks is in the best interests of the privacy of Saskatchewan residents, his ministry will do as it pleases. -The StarPhoenix

Although he is in charge of the biggest ministry in terms of government appropriations in Saskatchewan, Mr. McMorris seems to be so deep in the cave that it has so far rendered him unable to communicate directly with the likes of disgruntled health unions, kidney specialists, proponents for Station 20 West and now, even with the province's privacy commissioner, to get input on how to deliver services. -The StarPhoenix

...the Wall government's policy of stripping 100 per cent of profits from the Crowns and transferring them to balance the general revenue fund (budget) is not sustainable. ...Moreover, taking all the profits from every commercial Crown except SaskPower - a $276-million dividend this year to bail out an otherwise deficit budget - seems to fit the Opposition's narrative that the Saskatchewan Party can't balance the books. ...Coming from respected financial officers, such criticisms only will feed the Saskatchewan Party's growing reputation as a bad fiscal manager. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Atkinson's criticism comes at a time when both the Saskatchewan Party and the NDP are running advertisements with diametrically opposed claims about the government's debt record. If one takes the provincial auditor as the arbiter, Atkinson's report certainly comes down in the NDP's favour. In fact, it pretty much buttresses the Opposition's complaints about a massive deception in the Saskatchewan Party's flyer that landed on our doorsteps recently. ...The debt graph presented by Wall's strategists in their propaganda was at best misleading and at worst downright deceitful for trying to pass off general revenue fund debt as being the same thing as overall Saskatchewan debt, which is again on the rise. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

More damning, however, was what Atkinson had to say about "inappropriate accounting policies" that have resulted in the government reporting "net debt and annual surplus inaccurately." Had it properly accounted for all transactions, the government would have recorded a net debt of $8.07 billion instead of $3.85 billion, and a surplus of $1.62 billion instead of $2.39 billion in 2008-09, said the audit report. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

What's most troubling for the Saskatchewan Party government's reputation as a fiscal manager are blasts from a couple of sources with expertise and objectivity on financial matters. The first was from interim provincial auditor Brian Atkinson, whose report last week got a lot of ink for its "disturbing" finding that the Corrections Ministry had paid out $6.7 million in overtime over the first nine months of the 2009-10 fiscal year, when its annual overtime budget is $2.8 million. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

In today's world of instant Internet access, health and other personal information that is electronically stored somewhere, and cyber identity theft, people are more concerned about privacy matters than ever. And one can look no further than the spring session's debate on turning over hospital stay records to hospital foundations for financial solicitation letters to see that the issue cuts across philosophical lines - left, right and centre. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"The issue here is this is people's private information. When your private information has been given to a third party, people have a right to know that, not only the individual but the public also has the right to know that if their information guarded by SGI...or held by any agency is allowed to be made public. That is of concern to everybody. As we move towards a more electronic system the public is more and more concerned about breaches of their privacy and it's important that the government offer full disclosure." -NDP House Leader Kevin Yates, The StarPhoenix

Housing prices and rental rates have skyrocketed and yet he wants to lower wages of working people. Wall refuses to put a freeze on rental increases which are putting more pressure on people just getting by now. The western agreement with Alberta and British Columbia must have been written with invisible ink, as only the Sask. Party was allowed to be a part of it. -Rod Perry, Estevan, The Leader-Post

Congratulations, King Brad. With a few simple strokes of a pen, Brad Wall has done what no other Saskatchewan premier has ever attempted, or for that matter even wanted to attempt. He has turned Saskatchewan into Alberta. He did say we would all see a new Saskatchewan. With his anti-labour Bills 5, 6 and now Bill 80, he will be lowering wages and working conditions for Saskatchewan people. -Rod Perry, Estevan, The Leader-Post

The NDP raised concerns about the closure of 28 acute care beds in City Hospital in question period Tuesday. ...NDP Health critic Judy Junor said she is concerned the change will lead to an overall loss of acute care beds. She is worried the bed reduction will be a harbinger of more job cuts in the region. -The Leader-Post

The Opposition NDP said having CT scans done by a third party is "a step down the road" to the privatization of health care. Health critic Judy Junor said she believes that patient backlog can be tackled within the public system, but it will take more support from the Saskatchewan Party government. "They are underfunding the public system to make people believe that they have to do this. If you're underfunding them...the districts are not going to be able to rise to the challenge of adding more surgeries. It makes people say, 'Oh, well then, we have to go to the private sector' - which is exactly what the government is setting the stage for." -The Canadian Press

The disadvantage Premier Brad Wall's government has is that, unlike with other right-of-centre governments, there's no automatic assumption that its strength lies with fiscal management. ...the Wall government will forever be haunted by its damning lineage to Grant Devine's Progressive Conservatives of the 1980s who ran one of the most fiscally incompetent governments in Canadian history. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Adding insult to the process is the value the government has placed on these heritage habitat lands. Leaseholders are being offered the land at 10 per cent below assessed market value. At a time when governments worldwide are struggling to retain their last remaining critical habitats, our government is selling our heritage lands at bargain prices to a select few. What an insult to Saskatchewan citizens who truly value our final reserves of a unique prairie landscape. -R.J. Rogers, The StarPhoenix

The final act of the Saskatchewan Party government in the spring term was to totally ignore concerns expressed by numerous conservation groups and pass, unchanged, its amendments to the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act that has preserved 3.4 million acres of Crown land over the past 30 years. Environment Minister Nancy Heppner met with conservation group representatives and attempted to placate their objections by promising to establish an advisory committee to guide further decisions about these heritage lands. However, none of these objections or suggestions of the conservation groups present, or the hundreds of letters from citizens, were considered as the amendments were rammed through. -R.J. Rogers, The StarPhoenix

The Sask. Party has long had an ambivalent relationship with the Crowns. They don't want them to be too successful, but they can't sell them, either. They like the money they throw off, but they want them competing with the private sector or outside the province. It's time for the Saskatchewan Party to decide what it wants to do with the Crowns: Sell them off or squeeze them to death? -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

What exactly is the Saskatchewan Party government's strategy when it comes to the province's Crown corporations? ...Under the former NDP government, Crowns paid dividends only after a portion of their profits was set aside for reinvestment and debt repayment. And dividends were based on the corporation's debt-to-equity ratio or similar financial measure. That dividend policy is apparently gone out the window. ...Many of the checks and balances that prevented political abuse of Crown corporations have been systematically removed. In their place are heavy-handed policy initiatives, like the Saskatchewan First policy, that requires all Crowns (except for SGI Canada) to divest themselves of their out-of-province investments, good, bad or indifferent. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

In April, CIC Minister June Draude admitted tat the government needed to backfill about $2 billion in revenues due to the shortfall in potash revenues and "we had the cash in the Crowns." Draude also admitted on several occasions that taking 100 per cent of the profits of all but one of the Crowns in the form of a dividend was "not sustainable." -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

To be fair, the Sask Party has been more subtle than the Devine-era Tories and have couched their interference under the guise of high-sounding initiatives, like Saskatchewan First policy. But make no mistake, the Sask Party government has imposed its political will on the Crowns just as surely as Grant Devine did in his day. Take, for example, the Wall government's stripping of 100 per cent of the profits from the Crowns (except for SaskPower) for a total of $276 million in 2010-11. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

Like everyone else, I assumed that an open-for-business government, like the Sask. Party government, would take a business-like approach to the Crowns. ...As it turns out, the Sask Party government has interfered with the Crowns perhaps more than any government since the Devine era (when political cronies were regularly installed as heads of Crowns and Crowns were forced to borrow to pay dividends to their cash-strapped shareholder). -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

...NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter blasted McMorris for stating in the assembly last month that Dickson "was consulted formally four different times on this very regulation" when three formal consultations actually took place a few years ago under a different government. "Why did he refer to the four consultations as if he and his ministry had done it when he knew full well he had not consulted with the commissioner even once? I think this is serious...and a difficult thing for the minister to have to explain because he wasn't being truthful and forthcoming with the public on this issue," Lingenfelter said to reporters outside the assembly. -The Leader-Post

Broten, MLA for Saskatoon Massey Place, said Wall's response to the NDP's charge of increased job losses and EI use since the Sask. Party formed the government is typical of the party when it comes to criticism. "I can understand why the premier has problems with the actual numbers and the actual figures because the actual numbers tell a different story than what he is spinning in the media, I believe... What I don't want to lose focus on is the nearly 17,000 families receiving regular EI benefits across the province in a variety of sectors and I think the focus needs to remain on people in that situation." -The StarPhoenix

The New West Partnership Trade Agreement allows Alberta and Saskatchewan companies to do business in B.C. without establishing offices here. And guess what? Alberta and Saskatchewan don't have the expensive HST to worry about! The deal also means the provincial, municipal and regional governments won't be allowed to "discriminate" by favouring local hiring or businesses for most contracts. That will put B.C. workers and companies out of jobs, particularly given Alberta has no provincial sales tax and Saskatchewan no HST. -The Tyee

"We all love this province dearly. We did all the work to build this province and the things that are here. But we're being called upon one more time to make sure that these policies, those things we believe in, are protected. We have a history of balancing the budget. We have a history of health care doing a pretty good job, and when we were in government we had the lowest cost of living anywhere in Canada. If we work as hard as we can get the job done and we lose, then we can say we gave our best effort. But if we lose because we are going around the community saying we're going to lose in 2011, and if we lose because we didn't do our work, then that's sad because we do not want to have another four or five years of this kind of bad policy." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, Southwest Booster

"Today we find out that the economy of Saskatchewan didn't grow last year; in fact it shrank by 6.9 per cent. There's 6.9 per cent less production across the province in 2009 than there was in 2008. And in fact the GDP of the province is now the same size as it was in 2005. We've gone backwards five years, and we are further behind than we were when Brad became premier by about five per cent." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, Southwest Booster

"There's only one way to deal with the deficit and that's to pay it back. We're no spending annually close to $1 billion more than we're taking in. That's deferred tax that your children and their children will have to pay off. The problem is, I don't think Wall knows how to run a $7 billion budget. I think the fact that we're running a deficit for the second year in a row is an example of how he doesn't understand how to manage his finances properly." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, Southwest Booster

The Leader of the Opposition is confident the NDP can reclaim their position as the governing party of Saskatchewan based on their comprehensive Policy Renewal process. "We're going to continue to meet until we have our convention in Regina and put all the ideas together. That's where crown corporations come from. That's where Medicare came from. We need to do it again. We need you to talk to your families, friends and neighbours and let those thought processes flow. No idea is too small or too large for us to consider. Then in March 2011 in Regina and I invite you all to come. There will be many hundreds of people coming together to share ideas with respect and dignity. There is nothing more important that you can do in the next 18 months than work to get the New Democratic Party elected." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, Southwest Booster

The revitalization process the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party is undertaking is helping change the attitudes of the party faithful according to NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter. ..."I've come back even more committed to this, and to an economy where there are three main pillars: strong working people and strong union people; strong government overseeing the workers, setting goals and objectives for safety and labour law; and strong companies. When those three pillars are in sync, working together, we have a modern economy." -Southwest Booster

NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter said the government overall has adopted a "secretive nature" despite a campaign promise to be more accountable and transparent. Lingenfelter charged that there has been a lack of consultation in several areas, such as changes to labour law, the winding down of Saskatchewan Communications Network and amendments to the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act that will see some protected land sold. -The Leader-Post

Health critic Judy Junor also blasted McMorris for the province's stalled kidney transplant program, the deferral of funding for 13 long-term care facilities and the recent decision to limit chiropractic coverage to low-income residents. Junor also said that the government should hand over the funding promised for the children's hospital rather than keep it within the holding company for the province's Crown corporations. "The minister has lost all credibility. Why should anyone trust that he can deliver on any of his promises?" Junor asked during question period. -The Leader-Post

Health Minister Don McMorris apologized Wednesday after being accused of making misleading statements in the assembly, but faced a barrage of criticism from the NDP over his record. The Opposition also charged that the Saskatchewan Party government has fostered a "culture of deceit" by failing to consult on various issues, a claim the government vigorously denied. -The Leader-Post

The NDP asked Don McMorris be removed from cabinet due to some misleading comments he made last month. ...On April 12, McMorris said the Privacy Commissioner had been consulted four times on the issue, but it was later understood that number was actually 3 times...all before the Saskatchewan Party was ever elected. The Sask Party didn't believe the misinformation was enough to lose a job over. -Newstalk CKOM

The Saskatchewan Party and NDP are joining together to get some secret RCMP documents released. Both political parties are passing a motion to get documents pertaining to former Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas. During Douglas' career, CSIS, Canada's spy agency kept tabs on him. They claim there are still national security concerns in his file. The NDP thinks the files are part of Saskatchewan's history and should be released. -Global News

Recent Saskatchewan Party ads that highlight this province as having Canada's lowest unemployment rate are wrong. That honour actually goes to Manitoba. If the government is going to brag about Saskatchewan, it should at least use real statistics. Apparently, during all the "boom" talk, we've decided to ignore that some other provinces are actually beating us in many indicators of economic might. -Nick Henselmeier, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

We have a small population in a rich province, and with proper leadership we could begin to build safe, healthy communities for everyone. However, we would have to put people's lives over profit for big business, and support local initiatives that enrich our lives without destroying the environment. -Sheelah McLean, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

Did you see the protests in Regina? Wall's government has paved the way to sign away publicly owned land that protects wildlife, outsourced Saskatchewan jobs and ignored health-care contracts. On top of this, it has cut from many vital education programs. What do people do when private companies own everything, when there are no jobs, and when their health care suffers? Look at any community that has this model and you can see the apathy created by poverty and hopelessness. ...All of us will suffer because of such policies. -Sheelah McLean, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

I have another flyer in my mailbox from the Saskatchewan Party, promising to cut my taxes. I don't want my taxes cut. I won't notice the one or two per cent anyway. I want my money spent instead on the things that all Saskatchewan people care about. Everyone wants to live in a safe, vibrant, healthy community. We do this by making sure there are good education programs, by maintaining health care, and by supporting local business and local workers. Premier Brad Wall's government is working against us in all these areas. -Sheelah McLean, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

Schwartz said the Wall government's policy seems to be pile up the debt on the Crown side and keep the taxpayer-supported debt relatively low. The problem is that someone has to pay the debt. "Somebody's going to have to pick it up because governments borrow money in the ordinary course of business," Schwartz said. "Saskatchewan businesses, ratepayers and consumers will have to pay for this." -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

In fact, CIC's debt is nearly doubling - to $5.9 billion by fiscal 2013-14 from $3.1 billion at the end of March 2010. At the same time, government debt (versus Crown debt) at the same dollar figure, it seems like some of the debt is being loaded into the Crowns." -Sheldon Schwartz, Chartered Financial Analyst, The Leader-Post

But Schwartz said the government is treating the Crowns like cash cows, instead of businesses that require profits to reinvest and paydown debt. "If you're admitting you're doing something unsustainable, you should explain why you're doing it in the first place and how long you intend to be doing it and what (are) the consequences of doing it." ..."If you take 100 per cent of the profits, you're going to have to find the money for reinvestment or debt reduction somewhere else. And, since there's no money for debt reduction, I guess their debt's going to going up." -Sheldon Schwartz, Chartered Financial Analyst, The Leader-Post

In its spring budget, the Sask. Party government announced it was taking 100 per cent of profits of the Crowns (except SaskPower) in the form of a $276-million dividend. That, combined with the special dividend of $570,000 in proceeds from the sale of the NewGrade upgrader in 2007 and Saskferco fertilizer plant in 2008, brings total transfers from the Crowns in the last two fiscal years to more than $2 billion. That extra cash from the Crowns helped CIC Minister June Draude make up for the $2-billion shortfall in potash revenue in fiscal 2009-10. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan Party government's move to strip 100 per cent of the profits from all but one of the Crowns is "not sustainable" and not good business practice, says a former senior government official. Sheldon Schwartz, a 25-year career civil servant, who served as assistant deputy finance minister and chief financial office of Crown Investments Corp. (CIC), says taking all the profits from the Crowns, except for SaskPower, as a dividend is "neither a commercial dividend policy nor a sustainable one." -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

During the rally NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter urged the protesters to prepare for the 2011 provincial election, saying the battle over specific issues may be lost for now "but we're going to win the war." He later accused the government of failin g to consult with affected groups until after controversial changes are already made. "In the future any legislation that would be brought forward should be dealt with in a very different way. You take the concept out to the public and the communities that will be affected and you do the consultation before you write the legislation," Lingenfelter said. -The Leader-Post

Dozens of protesters wearing black T-shirts came to oppose labour legislation affecting the construction industry. ..."This is a last ditch effort to try to bring attention about Bill 80 to the general public and to this government that we don't need Bill 80 and we don't want Bill 80. I think they hear what we're saying but they're just going to go and do what they want to do." -Terry Parker, Business Manager for the Saskatchewan Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council

The uncommon combination of protests is evidence that the government has failed to listen to people, said Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations vice-chief Lyle Whitefish. "We can't agree on everything, but at least let's go to the table and talk about some of these issues, the common issues that we have. Look at all these people here and how united and how much voice we have and how much concern we have with this government and it's not just First Nations in this province, it's everyone else that's here today. Something is not right." -Lyle Whitefish, Vice-Chief of FSIN, The Leader-Post

Hundreds of protesters united by their dislike of different Saskatchewan Party government policies converged outside the Legislative Building in Regina on Tuesday in a bit to heard before the spring session of the legislature winds down. Union banners protesting new labour legislation flew alongside placards held by First Nations protesters angry about a government plan to sell some protected wildlife habitat land. Health workers frustrated they've been without a contract for more than two years blew whistles and chanted during noon hour rally. -The Leader-Post

Hundreds of people have gathered outside the Legislative Building protesting several different causes. Anti-poverty advocates have set up small red tents on the lawn and are calling on the government to take action to deal with a housing "crisis," including by reintroducing rent control. Nearby, the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations has organized a protest against a government plan to sell some parcels of protected wildlife land. Dozens of other protesters are unionized construction workers who are against Bill 80, which the Saskatchewan Party government is expected to pass into law this week. ...Meanwhile, workers in the health-care system who have been without a contract for more than two years have also converged outside the legislature to voice their concerns. -The Leader-Post

"Not only do these lands provide essential habitat for wildlife in our province, but they contribute to the provision of water quality, air quality, pollination of plants, cycling of nutrients and other essential ecological services. One of the immediate impacts of the provincial government's amendments is that between 200,000 and 350,000 acres of previously protected land will be available for sale very quickly, with all previous provisions of protection removed completely." -Peter Prebble, Director of Energy and Water Policy with the Environmental Society

"Our society has a strong preference for retaining as Crown land the 3.5 million acres currently under protection. We do not support the provincial government's plan to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of this land to private individuals. We believe the bill now before the Assembly will lead to further habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, thus adding stress on wildlife populations, such as grassland bird species, several of which are already in sharp decline." -Allyson Brady, Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society

The rural Saskatchewan community of Leader is losing acute-care services due to a doctor shortage, with the emergency room of the local hospital closing next Monday morning, officials with the health region have confirmed. ...While the 24-bed hospital will be open during the day, only non-emergency services will be available. They include changing dressings, vitamin shots and blood pressure checks. According to the Cypress Health Region, the closure will be in effect indefinitely as officials try to recruit physician services for the hospital. -CBC News

"We went through a 14-month committee process and put submissions in. People cam from across Canada to talk to the standing committee on human services to deal with Bill 80," said Terry Parker. "The minister said the government would wait for a report to be produced, before passing the bill. But no report came out and the whole committee process was a sham. The government wrote the bill first and then decided to consult, which amounts to consultation after the fact." -Terry Parker, Business Manager of the Saskatchewan Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council, Journal of Commerce

...the political nature of caucuses (polling, advertising, political activity) requires a higher degree of public scrutiny - not less scrutiny has Justice Minister Don Morgan is now attempting to argue. Morgan has got it dead wrong. What's his possible concern? ...More scrutiny works for everyone. And if anyone should know this, it's a Saskatchewan politician. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer replied to a letter from Mayor Rospad in which he outlined the Town of Nipawin's concerns about housing and family issues in the community. ...The Minister then indicated that she did not see the need for a meeting with Council to discuss their concerns, as a productive meeting has already occurred on April 13 between Council and officials from her ministry. Mayor Rospad expressed his concern towards the meeting that a minister as a publicly elected person is not willing to meet with them. Alderman Farden and Robin added that these are important issues, as it can affect the ability of the Town of Nipawin to move ahead with its social services and health initiatives. -Nipawin Journal

Members of council expressed their displeasure with the Minister of Health's approach to the Town of Nipawin's concerns over health matters in the region during a regular council meeting on Tuesday evening, May 25. Councillors were not impressed with a letter from Minister of Health Don McMorris in response to an earlier letter from Mayor Lawrence Rospad about the need from improved communications with the Kelsey Trail Health Region (KTHR) and appointments to the board. -Nipawin Journal

The government's stated intention to implement "a new organization model that better aligns ministry communications activities to the executive council" is also potentially problematic to the NDP. "Clearly I think the premier is trying to use the communications budget of government to get his political message out," said Yates. -NDP House Leader Kevin Yates, The Leader-Post

Yates said the universal theme in the letters of "eliminating regulatory or bureaucratic requirements that serve as barriers to growth" is also troubling. "There's an underlying theme there of cutting regulation and does that result in cutting safety and security for people in the province? Regulations are there for a reason...and if we have a significant streamlining of regulation, what's the purpose of that? We have to make sure this isn't a race to the bottom and Saskatchewan people aren't paying again." -NDP House Leader Kevin Yates, The Leader-Post

...the Opposition NDP said there's little that hasn't been seen from the government before and what is new carries some potentially disturbing implications. ...Yates said some of the outlined priorities - such as the reduction of surgical wait times to no longer than three months by 2014 - are slated to be fulfilled well after the next election. Others illustrate a record of failure, Yates said. He cited Environment Minister Nancy Heppner's orders to work to meet greenhouse gas targets and to negotiate a long-sought "equivalency agreement" with the federal government on the issue as examples. -The Leader-Post

But while the Saskatchewan Party government is now hyping the best-case scenario of our population growing to 1.3 million over the next quarter-century, the rest of us should be a little more cautious. To begin with, the suddenly more positive numbers for Saskatchewan don't automatically make them more solid than the considerably less flattering former projections by the agency. In fact, its 2005 long-term projections actually showed - in four of six scenarios - an actual population decline. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Premier Brad Wall has given his troops new marching orders as they head towards the 2011 election. The Opposition NDP, however, says there is precious little that is fresh in the mandate letters given to Saskatchewan Party cabinet ministers on Monday. ...NDP house leader Kevin Yates said the government was simply trying to "change the channel" after a tough session of the legislature that concluded a week and half ago. "It hasn't been a very successful spring. Their budget has been a disaster," he said. "The cuts have not been popular with people. They've been hurtful, been harmful to many Saskatchewan residents." -The StarPhoenix

"There doesn't seem to be a strategy that will give communities the assurance they need to attract doctors to come and work, to stay there are work and to give communities also the confidence that they can grow and that they can live there and be safe and secure in their health services." -NDP Health critic Judy Junor, The Leader-Post

"There are already communities that are on my list that I want to go to but there are others that, once they're hearing about this, I think they're going to come forward in great numbers because there are stories happening all over the province and I think people want to tell them." -NDP Health critic Judy Junor, The Leader-Post

The NDP is launching a summer tour of rural communities to try and write a successful prescription for towns afflicted by physician shortages. The information gathered from the towns will be discussed at a symposium in the fall, with the resulting recommendations taken into consideration by the NDP as the party conducts a major review of policy in advance of the next election... -The Leader-Post

Brad Wall and his Sask. Party have given the labour movement a boost of renewed purpose, and we will continue to oppose this government and its regressive labour legislation. ...We will not forget what this government did to us, and they will be punished at the next election in November of 2011. ...Just after being elected Brad Wall said he would go to war with Saskatchewan workers. We are here to show Brad Wall that it's a war he's going to lose. -Saskatchewan Provincial Building & Construction Trades Council

The day before the Sask. Party passed Bill 80, over 1000 people converged at the Legislature to rally against the provincial government. The Saskatchewan Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council, its affiliates, and members were out in force. Throughout the lunchtime rally, not one Sask. Party politician would address the groups assembled at the Legislature. The Opposition did not show such Sask. Party disrespect. New Democratic Party MLAs joined with the working men and women during the protest, and listened to their concerns. -Saskatchewan Provincial Building & Construction Trades Council

No consultations with working people were done whatsoever before the introduction of Bill 80, and Minister Norris said that business groups were also not consulted. Now we know that Norris actually did consult with business and contractors, in fact they practically wrote the bill. Minister Norris was not honest. ...it has become crystal clear that the Sask. Party does not care about working people, and are in the pocket of their corporate masters. -Saskatchewan Provincial Building & Construction Trades Council

...the Saskatchewan Party trimmed $100 million from its agriculture budget, and the federal government will trim its agriculture spending by 45 per cent over the next three years...So what does Lingenfelter say can be done to help address the income decline? To begin with the NDP leader pointed SaskPower rates. Lingenfelter said the Crown has increased rates to farmers by 18 per cent over the last 14-months. He said those increase need to be reviewed in light of the expected significant decline in farm incomes. Lingenfelter would also move to put spot loss hail coverage back into crop insurance. He noted that would save farmers on their hail insurance because the costs are shared with the government. -Yorkton This Week

Farm incomes are being predicted to decline 55 per cent in Saskatchewan this year, and New Democrat leader Dwain Lingenfelter said that should be causing more concern in government than it has. "There should be some serious discussion between the province and federal governments about what they should do about this before it continues to deteriorate. ...I don't remember another time with that big a dip in net farm incomes in one year...I don't understand why the Wall government hasn't taken this more seriously." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, Yorkton This Week

The Saskatchewan Legislature had a rare achievement on Thursday, as the House of MLAs unanimously supported an Opposition motion asking for the release of secret documents on former Premier Tommy Douglas, with the motion now to be sent to the federal government. The motion had the support of Douglas's family, as Shirley Douglas said in a statement, "My father would be very moved by the passage of this important motion today." -The Weyburn Review

Lingenfelter said the NDP have also made some suggestions on how the province can respond to this year's projected drop in net farm income. "Three things that we have put forward to the government. One, we'd like spot-loss hail put back in Crop Insurance. We'd like SaskPower rates, which have gone up 18 per cent on the farm in the last 14 months, rolled back. And we would like Ag Stability to become more sensitive to this kind of a rapid drop so that farmers will be able to access this this fall." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Southwest Booster

"What I'm really concerned about is the selling of the 3.5 million acres of sensitive land. There is absolutely no reason why we had to be in a hurry to do that. That land's been in this position for 80 or 100 years. And to go out and consult with people, take out a white paper and say to people like here's what we're planning to do, what do you think of it? The fact is that land is owned by all of us - it's owned by our kids, by our grandchildren, by future generations. And to sell it off without talking to the owners - that's you and I and our families - is absolutely bad government and I think there will be repercussions on the Wall government for that." NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Southwest Booster

"I think we now have 35,000 signatures on a petition protesting the de-insurance of chiropractic services. So it's been very active, and there is a big change from where it was a year ago when I started down this journey of being leader of the party. There's many, many people concerned about the direction of the government. Sadly, I don't think the government listened to any of it, because they just jammed through all the things people were concerned about." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Southwest Booster

"I don't know that if I've ever seen it quite so hectic with people coming to the legislature to protest. The galleries have been full. And certainly the intensity of the debate has been more than I've seen for a quite a while. We've had a lot of people come to the building this session, in fact thousands of people have come over the length of the session protesting what the Wall government is doing in the areas of health, the lack of contract for workers, shutting down of the insuring chiropractic services, or the kidney transplant program. And then you know all of the issues surrounding SCN, and the selling of 3.5 million acres of habitat land." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Southwest Booster

Dwain Lingenfelter, the leader of the NDP, thinks the NDP had a strong session but the NDP is disappointed with the government in some areas. "With the financial area, we're very concerned, of course, with financial management when it comes to deficit in the fact that the rainy day fund is (nearly) all spent. This at a time when revenue to the government is up significantly. With the government of (former NDP premier) Lorne Calvert, income was about $7.2 billion. This year it's $10 billion or an increase of 25 per cent and this government can't run a balanced budget. That's just bad government." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, Melfort Journal

What might be more disconcerting is the party's decision to stop listening to the people of this province. Whether it's Bill 80 or the sale of environmentally protected Crown lands, the Sask Party government has thumbed their nose at repeated requests to discuss these topics and others. Even with the New West Partnership agreement, which could very well be a great thing for the province, the government's hesitancy to be open and transparent gave the NDP and groups like the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour more ammunition... Some have called it arrogance and it's tough to argue with them. -Estevan Mercury

"I know why Brad Wall and John Gormley are tyring to spin it that we should be sitting quietly. I know what they want. They want their boy to win the next election. If it's quiet, that will happen. Those of us who know politics, especially social democrats, know that if the people meeting in the union hall are angry, if they're shouting, if they're taking part in the dialogue, that's not bad for democracy." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Prairie Dog

It's been a session where the government's budget bombed and a $2 billion surplus became a $1 billion debt. Controversies abound: plans were made to sell three million acres of environmentally sensitive public land to private ranchers at the whim of a minister, and SCN was shut down, sort of. The Wall government wouldn't let anyone see a major trade agreement with Alberta and British Columbia until it came into effect... -The Prairie Dog

Come the November 2011 provincial election, Link's gonna blow this popsicle stand and head to his Rightful Place - the Premier's Office. If he does, it'll be thanks to the style of politics he expects his Saskatchewan NDP to play - bare-knuckles, no quarter given or expected. It's been Link's trademark since his first election in 1978, and if anybody - within the NDP, the governing Saskatchewan Party, or neutral observer - thought otherwise, they didn't know Dwain. -The Prairie Dog

Premier Wall can argue that his government has taken only 70 per cent of net income from Crowns excluding SaskPower and will do it again next year if needed, but surely this is no way to run businesses that taxpayers have no choice but to own. Mr. Wall's conservative government wouldn't dream of taxing a private corporation this way, leaving little room for reinvestment or rejuvenation. -The StarPhoenix

The finance minister's claim to "balancing" the GRF is achieved through the old sleight-of- hand of making a $194 million transfer from the "financial security fund" - the rain day fund use the Saskatchewan Party once denigrated. ...What complicates things is that, even as Mr. Gantefoer and Premier Wall proclaim that Saskatchewan's budget is balanced for the 14th consecutive year, they are doing so by taking nearly every nickel they dare squeeze out of the income of Crown utilities, whose finances aren't detailed in the GRF. -The StarPhoenix

Mr. Gantefoer's latest budget and the debate that has flowed from it only serve to underline just how poorly the public is being served. ...the reality is that, both on a summary basis that includes public business the government conducts through its Crowns, or even just considering the general revenue fund that Mr. Gantefoer, like his predecessors, tailors to meet the political imperatives of crafting the annual "budget," Saskatchewan is in the red. -The StarPhoenix

What might be more disconcerting about the new mandate letters, however, are the smaller directives - some of which Wall had difficulty explaining Monday. ...Again, these directives may be less nefarious than critics claim, but Wall's inability to clearly explain what he has in mind when it comes to the public sector using more private sector office space suggests this government still has a lot of explaining to do. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Worse yet for the government, the letters point to a few things that Sask. Party government ministers haven't delivered on and they may even have given the Opposition new ammunition that the government intends to purchase office space from Sask. Party friends, cut regulations for business buddies and make all government communications even more partisan than they already are. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

For the Saskatchewan Party government, these June days are about leaving voters with the impression that this administration is working on bold new initiatives while everyone else retreats to their backyards, campsites and holiday destinations. The problem for Premier Brad Wall, however, is that he really doesn't have a bold, new agenda right now, so there wasn't exactly a lot he could throw into the new mandate letters he has just handed out to his cabinet ministers. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Wotherspoon says Wall claims to have balanced the budget but documents state that his government has run up deficits totaling $1.3 billion dollars while also draining the province's rainy day fund and stripping cash from the Crowns. Wotherspoon is also taking issue with boasts about property taxes saying despite claims they are decreasing, the Wall government's broken promise on stable municipal revenue sharing has forced taxes in many communities to rise. -Saskatoon Homepage

NDP Finance critic Trent Wotherspoon has taken issue with a host of, what he calls, inaccurate and misleading statistics contained in a recent Sask Party brochure. Wotherspoon is pointing specifically to a graph claiming that the Wall government has reduced the debt. Wotherspoon says the overall public debt is, in fact, expected to rise by $753 million this year alone and by 55 percent by the year 2014. -Saskatoon Homepage

NDP Health critic Judy Junor said the government is turning to the private sector when progress on wait times could be made by properly funding the public system. "It's just another step along that philosophical road that the Sask. Party is on. They're going to privatize health services and they're doing it piece-by-piece. They're basically telling people that we have to do this. The public system is over-taxed, over-extended, that it can't handle it. That's the part that really annoys me, is that the public is being manipulated by the Sask. Party to think that this is the only way to go." -The Leader-Post

Indeed, accountability and transparency should be more than bygone campaign promises. It's time for Saskatchewan voters to hold the Brad Wall government's feet to the fire until it gets its act cleaned up! -Iris M. Beahm, Regina, The Leader-Post

A national study done by the federal government indicates that net farm income in Saskatchewan will drop this year by an estimated 55 per cent. The NDP has called upon the provincial government to re-institute spot-loss crop insurance and put back $100 million for agriculture stability. ...Lingenfelter said the income drop would warrant a need for the $100 million. -Meadow Lake Progress

And in the most recent budget, the government hiked camping rates for out-of-province campers - something Tell vowed her government wouldn't do. Then we find out from the NDP Opposition Thursday that those fee hikes - as applied to B.C. and Alberta campers - might violate the recently signed New West Partnership (NWP) agreement's non-discrimination provision. ...But after all the Sask. Party's sanctimonious fuss over the wienie tax, it is a delicious irony that in government it is caught up in this park fee mess. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Take all the sanctimony we heard from the Brad Wall-led Opposition over the seemingly reasonable, user-pay $3-a-day for firewood in provincial parks - the so-called NDP "wienie" tax that Wall sanctimoniously waxed on about at every campaign stop in the 2007 election. Well, the Sask. Party did dump the "wienie tax" when it came to power. However, then-Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Christine Tell turned around in December 2008 and announced massive camping fee hikes to make up the difference. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Rather than truly consider the arguments from groups like Nature Saskatchewan or the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation which vehemently oppose the new act in its current status, Nancy Heppner's Environment Ministry has taken to soliciting support letters from "non-partisan" groups like CFIB, the Saskatchewan Cattleman's Association, the Saskatchewan Stockgrowers' Association, etc. No vested interests here, right? -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

And worse yet, this undue influence of interest groups on Sask. Party government policies now seems to extend to other ministries like environment, where we are now witnessing a debate raging over the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act. Let's be clear about one thing regarding these changes to our province's three million protected acres of vulnerable habitat: they have been driven by ranchers, many of whom happen to be big-time supporters of the Sask. Party. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...consider how the Saskatchewan Party government's labour policies like Bill 80 have appeared to be virtually written by the Chambers of Commerce, the Saskatchewan Construction Association (SCA), the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) and specific generous business donors. Far tougher to stomach, however, is the government's sanctimonious justification that it's making these changes to benefit workers. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The opposition New Democrats say the legislative options could allow marriage commissioners to turn away more than just same-sex couples. "Both pieces of proposed legislation are silent on the basis on which they can discriminate," said NDP Justice critic Frank Quennell. "So clearly, if the legislation was approved by the Court of Appeal and passed by the government of Saskatchewan, marriage commissioners could refuse to provide marriages to interracial couples or couples whose religions are different or to couples on the basis of sexual orientation as long as they claimed a religious motivation." -The Canadian Press

The University of Saskatchewan says more job cuts are coming as it seeks to balance its finances. According to officials, when combined with cuts already made, a total of 60 positions will be eliminate. -CBC News

The head of Regina's Wascana Park authority says the grounds may see more litter and weeds this summer, due to budget cuts. ...McIntyre explained that the park experienced a funding cut of ten per cent, by the provincial government. She said that translates to nine fewer seasonal workers hired for summer maintenance work. -CBC News

The government's decision to close SCN was made without consultation with viewers, the television industry or even SCN's independent board of directors. The process of implementing this decision has likewise been rife with irregularities and a failure to consult stakeholders and experts. -Sask Lifestyles

SCN Matters contends that the proposed accelerated assessment process for the privatization of SCN is in fact deliberately designed to prevent public oversight and input from stakeholders, and is destined to rob the people of Saskatchewan of their valued public educational broadcaster and its 20-year legacy of excellence. -Sask Lifestyles

In its fall throne speech, the ruling Saskatchewan Party said it wants to limit the number of needles used in various needle-exchange programs in the province. That decision contradicted a government study examining such programs that found they contribute to a reduction in the spread of blood-borne diseases like HIV-AIDS. That study also suggested the program may save the health-care system $4 million a year. -CBC News

"We believe the bill now before the assembly will lead to further habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, thus adding stress on wildlife populations such as grassland bird species, several of which are already in sharp decline." -Allyson Brady, Executive Director, Saskatchewan Environmental Society

It appears likely that the oldest medical facility in Saskatchewan will once again be passed over for replacement in next week's provincial budget. In question period Tuesday, NDP MLA Len Taylor pressed the Saskatchewan Party government over The Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford, the provincial psychiatric rehabilitation facility that dates back to 1911. -The Leader-Post

I wonder if Wall realizes how closely his decisions parallel those of his mentor - former premier Grant Devine - when he chooses to alienate 135,000 unionized voters, untold wildlife activists and countless others upset with a deficit budget made by the same "brilliant mind." It would seem Wall's brilliance should be limited to ranting on a two-bit radio station. -Tim Lalonde, Asquith, The StarPhoenix

As Premier Brad Wall prepares to brag about his trip to China, I have to wonder why he is the only person to have a signed agreement with China? Is it because of his financial brilliance? After our last deficit budget I doubt it. I suspect China spotted the weakest link and most gullible person on the trip, and decided to exploit the premier's weak mind and extreme ego. -Tim Lalonde, Adquith, The StarPhoenix

With the transfer to private ownership, who will protect the natural habitat? Some large parcels under cultivation have many small areas still covered in natural prairie essential for wildlife. Will it be left to the discretion of landowners to leave these areas in their natural state? Who will monitor the drainage of small sloughs vital to wildlife survival? This is just too important an issue to be treated so lightly, particularly when the results cannot be reversed. The desires of a few much not take precedent over the benefits to the balance of society. -C.M. Thompson, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

It may be that most farmers and ranchers are good stewards of the land, but once they obtain title, the land will be resold eventually. With the trend to corporate farms, stewardship will have little meaning. After considerable media attention in recent days, Heppner has finally discussed the sale of Crown lands with Nature Saskatchewan. However, it's too little and much too late. She intends to amend the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act this month. Saskatchewan people, particularly future generations, will be hugely affected by this land transfer to private ownership. -C.M. Thompson, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

Health Minister Don McMorris insisted that this is an innovative pilot project and terms for the building of this private facility were set out by the Saskatoon Health Region - full arm's length removed from government. That said, this particular arm's length seems a rather short one. ...For a Sask. Party government that has both vowed not to pick winners and has desperately tried to distance itself from the Devin Tories, such allegations are not a good sign. Like any right-of-centre, business-supported government, it is vulnerable to stories about doing favours for its business friends. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...Atkinson raised the spectre of the Saskatoon Health Region (read: provincial taxpayers) having to pay the outstanding balance should Amicus or the health region decide to terminate the contract. As Atkinson noted, this does seem to fit the definition of a loan guarantee, causing the Saskatoon MLA to ask: "Why is the Sask. Party government using taxpayers' money to reward its friends?" -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

McMorris initially suggested the details were still being worked out. However, a memorandum of understanding was signed in March and digging began in early April. Moreover, the $27-million facility is being built by Miners Construction Co. Inc. The company's president Michael Stensrud...has donated more than $18,000 to the Sask. Party in the last four years. ...Furthermore, Atkinson noted that Amicus's lawyer coincidentally happens to be the brother of Premier Brad Wall's chief-of-staff, Joe Donleavy, and that executive council had some role in the talks. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...a story emerging out of the legislature, raised by veteran MLA Pat Atkinson, about an untendered contract to build a Saskatoon nursing home to a construction firm owned by a large Saskatchewan Party donor appears to have many of the elements of these old stories that first got the Devine government in trouble. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But some critics say ES can't be fixed. Bureaucrats can no more create businesses than a man can have a baby. Governments are ill-equipped to "pick winners and losers," to use that over-worked phrase. ...The Saskatchewan Party government, and Wall himself, have staked their reputations on doing economic development better than their NDP predecessors. While the jury's still out, the early indications are not promising. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

Nearly two years on, is ES achieving its mandate? What are the fruits, if any, of this new approach? ...The ambitious agenda Wall laid out for ES in "The Promise of Saskatchewan" seems to have gotten bogged down in bureaucracy. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

The four-per-cent increase in property taxes is almost the last straw for hundreds of Regina ratepayers who own smaller homes. Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security payments have not increased by four per cent; neither have the incomes of most wage-earners. -Christine Whitaker, Edgeley, The Leader-Post

But if Norris once represented the low-bar of Sask. Party minister's willingness to consult or be accountable to their stakeholders, other cabinet colleagues sure seem to be doing their darndest to surpass him. Compared with the woeful performances of Environment Minister Nancy Heppner or Health Minister Don McMorris when it comes to consultation or accountability, Norris' handling of the labour file no longer stands out as much. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

And given his grating habit to sticking to his assigned talking points, finding something relevant in what he had to say was never easy. Worst of all, Norris has not been seen as an advocate for his labour stakeholders who have quickly come to loathe him. This was again apparent this week when Norris met with Terry Parker, business manager of the Saskatchewan Provincial Building and Construction Trades Coucil, who was making a last-ditch appeal to stop the passage of Bill 80 - the controversial labour legislation affecting the construction industry. Suffice to say, things didn't go well. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...when the young Sask. Party government was riding a wave of unprecedented resource revenue, it was Norris who seemed to be the low-bar standard for the government's performance. Dealing with a hostile labour movement was not easy, but Norris always managed to pour gas on the fire. His pompous, politically charged manner mostly served as an annoying distraction to anything relevant he might have had to say. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But if such politically and operationally dumbass decisions costs, say Bill Hutchinson or Laura Ross (both Regina-area Sask. Party MLAs first elected in 2007) their political careers, the Sask. Party brain trust doesn't give a flying lip lock. ...Like the Bourbon kings of post-Napoleonic France, Brad Wall's government, built from Devine's wreckage, has seen all and leaned nothing, at least politically. -The Prairie Dog

They don't know of care that cutting the Dutch Elm Disease monitoring and cleanup program, which was costing the government about $500,000 a year, would end up costing municipalities much, much more in combating the spread of the disease that threatens more than 70 per cent of the City of Regina's deciduous trees - not to mention the outrage amongst voters at the possibility of one of the biggest urban forests in Canada being lost thanks in part to the provincial government's neglect. -The Prairie Dog

It's also a government who not only doesn't know how to govern but is openly contemptuous of the process that brought it to power: dialogue and consultations with the public in general, and the people affected in particular. ...The Sask. Party's problem may go back to its roots. Throughout much of the 1990s and 2000s, the majority of Sask. Party MLAs won elections in rural Saskatchewan by wide margins. Getting a Sask. Party nomination is as good, for many of them, as getting elected. There's little attempt to accommodate those with different points of view - it's not their political nature. -The Prairie Dog

...it's doubtful anybody thought any government could have been worse than Devine's. But now, maybe, he's got competition. Brad Wall is the premier who, in two and half years of governance, turned the government of Saskatchewan's budget from a $2 billion annual surplus to a billion dollar deficit. After two and half years of spinning its wheels, they're now stuck with the fact that Saskatchewan's Gross Domestic Product shrank more than six per cent and is at the same place it was in 2005, thanks to the potash collapse. -The Prairie Dog

"There is a clause in the agreement that says that the Saskatchewan government has to consult the Alberta and British Columbia governments before it can pass legislation. This government isn't even agreeing to consult with Saskatchewan residents, and yet they're supposed to consult with people outside of Saskatchewan as to what they can and can't do. That is absolutely ridiculous." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Prairie Dog

...but if they were so confident that the public would agree, then why did they keep the agreement out of the public eye until after Wall had signed on? Because that's what they did. The consultations were all held in secret, and the Sask. Party has never brought the agreement into the Legislature for a vote. ...But signing it away from the prying eyes of the Saskatchewan legislature, if not from the small cadre of protesters, seems to symbolize the increasingly secretive and erratic nature of the Wall Government. -The Prairie Dog

Is Wall's signing of the inter-provincial free-trade agreement another attempt to pull a fast one on Saskatchewan voters? And why would voters care, anyway? ...First, a history lesson. The New West Partnership's predecessor was the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement, signed in 2006 between the Alberta and British Columbia governments. Immediately after the signing, the Sask. Party, then in opposition, campaigned for the Saskatchewan government to join up. In August 2006, the Sask. Party even claimed there was a direct link between the NDP's failure to sign TILMA and the province's supposedly poor job creation record. -The Prairie Dog

Of course, this is the same Sask. Party that has delivered up a bunch of surprises in its two-and-a-half years of governance. Eliminating the Dutch elm disease monitoring program (only to bring it back with one-fifth of its budget), the elimination of SCN and the end of chiropractic coverage under provincial medicare were all five-o'clock surprises issued by the Wall government. -The Prairie Dog

Now, after three years of punishing losses, hog prices are back into profitable territory and that is expected to last into the months ahead. ...Unfortunately the years of low prices have taken a toll. The Canadian breeding herd has declined by nearly 20 per cent since peaking in 2005. As of April 1, the Saskatchewan breeding herd was only 85,200 head, down nearly 12 per cent from a year ago and down 35 per cent from its peak in 2005. -The StarPhoenix

What the New West Partnership isn't, says Wall, is a rehash of the controversial Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement that B.C. and Alberta signed in 2006. ...In fact, the Sask. Party promised they would never sign TILMA, a sweeping trade agreement the Council of Canadians called "a corporate bill of rights for western Canada." -The Prairie Dog

Parading around the car park of Government House isn't usually anyone's idea of a good time, especially on a day like Friday: cold and windy with snow and rain. Nevertheless, about 80 people marched outside the building where Premier Brad Wall signing a new agreement between Canada's western provinces. The protester's signs said a lot of things. They called for help for FNUniv's future, blasting the shutting down of SCN and decried changes to wildlife conservation lands regulations. But this day, the focus was TILMA. Or not TILMA. Depends who you believe. -The Prairie Dog

"What upsets me is how it was handled. The film industry is really getting knocked on its ass. SCN is an important part of the fabric, no doubt about that. For documentary filmmakers and short filmmakers and new filmmakers, SCN not being there is a big blow." -Trevor Cunningham, The Prairie Dog

"This would be the first [broadcaster to] collapse in the history of Canadian broadcasting," says Robin Schlaht, one of the filmmakers holding vigil over SCN. "Governments do shut down broadcasters that out of favour with them. They would do that for political reasons, or for ideological reasons, as in this case." -The Prairie Dog

There's little doubt Lingenfelter and the NDP successfully distracted Wall on several days this session. ...Equally unhelpful to Wall are the enablers he surrounds himself with whose job, it seems, appears to be to work the Sask. Party premier into a frenzy over the slightest criticism aimed at either Wall or his ministers. This, too, is usually a sign of a government heading into a nosedive - especially with all the other performance indicators weighing them down. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

One even gets the impression that Wall himself is coming to the realization that he and his government are off their game. In fact, sources say that Wall privately acknowledges that the NDP MLA's heckling, member's statements in the assembly and even questions like the ones during Monday's Executive Council spending estimates have been getting to him. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Certainly, the raising of his purchase of a condo in Phoenix, his record in private business and even the old stories of Wall's time as a Grant Devine-era ministerial assistant, ordering liquor at the behest of his Progressive Conservative minister boss, have gotten under Wall's skin. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

And based on the performance of Premier Brad Wall since the admission of a $2.1-billion miscalculation of potash revenue, one might assume the government would now be crashing to earth. ...This is a government that even some Sask. Party insiders admit has somewhat lost its way - and is now coming across as too arrogant and badly in need of some serious reflection. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Consider the litany of mistakes, (the aforementioned potash projections being the biggest); bad choices, (closing SCN, cutting mosquito and Dutch elm disease control); partisan choices, (its determination to push through an unamended Bill 80); misrepresentations, (Health Minister Don McMorris's debacle with the privacy commissioner, Environment Minister Nancy Heppner's changes to the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act regulation), and; just plain dumb choices (Corrections Minister Yogi Huyghebaert's comment that he was sending the police after Opposition House leader Kevin Yates for alerting the public to an escaped sexual predator). -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Starting with the confirmation of the province's worst-ever budget miscalculation last year, the spending cuts in this spring's budget, the trials and tribulations of Serge LeClerc and the exposure of some cabinet ministers as deficient, it appears a couple of engines on the Saskatchewan Party's jet have conked out. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The NDP raised questions Monday about whether a proposed new long-term care home that is coming before the board of the Saskatoon Health Region this week is receiving a sweetheart deal. ...NDP MLA Pat Atkinson said it was her understanding that the project will be announced Wednesday at an approximate price tag of $27 million. She said she is very concerned the deal will include "very lucrative terms in terms of per diem rates." Atkinson suggested the project will deviate from the usual funding model that sees 35 per cent of the capital funding raised by the proponent and the remainder provided by the government. -The Leader-Post

In question period Monday, NDP Opposition Leader Dwain Lingenfelter charged that the Saskatchewan Party government isn't helping by cutting nearly $100 million in farm support from the recent provincial budget despite there being a "crisis on the horizon." ...Bjornerud said he acknowledges there are concerns about the effectiveness of AgriStability, especially when producers have had subsequent difficult years. But he said it's hard to get the agreement among provinces needed to make changes to the national program. -The Leader-Post

The government report indicated that cattle farms are expected to lose an average of $5,195 in 2010, compared to previous average net operating incomes of about $11,000. ...The numbers prompted the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) to question the effectiveness of current farm safety net programs and reiterate a call for additional government support to help farmers through the short term. -The Leader-Post

The farm income projections, which were quietly released by Agriculture Canada and posted online, indicate national net farm income is expected to total $291.5 million, a 91-per-cent drop from 2009. Cattle and hog farms are expected to be particularly hard hit due in part to the impact of U.S. meat labelling regulations and a high Canadian dollar. Grain and oilseed prices prices are meanwhile down from the record levels seen in 2008. -The Leader-Post

Saskatchewan farmers preparing to seed the 2010 crop are facing a projected 55-per-cent decline in their farm income this year, according to a recent Agriculture Canada forecast. Realized net farm income is expected to total $980 million, a steep drop from the $2.2 billion in 2009... Greg Marshall, president of the Agriculture Producers Association of Saskatchewan, said the size of the projected decline for 2010 is disheartening. -The Leader-Post

Now, if a boost to property taxes has got you steamed then, based on many of the comments made by council at this meeting, you should aim your ire up to the governmental food chain. Ward 9 councillor, Terry Hincks, didn't mince words on the subject: "The provincial government should take all the heat for this because they set up a funding formula and didn't stick to it." -The Prairie Dog

The Sask. Party is increasing public debt, and has racked-up yet another massive deficit. That is almost to be expected from a Premier who, at one time, couldn't even sell country music to Swift Current. The provincial government has lost its way. They are tired, have no new ideas, and have now fully show their backward-looking, conservative stripes. -The Nipawin Journal

The province's program for combating Dutch elm disease was also axed. Our communities are now faced with paying for the protection of our forests, and urban forests. Since Brad Wall has broken his promise on municipal funding, tax increases are expected across the board - Regina and Saskatoon have already seen their taxes hiked. -The Nipawin Journal

The Sask. Party has also been unloading costs onto municipalities, both urban and rural. Brad Wall has cancelled a program aimed at reducing the number of mosquitoes, and by extension, the the threat of West Nile virus. Towns, cities, and rural communities will now have to pay the full cost of protecting children and the elderly from disease. Wall's short-sighted decision to save a million dollars will equal more people in hospital, and increased healthcare costs. Leave it to Brad Wall to save a dollar now, only to spend three later. -The Nipawin Journal

The Sask. Party has faded the Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) to black, dealing a final blow to the ailing film industry in the province, not to mention the loss of culture and local programming. The irony in all this is that it was Grant Devine's government which established SCN. The same government, by the way, which Brad Wall worked for (and apparently learned about budgeting). -The Nipawin Journal

Not so long ago, Saskatchewan P.C. Party leader and former cabinet minister Rick Swenson was at the Legislature to demand answers after it was revealed that the Sask. Party is moving to unilaterally appoint Saskatchewan's Chief Electoral Officer. Brad Wall thinks he can set a Sask. Party puppet in the province's highest election-regulating office, in a sad attempt to influence election rules - truly a shameful affront on democracy. -The Nipawin Journal

The Government of Saskatchewan has been shirking its responsibilities onto the backs of municipalities and individuals an awful lot recently, and Brad Wall's fiscal incompetence is starting to hit home. It is true that I have political differences with the Sask. Party, but their latest gaffes are crossing all party lines. -The Nipawin Journal

Lorne Scott said a closed-door meeting earlier this week with Environment Minister Nancy Heppner didn't alleviate all his concerns with proposed amendments to the Wildlife Habitat Protection Act (WHPA), which are exposed become law this month despite calls from the NDP to hold off on the legislation. -The StarPhoenix

University of Regina students will be paying more for school in the fall. The university released its 2010-11 budget Wednesday which saw a tuition increase of five per cent for most students. There will also be increases in fees for certain faculties, such as business administration. -Global News

Don McMorris, Saskatchewan's health minister, has apologized to members of the legislature over comments he made that led to his being accused of misleading the assembly. ...McMorris was in hot water over what he said about consultations with Saskatchewan's privacy commissioner about proposed legislation. However, the commissioner said he was only consulted three times, when the NDP were in government. -CBC News

In a statement issued Monday, privacy commissioner Gary Dickson listed a number of concerns he has about changes to health-privacy legislation allowing health regions to pass along personal information such as names and addresses without obtaining the "express or opt-in" consent of patients. One of Dickson's most serious concerns is that because his office has no jurisdiction to investigate complaints about hospital foundations, people have no recourse to complain. He also said people's confidence in the health regions could be put at risk if they have no say in the matter. -CBC News

McMorris was in hot water over what he said about consultations with Saskatchewan's privacy commissioner about proposed legislation. The government plans to allow patient names to be released to hospital fundraisers. When asked about the implications for privacy, McMorris said the privacy commissioner had been consulted four times on the changes. However, the commissioner said he was only consulted three times, when the NDP were in government. -CBC News

But even if one assumes that Draude misspoke, one is still left with the unnerving sense that the Sask. Party government views the Crowns as little more than cash cows, there to solve whatever financial mess executive government has created. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...the bad news is how the Saskatchewan Party government is now viewing the Crowns. And its edict to strip all Crown corporations (except SaskPower) of their 2010 profits will make it difficult to repeat the 2010 performances. To hear CIC Minister June Draude tell the legislature during Tuesday's question period that increasing the Crown corporation's debt-to-equity ratio will somehow add overall value to the Crowns leaves one nervously concerned this government doesn't get it. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"We are supposed to be offering our students an education equivalent to what Regina Public and Regina Separate students are receiving and this is not the case. We have faced constant delays from government and now we are at the breaking point. Our students are crammed in like sardines, creating health and safety issues. After missing deadline after deadline for the past 10 years, the provincial Ministry of Education has left us with no alternative but to seek a solution in court." -Roger Lepage, Legal Counsel for the French School Board, Global News

The Conseil des ecoles fransaskoises, of French School Board, announced that it has filed a statement of claim against the Ministry of Education. It claims the ministry failed to provide adequate facilities to Regina's Francophone students. The board claims its student population has grown 30 per cent over the last 10 years. -Global News

Last July's shutdown of the program started with the illness of one of three vascular surgeons who work on the surgical team. However, it now appears to have morphed into a battle between the government and the vascular surgeons over fees and workload. ...But if politicians are truly are an impasse, the heartfelt story of Simms (whose idea it was to have her dialysis performed at the legislature - not the NDP Opposition's) might move things forward. After all, nothing has quite the same impact on government as seeing the results and reality of a health-care horror story up close. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

There are few things one needs to know about Simms's story. Having to undergo this procedure every two hours, the frustrated 28-year-old woman desperately needs a kidney transplant so that she can get on with her life, including her plans to start a family with her husband. She even has a suitable and eager donor in her dad, Larry. However, standing in her way is the shutdown of the kidney transplant program - a program pioneered in Saskatchewan nearly a half-century ago. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...McMorris has been hammered by the Opposition in the past six months. Much of it has been over the standard fare of closing rural emergency services, postponing commitments to pay for rural nursing home construction and the Saskatoon's Children's Hospital, failing to get negotiated contract settlements and, of course, cutting subsidization of chiropractic visits in the March budget. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"The correctional centres that we have in Saskatchewan were designed to house probably no more than two-thirds, perhaps a half the number of inmates that we actually have there now," Fenwick told reporters Thursday, after his 2009 annual report was tabled in the legislature. Overcrowding means classrooms and gymnasiums are being turned into dormitories, he said. "What that means is there's nowhere left to provide programming which is what we need so those inmates come out of the correctional centres different than they went in." -The Leader-Post

A group of workers from Saskatchewan's potash industry came to the legislature Thursday to urge the government to tighten occupational health and safety practices to ensure safe workplaces for mine employees. More workplace inspections are taking place, but there needs to be more enforcement of violations, said Gord Bedient, spokesperson for the Saskatchewan Potash Council, which represents potash workers in various unions. "It almost seems that any time the inspectors are coming on site, they don't have the backing of anybody above them," Bedient said. "They do their routine work around the site and then it's write a little piece of paper, hand it over and that's just about the end of it." -The Leader-Post

"All things being equal, I think it could have some weight in the process that is going on in Ottawa. I think also the members of Parliament will look at it and say, 'well, if the people of Saskatchewan where Tommy Douglas was the premier, want that information' it will have weight. And that's why I want to get it passed." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The StarPhoenix

A provincial NDP motion calling on the federal government to release its security files on former Saskatchewan premier and federal NDP leader Tommy Douglas who is widely regarded as the founder of Canada's publicly funded health-care system, appears likely to pass - in modified form - with the support of the Saskatchewan Party government. -The StarPhoenix

The NDP also met with the widow of a miner who died in an underground accident in 2008. Sylvia Tkach's husband, Robert, was killed when the vehicle he was in drove over an unmarked ledge and rolled on top of him, pinning him. It was noted that the vehicle did not have any seatbelts. -CBC News

"Why are more workers dying in this province now, than before?" Lingenfelter, leader of the opposition, asked during question period Thursday. Lingenfelter noted that across the province there were 26 workplace deaths in all industries in 2009. He compared that number to 2007, when there were 21 workplace deaths. -CBC News

"Our industry has been stable for 17 years without any strikes or labour unrest and we want to keep it that way. Bill 80 will de-stabilize the construction industry in Saskatchewan and create two parallel systems to regulate the construction industry and will start to send money outside Saskatchewan." -Terry Parker, Spokesman for the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council, Discover Moose Jaw

Trades people lined High Street West in front of Moose Jaw North MLA Warren Michelson's office over the noon hour to demonstrate their opposition to Bill 80. Close to 50 trades workers turned out to voice their opinion of the bill that would allow more employer-friendly unions to be established in the province. ...they have sent letters to every Saskatchewan Party MLA this week asking for them to meet to work out an alternative. So far, they haven't heard back from any. -Discover Moose Jaw

The province's highest court heard arguments from the Saskatchewan Party and the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan on Thursday in a case about money and an alleged political conspiracy. ...According to court documents, the Progressive Conservatives allege that people in the Sask. Party - created in the 1990s when Liberal and Conservative MLAs joined forces - conspired to cripple the PCs before the 2007 provincial general election. In that November 2007 election, the Sask. Party won 38 seats and went on to form government, while the PCs failed to elect anyone. -CBC News

Conservationists say offering a bounty on animals inevitably leads to mass killings of the kind that resulted in the death of 37 coyotes whose carcasses were found in an Alberta park last week. ...More than 180,000 coyotes have been killed in Saskatchewan between November 2009, when the provincial government announced the bounty, and the last update in February. The program ended on March 31. -CBC News

Environment critic Sandra Morin said the NDP Opposition is concerned that land could be sold or removed from the habitat protection act with little public scrutiny. Under the proposed changes, regulations would designate which lands are protected rather than having those lands listed in the legislation, Morin said. Because regulations can be changed by the minister, protected lands could be removed from WHPA without debate in the legislature... -The Leader-Post

Proposed changes to Saskatchewan's Wildlife Habitat Protection Act (WHPA) clear the way for some parcels of land to be sold. ...But if the amendments proceed, the government will be able to sell off parcels of WHPA land deemed to have a "low" ecological value. -The Leader-Post

"We saw this overreaction and panic in 2008. If you can't manage the financial affairs of the province, it should be little surprise that you can't run the legislative affairs of the province either. It's unfortunate we have a government that wants to bully." -NDP House Leader and Regina Dewdney MLA Kevin Yates, The StarPhoenix

...Opposition house leader Kevin Yates said the NDP had facilitated the movement of several bills through the house already. He said the government is simply being "paranoid" because the NDP won't sign on to an unprecedented written agreement demanded by the Sask. Party that all bills will pass. This is the second time the Sask. Party has introduced extended hours, with the extra time lasting for about a week in 2008. -The StarPhoenix

The latest results suggest the NDP: Pulled into the lead in British Columbia; Gained on the Tories in the Prairies; Pulled ahead of the Tories in Quebec; Are virtually tied with the Liberals and Tories among female voters. ...In Manitoba-Saskatchewan, the Conservatives were down eight points to 39 per cent, followed by the NDP at 31 per cent, the Liberals at 16, and the Greens at 12. -The Canadian Press

The Harper Conservatives have sunk to their lowest level of support in a year, dipping below 30 per cent amid the furor over the Guergis-Jaffer scandal. ...The survey suggests Canadians are looking more favourably at the NDP as they become increasingly disenchanted with the two main political parties. The New Democrats rose three points to 20 per cent, a level of support the party hasn't enjoyed since shortly after the last election in October 2008. -Canadian Press

More than a dozen potash workers were at the provincial legislature in Regina Thursday to convey concerns they have about safety in mines. Saskatchewan has significant potash resources and a number of companies have mining operations throughout the province. The workers joined New Democratic Party Leader Dwain Lingenfelter in calling on the government to be more vigilant in enforcing safety rules. -CBC News

Out of scope positions at the Saskatoon Health Region are taking a cut. Vice-president of people strategies Bonnie Blakely says of the 650 out of scope positions at the health region, twenty will be abolished. That means about 700 thousand dollars in severances will be paid out...The cuts affect managers and directors primarily, but that doesn't mean in scope positions are off limits. -Saskatoon CJWW

Justin St. Louis, one of the last patients who received a transplant in Saskatoon before it was shut down, also took part in the NDP's news conference. He said sending patients to Edmonton made Saskatchewan comparable to someone who is always borrowing sugar from a neighbour. ...St. Louis noted he will likely need another transplant in 10 years because his donated kidney is not from a relative. -The StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan kidney transplant program was suspended last summer because of the illness of one of three vascular surgeons who serve as part of the surgical team. That physician returned to work in January but the government and the vascular surgeons have been unable to come to an agreement over fees and workload, meaning the program never restarted. -The StarPhoenix

A frustrated Sims, 28, said her life is on hold and her health is deteriorating even as the Sask. Party puts forward a "Patient First" credo for the health system. "I read what the government's health care thing is called and it says 'patients first' and I really laugh at that...maybe it means 'patience.' That we need 'patience,'" she said with a catheter hooked to her abdomen. -The StarPhoenix

In a dramatic first for the provincial legislature, a woman suffering from a rare kidney disease underwent dialysis in front of reporters Tuesday as she demanded the Saskatchewan Party government restore the kidney transplant program based in Saskatoon. In a news conference hosted by the NPD, Moose Jaw resident Stacey Simms said she wanted to show the process she had to undergo every two hours as she waits for a transplant. -The StarPhoenix

What's going on? Is the great Wall beginning to crumble? I guess that happens when you alienate 135,000 unionized workers in Saskatchewan. When a young Brad Wall was working as a ministerial assistant back in the Progressive Conservative days, he must have been too busy making fun of the culturally diverse farming community to notice that the Devine government had alienated unionized workers. It cost Devine the 1991 election. It seems Premier Brad Wall needs to learn that those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it. -Tim Lalonde, Asquith, The StarPhoenix

In 2006, a report was released that described the incredible health disparity within our inner city. For example, infant mortality rates in our core neighbourhoods were 448 per cent higher than the rest of Saskatoon. ...One of the proposed interventions was Station 20 West...Regrettably, there was no support for this project from the Health Ministry. It infuriated senior bureaucrats that the project would be community-based, not under government control. -Mark Lemstra, The StarPhoenix

Although around 40 transplants were being done in Saskatoon before the program was suspended, just 12 Saskatchewan patients have had their surgery done in Edmonton over the past seven months. While Health Minister Don McMorris talks in terms of having a new program up and running within three months, even that optimistic estimate would seem an eternity for the 106 people stuck on the wait list, with their lives in uncertainty and disarray. -The StarPhoenix

...To keep each patient on dialysis costs about $40,000 a year while the first year costs of a transplant are about $25,000. There should be every incentive in the world for budget-conscious politicians and bureaucrats to obtain the required transplants as soon as possible, without having people languish on dialysis for months or years. ...the health system's reluctance to negotiate seriously with vascular surgeons and get the program reinstated seems cold-hearted at best. -The StarPhoenix

The "Patient First" recommendation by its health care consultant Tony Dagnone apparently forgotten, the government is doing only now what it should have done months ago if its objective was to recruit transplant specialists whose skillset would replace urologists and vascular surgeons. That this direction was taken without apparent consultation with Dr. Ahmed Shoker, head of the transplant program, is so absurd as to defy comprehension. No wonder that he says he's "frustrated and losing hope." -The StarPhoenix

With 106 patients waiting on the transplant list, some of them too ill to travel outside Saskatchewan to have their transplant surgery performed in Edmonton, what's needed is some intelligent discussion on how Saskatchewan can reinstate its kidney transplant program quickly, not more political games. -The StarPhoenix

For a province that was the Canadian pioneer in establishing a kidney transplant program 47 years ago, it's disheartening to see the entire program put in jeopardy because of bureaucratic and government foot-dragging, and the failure to make a deal with a handful of surgeons. -The StarPhoenix

As Saskatoon continues to expand, more and more housing is needed. That includes affordable housing. -Newstalk CJME

When we already have the facilities and the instructors, we don't require any capital costs to continue this program. From its first inception, this program has been enthusiastically endorsed and never "under-enrolled", as stated by David Wells, SIAST vice-president academics. The applied photography program is a valuable part of our industry. Many of us will do our utmost to ensure that it is reinstated as soon as possible. -Larry Raynard, Regina, The Leader-Post

When I decided that photography would be my vocation, there were no options for training in this province and I was forced to go to Alberta. In that time period, many of my peers made the same journey. Who knows how many others never came back to Saskatchewan after going outside the province to get their education. It's ironic that our government is trying to bring people back to Saskatchewan and our educational institutions will be sending them away. -Larry Raynard, Regina, The Leader-Post

The April 17 story "SIAST cutting programs" has many photographers shaking their heads in bewilderment. To say that the applied photography program was not meeting the student demand or labour market demand is nonsense. I have been involved with this program for about 20 years, as an employer of graduates and on the industry-based program advisory committee. ...To say that this move is shortsighted would be an understatement. -Larry Raynard, Regina, The Leader-Post

"Every few months it seems they have a new set of targets, but they won't make any of these targets legally binding. Their so-called management and reduction of greenhouse gases act still doesn't contain targets of any kind." -NDP Environment critic Sandra Morin

The Sask. Party promised during the 2007 election campaign to stabilize emissions by 2010, and reduce them 32 per cent by the year 2020. After forming government, the party backed off that promise, instead pledging it would reduce greenhouse gas levels 20 per cent by 2020. The NDP's environment critic, Sandra Morin, was accusing the government this week of failing to follow through with even its scaled-down promises. -CBC News

An environmental group says Saskatchewan is now one of the worst jurisdictions in the world when it comes to greenhouse gases, and the problem is getting worse. About 74 tonnes of emissions per capita are pumped into the air each year, contributing to global warming and climate change...That works out to about 74 million tonnes of greenhouse gases for the province - most of it carbon dioxide. -CBC News

The Saskatchewan government is failing to respect The Elections Act's method of appointing the chief electoral officer. ...The government caucus vote subverts the legislation and violates the constitutional principle underlying the appointment scheme. It impairs an essential condition of democracy, one of Canada's most basic constitutional conditions identified by the Supreme Court of Canada in its Secession Reference decision. -John D. Whyte, Regina, The Leader-Post

"It's short-sighted to have that growth occur at the expense of other programs. There are cases where an argument can be made that perhaps a reduction in the program is all right, but 272 is a significant number. That's a lot of individuals. You also look at the 20-plus staff members, it's important to remember those are real people who are working and would be working in Saskatchewan communities." -NDP advanced education critic Cam Broten, The Leader-Post

NDP advanced education critic Cam Broten said while added seats for the trades are important, he laid blame for the cuts on the Saskatchewan Party government which he believes did not leave itself enough room to direct the required funds at SIAST. -The Leader-Post

SIAST is to cut or reduce 13 programs in September, resulting in the loss of 272 seats for students and 24 staff positions. David Walls, SIAST's senior vice-president academic, said the changes were made to accommodate growth elsewhere in the face of a lack of physical space and limited resources. -The Leader-Post

Electronic health records fulfill a valuable role and we do not doubt that the vast majority of health professionals will use them responsibly. However, more stringent safeguards are needed to protect us from what Dickson calls bureaucratic "carelessness" and the "curiosity" of employees. -The Leader-Post

Another concern for Dickson was the fact the pharmacist was able to access the PIP database from his home computer. He says any remote viewing must be subject to "physical, administrative and technical safeguards". The incident only came to light when the victim requested a printout of PIP users who had viewed his file and complained. -The Leader-Post

(Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner Gary) Dickson found alarming breaches of privacy rules and guidelines by the pharmacist and his employer, saying the case showed "how relatively easy it can be for a health professional to slip past or ignore the 'safeguards' currently in place." One of those safeguards turns out to be "optional" - providing a valid reason for viewing a patient's record. -The Leader-Post

Shocking isn't too strong a word to describe the actions of a pharmacist who improperly accessed the electronic drug records of former patient and friend and two members of the individual's family out of "personal interest." At a time when Saskatchewan is building an electronic health record (EHR) containing the medical files of every man, woman and child, the incident sends a worrying signal about the potential problems that might lie ahead when thousands of health sector employees can "log on and look." -The Leader-Post

An official with the Saskatoon Health Region says money is a key reason why kidney transplants are not being performed in Saskatchewan. ...The vice-president of medical affairs for the Saskatoon Health Region says their own surgeons decided they could no longer perform kidney transplants because of heavy workloads performing other surgeries and because they want a new fee arrangement. -CBC News

"This investigation demonstrates how relatively easy it can be for a health professional to slip past or ignore the 'safeguards' currently in place," he said in the report. "It is clear to me that a good deal more attention needs to be paid to the carelessness of trustee organizations and the curiosity of health workers who know how to obtain the personal health information of patients without the patients' consent." -Gary Dickson, Saskatchewan Privacy Commissioner, CBC News

Dickson said the details of the case raise general concerns about the way people in the health care field use confidential medical information. ...Dickson said there specifically needs to be a review of how Saskatchewan trains, approves and monitors health care workers and their use of personal health information. He also said there should be tighter restrictions on when and where pharmacists and other health care workers can log on to computers to access such information. -CBC News

The pharmacist and the former patient had once been friends and had worked on a "business arrangement" together, but there had been a falling out. ...After that, the pharmacist looked up pharmaceutical information about the three people a total of nine times, for personal reasons...He used different computers to do this including his home computer. The former customer found out about it and launched a complaint. -CBC News

On Wednesday, information and privacy commissioner Gary Dickson released a report into the 2009 incident, which involved a pharmacist at L & M Pharmacy in the east-central part of the province. Dickson, who did not name the people involved or say what community it happened in, said the pharmacist looked up information about what prescription drugs had been used by a former customer and two members of the customer's family. -CBC News

Saskatchewan's privacy commissioner is calling for tighter rules after a pharmacist was caught improperly looking up drug information about a former patient. ...Dickson said the pharmacist, who worked in the Sunrise Health Region in 2009, breached the Health Information Protection Act in a number of ways. -CBC News

I am 56 years old and have worked as a carpenter for most of my adult life. ...I am concerned about the introduction of Bill 80 and the effect it will have on Saskatchewan workers. The management-controlled, straw man entity of a CLAC union is clearly one-sided and is no representation at all. Never in my life have I been made to feel "under the whip" as I was on a CLAC site. I also have serious concerns about worker safety after what I have witnessed on a CLAC site. ...I hope that Saskatchewan workers are not being sacrificed to promote big business goals. -Neil Johnson, Milden

Chopping the Dutch elm program is a curious "economy" since it will save the province only $500,000 a year, but could cost municipalities a whole lot more in the long run. ...there were surely other items that could have been cut with far less impact. We can suggest one: The government spent more than $12 million in 2008-09 on "communications". Cutting that spending by just four per cent would save the Dutch elm disease program - a far more valuable function, we suggest. -The Leader-Post

Thousands of trees in Regina and other communities are at increased risk because the government decided to kill its Dutch elm disease program. ...With no crews spraying to keep beetle populations down or removing infected trees, forestry officials in Regina, Saskatoon and other communities fear Dutch elm disease will sweep rural areas and invade cities and towns. -The Leader-Post

How does McMorris know that private clinic costs will be equal or less than the public? The private sector doesn't have to make its balance sheets public. If McMorris goes ahead, taxpayer money will be absorbed into these private businesses. And how come the private clinics have capacity? Seems odd that they are sitting around waiting for customers. Why do these private clinics even exist, if not for profit? -Jacquie Christenson, The StarPhoenix

The NDP opposition argued during question period that the full program should be reinstated, saying it was an effective use of funds. "(The cut) speaks to the fact there wasn't consultations done with the experts in the field prior to the announcement in the budget. That $500,000 was keeping at bay the whole issue of Dutch elm disease from spreading." -NDP environment critic Sandra Morin, The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan government's plan to allow the names and addresses of former hospital patients to be used for fundraising is being called ill-advised by the NDP. The new rules, which come into effect in May, give hospital foundations access to the information so they can target former patients for donations. -Canadian Press

Privatization of SaskPower's power generation role by having new power generation facilities privately built and owned. Examples: SaskPower's recent 25-year "P3" agreement to buy power from Northland Power, which will build and own the power plant... the privatization of the Crowns is a harmful legacy that will last long after Wall is gone. He hasn't come clean about his privatization agenda. -Don Gunderson, The Leader-Post

Remember Premier Brad Wall's promise not to privatize the crowns? Well, he's doing it, slowly but surely: Massive firings of well qualified and productive senior civil servants and Crown corporations leaders suspected of not sharing the Wall government's ideology (read the privatization of the Crowns). -Don Gunderson, The Leader-Post

NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter said the government should withdraw the proposed change given privacy concerns voiced by some residents as well as the province's information and privacy commissioner. -The Leader-Post

"The idea that you give out names and addresses of people who have just used the health system, I think, is very inappropriate because it could be compared to a tax on the people who have just used the system or play into a feeling of guilt where people find they, even though they can't afford it, will push money in." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Leader-Post

Saskatchewan's Health Minister Don McMorris is defending a decision to allow health foundations access to the names and addresses of former hospital patients for fundraising drives amidst calls from the NDP Opposition to scrap the idea. While acknowledging the pending change has stirred controversy, McMorris said he doesn't have a problem with local hospital foundations sending letters to past patients soliciting funds. -The Leader-Post

Moose Jaw Wakamow NDP MLA Deb Higgins said there are aspects of the budget that concern her greatly and about which she is still trying to find out more information. For example, part of the savings from the budget includes substantial funding elimination for three neighbourhood development organizations, one of which Higgins said is possibly located in Moose Jaw. Also, she said the budget calls for $1.5 million in savings from Valley View Centre and Moose Javians should have questions and concerns about how such reductions are expected to impact the facility. -Moose Jaw Times Herald

Despite Gantefoer's insistence the budget is balanced, Lingenfelter said the deficit would actually be $622 million if the summary accounts were considered. These accounts cover all of government, including Crown corporations, and not just the line departments. Lingenfelter was also critical of Saskatchewan's debt levels, saying the summary statement of debt shows an increase from $7.9 billion in 2009 to $8.4 billion this year. -CBC News

Saskatchewan handed out nearly 100 pink slips on Wednesday as the government unveiled a slimmed-down budget and plans for a major reduction in the civil service. Over the next four years, the province wants to cut 1,800 positions from its current payroll of 12,000, Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer announced. -CBC News

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl says he is not ready to restore federal funding to the embattled First Nations University of Canada. Some $7 million in federal grants to the Regina-based school are set to end April 1. In February, the federal government - following on the heels of Saskatchewan - announced it was pulling FNUC's grants because of concerns about how the university was run. -CBC News

The bold headline, Private surgical care eyed (SP, March 30), shows that health care is still a top of mind issue. I take issue with Health Minister Don McMorris saying that people don't care how delivery is done. Of course he says no one will pay out of pocket. That would be too obvious. So, to get around people's objections, McMorris will silently channel public dollars into private clinics to do what the public clinics can do more efficiently, cheaply and with better outcomes. Does the minister think the public is stupid? -Jacquie Christenson, The StarPhoenix

"Today the debt-to-equity ratio is sound and we should make all attempts to try and keep it at the range it is today. All I read from this is that we have a government that is going to force an increase to the debt-to-equity ratio and pass on that debt to the people of the province." -NDP SaskTel critic Kevin Yates, The StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan Party's choice to take 100 per cent of the company's profits this year as a dividend will require SaskTel to borrow about $10 to $15 million, while a planned $35-million payment from the government's general revenue fund to help pay for the completion of rural high-speed internet service has been deferred and may perhaps never be paid. SaskTel's debt-to-equity ratio will increase from about 25 per cent to 36... -The StarPhoenix

With the adjudicative tribunals' institutional bias now not only structurally explicit, but, in the case at least of the Labour Relations Board, also officially proclaimed, how will the courts justify showing deference of any degree to their decisions? How could it be compatible with the courts' constitutional role to defer to decisions that, in justice terms, are implicitly invalidated by a reasonably apprehended bias? -Ronald Ellis, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Lawyers Weekly

It's official. Saskatchewan's adjudicative tribunals are biased. In its decision in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan Government...the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal confirms the Saskatchewan government's success in destroying the impartiality, not only of its Labour Relations Board, but of all of its other adjudicative tribunals. -Ronald Ellis, Professor, Osgoode Hall Law School, Lawyers Weekly

Cam Broten, NDP advanced education critic, said "the cost of the Sask. Party's financial mismanagement is being passed on to students" through tuition hikes. He said it doesn't matter that lending rates are better if students have to take on more debt. "The changes allow individuals to take on more debt - that doesn't change the fact they're taking on more debt to pursue their education." -The StarPhoenix

Property owners in the city of Swift Current and other municipalities may see tax increases. Business had been carried out throughout the year expecting the full one per cent..."Finding out it is not going to happen is creating a challenge, so obviously we are probably looking at a tax increase in Swift Current," said Swift Current Mayor Jerrod Schafer. -The Prairie Post

"This is non-binding and certainly I don't think this is some of the best work from the ILO." It's a pithy response from the province's Labour Minister today. Rob Norris says recommendations about Saskatchewan's essential services laws made by a United Nations body will not force a change in the legislation. -Newstalk CKOM

"There's no doubt that the loss of our SCN broadcast will affect our ability to cover the entire southwest. The real loser here is rural Saskatchewan...because they will now lose their ability to communicate with the rest of the province." -George Tsougrianis, Southwest TV, Canadian Press

"They have told the Brad Wall government that these laws clearly violate international law. It vindicates the position we've been advocating. We expect the government will comply with the recommendations and request of the ILO." -Larry Hubich, President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, The Leader-Post

How about a week's suspension with a corresponding dockage in pay? Might that cause MLAs to better reflect on what they say or do? Or how about Wall, at least privately, telling LeClerc that he won't sign his nomination papers if he doesn't get his act together? Isn't that what would likely happen in most Saskatchewan workplaces? -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

At worst, LeClerc might be asked to apologize. More likely, the recently renominated Sask. Party MLA has already been privately applauded for his idiotic behaviour by colleagues and supporters. A public reprimand from LeClerc's boss, Premier Brad Wall? Don't hold your breath. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The issue here isn't so much the elevated middle finger or even a single MLA with anger management issues. The problem is that - at least on a subconscious level - such bad behaviour at the legislature isn't being discouraged. If anything, it is encouraged. ...Strictly based on what he admitted to saying, LeClerc would be severely reprimanded or possibly even fired in most any other workplace. If it were high school, he'd certainly be kicked out. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Now, Serge. Use words when you're angry. Not your finger. Besides, you guys are going to need all the fingers you have just to count the deficit Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer is running up. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

On a "core" basis, which does not include crown corporations and other arms length divisions, the budget has a $174 million hole. That hole will be plugged by pulling massive 'dividends' out of the province's crowns and by using a $194 million withdrawal from the province's rainy day fund. However, if you include all those arms length divisions and crown corporations, we're looking at a $622 million deficit. -Colin Craig, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Clark's Crossing Gazette

In terms of the budget's downside, critics have rightly pointed out the budget is not balanced. Yes, despite what the government has been using our tax dollars to communicate to us, to budget is in fact a deficit, not matter how you cut it. -Colin Craig, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Clark's Crossing Gazette

The elm program that cost the treasury some $500,000 a year was seen as critical in controlling a disease that could cost millions if allowed to spread out of control. ...Defending the cuts, Environment Minister Nancy Heppner told the legislature "tough decisions" had to be made during the budget process. ...But to nickel and dime programs such as the one to control Dutch elm disease or such proven enterprises as Quint or the Health Quality Council, shows neither foresight nor courage. -The StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan Party government's decision to slash a provincial program to control the spread of Dutch elm disease is another example that it didn't make the hard decisions in trimming the budget. It made short-sighted decisions that ultimately could prove very costly. -The StarPhoenix

The SFL (and 30 unions and locals including SGEU) has filed a Charter of Rights challenge on the Essential Services legislation and the pre-trial is now before the Court of Queen's bench. And while some many see court action as a long shot, labour's case may have received a boost last week when the International Labour Organization (ILO), a UN agency, ruled that Bills 5 and 6 violate Saskatchewan workers' international labour and human rights. ...Labour peace? Not likely. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Notwithstanding the relatively peaceful SGEU settlement and generous nurses' settlement, labour has been in an endless series of skirmishes with the Sask. Party administration over the Trade Union Act, Essential Services legislation, the Labour Relations Board, Bill 80 - that severely shifts the balance of power in the construction industry's favour - and the current health-care contract negotiations. So far, the Sask. Party has won virtually every one of these skirmishes because the unions have been forced to fight them on the Sask. Party's turf. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Lest anyone think the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union's quick ratification of its contract offer from the Saskatchewan Party government is a sign of detente on the labour front, think again. SGEU's decision to settle for annual percentage increases of 1.5, 2 and 2 should really be seen by the government as nothing more than a temporary retreat. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

When is a deal not a deal? When you make it with the government. ...In the budget, the Wall government reneged on the deal, offering limited chiropractic assistance to people with low incomes. ...The decision has destroyed the credibility of people negotiating on behalf of the government. The budget decision screams "bad faith." -Rob Brown, The Western Producer

"This is not a balanced budget because they are taking money out of the rainy day fund, so they are really running a deficit budget. They are robbing Peter to pay Paul. It seems they are spending more than they are bringing in. Where will we be at this time next year?" -Terry Parker, Business Manager, Saskatchewan Building and Trades Council, Daily Commercial News and Construction Record

...since it took office the Saskatchewan Party government has eliminated funding for such developments as Station 20 West and cut the budget of Quint Development - agencies that served as investments to reduce the long-term cost of managing social problems. -The StarPhoenix

This leads to a second issue - the appropriateness of what many perceive to be guilt-based solicitation. That the government has already determined that "vulnerable patients" - children and people in long-term care - shouldn't have their contact information shared stands as an admission that this solicitation practice is not appropriate in all circumstances. But if isn't appropriate for those in long-term care, why is it appropriate for a fixed-income, 78-year-old woman in hospital to receive hip replacement surgery? -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...the primary privacy concern that the release of the name and address does indeed disclose even a small piece of someone's private medical life. Fairly or unfairly, this raises a plethora of other issues, including the security of this electronic information forwarded to a private entity, and whether the information remains secure or could be sold to other charities. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Realistically, this simply could be a well-meaning but ill-considered policy - something that's becoming increasingly common for a government that doesn't always explore issues to their logical conclusion. ...What the government clearly didn't anticipate, however, is the slow-boil nature of an issue like this in which people - on the right and left - seem to be getting madder and madder the more they think of it. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Either the Saskatchewan Party government believes in health-care privacy or it doesn't. But maybe there's another issue. Maybe we have a government that first needs to better define its responsibility when it comes to the funding of public health care...or whether it now believes this is the responsibility of charitable foundations. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

After the budget, Duncan said that SCN was being axed because the network had low ratings - about four per cent of Saskatchewan viewers. He's directly contradicted by a report in SCN's most recent annual report (for 2009) which states it was attracting 18 per cent of Saskatchewan viewers. -The Prairie Dog

Whoever called the shots on SCN's closure was making decisions with little knowledge of how SCN and its broadcasting licence worked - which means either Dustin Duncan doesn't know what he's doing or he can't stop people above him from screwing around with his department. -The Prairie Dog

"Seven million dollars in investment in Saskatchewan television and film production netted more than $17 million out-of-province investment flowing into the Saskatchewan economy. If that wasn't where culture, community and commerce were meeting, then where was it?" -NDP tourism, parks, culture and sports critic Danielle Chartier, The Prairie Dog

What has really galled Saskatchewan's film and video industry has been the near-total ineptness of the plan by the minister responsible, Dustin Duncan. After the election, SCN's board was reorganized where the deputy minister of tourism, parks, culture and recreation was a given a seat, in direct violation of SCN's broadcast license (which forbids direct government involvement in the network's board). As well, immediately after the budget, government officials mused about the money they could make if SCN's license was sold - another no-no. -The Prairie Dog

About 20 Saskatchewan Communications Network employees walked out of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation building for probably the last time on March 31. ...The amount of money that the government expects to save by closing SCN - about $2.5 million this fiscal year and $5 million the next - is less than what the Saskatchewan government spent to run a hospitality tent at the Vancouver Winter Olympics for two weeks ($7 million). -The Prairie Dog

Since the resource boom began in 2006, Regina and Saskatoon have some of Canada's lowest vacancy rates and highest rents. Yet, says University of Regina education professor Mark Spooner, the provincial government doesn't have a coherent affordable housing strategy. ...the provincial government's apparent disinterest in affordable rental housing displays, in his opinion, a callous disregard to the situation the working poor are facing. -The Prairie Dog

Education critic Cam Broten argues the Saskatchewan government may be transferring the debt of post-secondary education from the province to the student. ..."The changes allow individuals to take on more debt. That doesn't change the fact they're taking on more debt to pursue their education," -The Prairie Dog

The province has loosened the rules for obtaining student loans for those who are eligible. Full-time students can earn as much as possible without affecting the amount of money they can get through their student loan. Repayable loans' interest rates will be cut to prime. ...The end result is that if they don't have enough dough before going to university, students are putting themselves at pretty big financial risk for their post-secondary education. The U of S has already announced that it will increase tuition next year by about five per cent. -The Prairie Dog

The Sask. Party's nickel-and-diming philosophy towards operational spending - cutting SCN for little saving, axing chiropractic patients' coverage, again for little saving, announcing a plan to lay off 1,500 civil servants through attrition without also staging a fundamental review of what the government expects governments to do - all seems to add up to a government that, not even two and a half years into its mandate, has run out of ideas. -The Prairie Dog

Take Gantefoer's statement that the budget is balanced. In reality, the Saskatchewan government will spend $10.12 billion while generating $9.9 billion in revenue. Any time a government spends more than it takes in, you get a deficit, right? So, despite all the advertisements the Saskatchewan government pays for claiming that the provincial budget is balanced, it isn't balanced at all. -The Prairie Dog

"I think they need a plan for long-term tuition management and that involves more moderate tuition increases rather than the one we saw this year, which is unsustainable. If it was five per cent every year, that would be a 25 per cent increase in five years." -Chris Stoicheff, President of University of Saskatchewan Student's Union, The Sheaf

Students can expect a tuition increase of about five per cent in the coming year...the increase is three per cent higher than was recommended by the Saskatchewan Students' Coalition, created by University of Saskatchewan Students' Union president-elect Chris Stoicheff. Stoicheff had the support of the NDP opposition in pushing for an increase of two per cent, or one that is pegged to inflation. He accused the U of S and the Sask Party government of short-sightedness in tuition management. -The Sheaf

"We can't trust the numbers in the document and we can't trust the government that's bringing it to us because of what's happened last year. Yet the premier and the finance stand up and say with a straight face that this is a balanced budget. I think honesty is what the public wants." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Sheaf

It's despicable that seriously ill people could be made to feel guilty for availing themselves of the hospital care to which everyone contributes through their taxes, with a request to donate to a hospital foundation arriving at one's door 60 days after their discharge. This is a seriously flawed measure the government should scrap before it goes into effect next month. -The StarPhoenix

With a government that has insisted it doesn't want to pick "winners and losers" in the marketplace... It's hardly comforting that posters and brochures at the hospital will inform people that their personal information will be shared routinely, unless they say no, especially when they are left wondering if opting out might translate into an earlier discharge. -The StarPhoenix

Commissioner Gary Dickson is absolutely correct when he notes that the decision will undermine public confidence... What has him concerned - and what should trouble us all - is the government bowing to the health foundations' pressure to adopt "implied consent" as the norm in disclosing patients' personal information to fundraisers. -The StarPhoenix

Despite assurances that only the names and addresses of those who've been hospitalized will be released to fundraisers, but not the actual medical information about patients, the move undermines citizens' privacy rights and raises questions about the potential future uses of the electronic health records the government is developing. -The StarPhoenix

The provincial government must put a quick stop to its ill-advised decision to make it easy for health foundations to put the squeeze on discharged hospital patients for donations. ...the government enacted the measure without any consultations with the public or even seeking guidance from the provincial privacy commissioner, whose watchdog function it already is hampering by depriving his office of adequate resources. -The StarPhoenix

The City of Regina estimates there are 60,000 elms in the province's capital. About 40,000 of them are owned and maintained by the city. While Regina has its own program to combat Dutch elm disease, city officials said the end of the provincial program will hurt their efforts. -CBC News

The provincial government's decision to end a program aimed at controlling the spread of Dutch elm disease is raising more concerns about the fate of Saskatchewan's urban forests. The program cut, which will save an estimated $500,000 per year, was part of the provincial budget unveiled March 24. The move drew criticism from people engaged in a a campaign to protect stately trees from the fungal infection. -CBC News

The closing of the Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) by the Brad Wall government is a terrible mistake. SCN, Saskatchewan's educational broadcaster, creates great programs which help the people of Saskatchewan better appreciate each other and our common history. -Robin Schlaht, The Leader-Post

"I've had better days. Let me put it this way, by all accounts this a very tough budget for us. Next year is going to be very difficult. ...It's hard to say at this point as to where we are going to find the savings. Of course we will try not to affect patients and services as much as possible, but when you are looking at the magnitude of the funding shortfall, at this point I cannot even speculate as to how we are even going to deal with it." -David Fan, CEO of Prairie North Health Region, Lloydminster Source

Dutch elm disease is a fungus spread by elm bark beetles which kills trees. The provincial program was eliminated in the Saskatchewan Party government's March 24 provincial budget, saving the province about $500,000. ...losing the program is of particular concern in southern Saskatchewan cities, such as Moose Jaw and Regina, where there are natural strands of American Elms and the trees were planted extensively as shelter belts on farms immediately adjacent to the communities. -The StarPhoenix

"We're going to see it moving faster and as a result that may end up with Dutch elm disease winding up in Saskatoon. Collectively we're disappointed in the direction the province has chosen to go with this because I don't think they see the bigger picture implications." -Geoff McLeod, Saskatoon Superintendant of Urban Forestry, The StarPhoenix

Saskatoon has never had a case of Dutch elm disease but the provincial government's "shortsighted" decision to axe its Dutch elm disease program could hasten its spread into the city, says Saskatoon's superintendant of urban forestry. Geoff McLeod said the city will lost about $22,500 in provincial funding from the cost-share program which it has used for monitoring and surveillance of the disease. -The StarPhoenix

Saskatchewan labour leaders are criticizing the provincial government for cancelling dozens of partnership agreements they say bolstered aboriginal employment. Dozens of Aboriginal Employment Development agreements were forged over the last several years between employers, unions and the Ministry of First Nations and Metis Relations. But the documents were rendered invalid due to the decision in the recent provincial budget to cut the $786,000 development program. -The Leader-Post

"This is a budget that can't be trusted, presented by a government that can't be trusted to be open, honest, and accountable about the way it handles our public money." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, Clark's Crossing Gazette

"The deficit projected in the 2010-11 provincial budget is nothing more than the consequences of the Wall government's fiscal mismanagement being heaped onto the backs of Saskatchewan families. With program, service and personnel cuts in healthcare and across the board. Deficit budgets have become a hallmark of the Wall government and it appears that the Premier was right, you can't actually stop at just one." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, Clark's Crossing Gazette

The next ministries on the list of biggest cuts are environment with $25.7 million less and tourism, parks, culture and sport that lost $20.5 million. Both are at the heart of the quality of rural life. ...This just wasn't a good budget for rural Saskatchewan. -Murray Mandryk, Clark's Crossing Gazette

But consider for a moment those departments that are most specifically related to rural Saskatchewan. Agriculture? Yep. It suffered the single-biggest cut to its budget of $97.2 million. ...What would be next? Highways, you say? Well, it suffered the third biggest cut among government departments of $33.7 million behind agriculture and education that lost $62.2 million. -Murray Mandryk, Clark's Crossing Gazette

But for however much city dwellers might grumble over Gantefoer's efforts to make up for potash shortfalls (the predicted $1.9 billion in potash revenues a year ago has fallen to a paltry $221 million in this budget), it's rural folks that clearly have the most to grumble about. -Murray Mandryk, Clark's Crossing Gazette

We'll all suffer the reality that this is a deficit budget. Forget the government's spin that it's "balanced"...We will take in $9.95 billion. We will spend $10.1 billion. That's called a deficit. -Murray Mandryk, Clark's Crossing Gazette

It might be an interesting time for Saskatchewan Party's 28 rural MLAs when they go back to their constituencies this week for the Easter break. Their pleasant holiday away from the legislature may require a bit of explaining as to why rural Saskatchewan fared so badly in Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer's 2010-11 provincial budget presented on Wednesday. -Murray Mandryk, Clark's Crossing Gazette

"I don't believe that Rod Gantefoer just makes up these kind of stories, I think it's actively being considered and my bet is it's one way they're looking at solving the deficit problem after the next election." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Leader-Post

The Opposition NDP said the government's unequivocal rejection of health-care user fees on Thursday is in contrast to comments attributed to Gantefoer in a North Battleford newspaper article, which quotes the minister saying such fees do have a role to play. -The Leader-Post

While it's not unusual for ministers on their feet in the legislature to glance down at speaking notes, First Nations and Metis Relations Minister Bill Hutchinson took things to a whole new level of recitation in question period on Tuesday. ...Hutchinson held up a piece of paper and appeared to read fully written-out statements in response to four questions. That didn't impress the NDP, with Saskatoon Massey Place MLA Cam Broten describing Hutchinson as the new "reigning champ" in the contest for "weakest minister." -James Wood, The StarPhoenix

Some people will doubtless feel guilty over telling a nurse or admissions officer they want to their name removed from the list. ...The pressure should be taken off patients; the optics of this plan are that donations are not so much being encouraged as coerced. -The Leader-Post

The government makes the point that health authorities could contact former patients for donations prior to health information regulations in 2005, but it's disturbing that it chose to amend the legislation without public consultation. -The Leader-Post

Beyond the consent issue, the government says only "limited contact information" will be used by "health regions, their affiliated organizations and fundraising health foundations". It sounds reassuring, but the fact someone has required hospital treatment - no matter how minor - will make some patients leery about that information being shared. There have been too many examples of personal information ending up in the wrong hands for anyone to be absolutely confident a breach won't occur. -The Leader-Post

...the Saskatchewan Party government recently amended its Health Information Protection Regulations to allow former hospital patients to be solicited for donations, a move that causes us more than a little unease. We are not opposed to the idea in principal, but the government has made a serious error in putting the onus on patients to opt out of the donor contact list, verbally or in writing. -The Leader-Post

NDP health critic Judy Junor said she is troubled the change was put in place without any public debate about whether patients' personal information should be shared. "I am really not only angry but totally shocked that this would be something that someone would think is acceptable. I think it should be stopped immediately and never resurrect its ugly head again." -NDP health critic Judy Junor, The Leader-Post

"I think it's a bad idea. I think what it does is it serves to undermine public confidence as we're building this very ambitious electronic health record. On the one hand, we're telling people 'don't worry about the protection of your personal information'...but what happens is we see for no more compelling reason than just the convenience of health foundations that information will now be shared on a routine basis." -Gary Dickson, Saskatchewan Privacy Commissioner, The Leader-Post

...Gary Dickson, Saskatchewan's information and privacy commissioner, said the onus shouldn't be on patients to "opt out" if they don't want their personal information given to a health foundation. With the exception of children, people in long-term care and other categories of patients deemed "vulnerable", an individual's contact information will be shared unless the person tells the health region that he or she doesn't want to be included. -The Leader-Post

Local health foundations will soon be able to contact former hospital patients for fundraising purposes. A recent amendment to health privacy regulations, slated to take effect in May, will allow the names and addresses of people who received hospital services to be shared with the hospital foundation in that health region. ...While the Saskatchewan Party government said it will be easier for publicly funded health facilities to identify people who might be motivated to donate, the province's privacy watchdog called the move inappropriate. -The Leader-Post

"Health Minister Don McMorris says his government consulted with the health regions and hospital administrators before coming to the decision that it was somehow conscionable to release patients' personal contact information to health organizations for fundraising," said NDP health critic Judy Junor in a press release. "Yet the most important people who should have been consulted - the patients, the public - were left in the dark." -NDP health critic Judy Junor, CBC News

"Information that's provided so we can be diagnosed and treated shouldn't be shared with any third party without the consent of the patient. This obviously violates that. If I provide information to Regina Qu'Appelle health region for treatment I wouldn't expect that to be shared with a fundraising body that has nothing to do with treating or diagnosing me." -Gary Dickson, Saskatchewan Privacy Commissioner, CBC News

The Saskatchewan government's decision to amend privacy rules that will allow the names and addresses of hospital patients to be used for fundraising is receiving opposition from the province's privacy commissioner and the NDP. ...Gary Dickson, Saskatchewan's privacy commissioner, said the government should not be putting convenience for fundraisers above the privacy of patients. -CBC News

"The person who should be reminding the premier that a majority government is not a dictatorship, the attorney-general of the province of Saskatchewan, rose up in the legislature today and unilaterally changed the rules of the legislative assembly in how we choose legislative officers." -NDP Justice critic Frank Quennell, The StarPhoenix

Saskatchewan Party Justice Minister Don Morgan suprised the legislative assembly Tuesday by announcing in question period he had asked for a retired judge to be brought in to assist in the hiring of a new chief electoral officer. But the Opposition NDP immediately said it would not co-operate with what it called "subversion of rules and conventions that have worked." The NDP this week accused the Sask. Party of political interference in the appointment of the chief electoral officer after the government caucus rejected the recommendation ofa bipartisan committee. -The StarPhoenix

But if there are fewer things likely to go wrong on the revenue side, there's no guarantee that there will be less going wrong on the spending side in today's budget. ...Cuts to chiropractic care? Cuts to civil service jobs? Cuts to operating capital spending needed replacements for rural nursing homes? There's ample opportunity for mistakes. In fact, there are still a couple of billion things that could possibly go wrong today. And most of them are on the spending side. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

There's a couple of billion things that can go wrong with any provincial budget. Or, as we found out in last year's budget, sometimes a single thing going wrong in the budget can cost taxpayers about two billion dollars. ...Good budgeters would know not to gamble one-fifth of the budget's spending on a single resource that hadn't previously reached the predicted level of revenue. Good budgeters know there are couple of billion other things that can go wrong with government revenue and that they simply can't afford to make a single mistake of this magnitude. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The hubris from this new right-wing government that seemed to believe it instinctively understood budgeting better than its left-wing predecessor was magnified by the easy ride Premier Brad Wall was given by exploding resource revenues. High oil and gas prices, Crown land sales and, of course, potash prices fed the Sask. Party's confounding notion that resource revenue always increases. This was obviously not good budgeting. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Budgets always require finding more cost-effective approaches, but if the goal is to provide the best learning environment for our children then the addition of supports is more effective than subtraction of supports. I would prefer to spend my tax dollars on teaching our children to the highest level than the cheapest. -Rip Smith, Regina, The Leader-Post

We have experienced both assisted programs and now full inclusion. We chose full inclusion this year for our son, who has severe autism, because we felt it would be best for him and would lead him to a Grade 12 education and on to college. ...Even when I compare the time a "typcial" child receives from a teacher in a full class I cannot possibly see how they would function to the benefit of our children without classroom support. -Rip Smith, Regina, The Leader-Post

During the past month I have read, heard and researched much about the new approach to our schools regarding education assistants (EAs) and support teams. ...A team approach works, but you need a trained EA on site to implement the program because the classroom teacher, though provided with strategies, does not have the time to focus on children on a 1:1 basis. -Rip Smith, Regina, The Leader-Post

I hope that all parents with children in the separate school system will contact Krawetz and demand that these inexcusable mistakes be remedied. Our children can't wait for a full year for Brad Wall's government to fix this mess! -David Wood, Regina, The Leader-Post

As a disabled parent, surviving on a pension, I can't afford an increase in busing and other fees coming on top of all the other increases that have happened recently. Nor can my daughters afford to attend a school that may have to cut staff and programs to make up for this budget boneheadedness. To add insult to injury, I was also informed that the committee that Krawetz formed to find a new way to fund the school divisions has no one on it to represent the Catholic school boards. -David Wood, Regina, The Leader-Post

As the father of two young children, I was quite disgusted to learn of the enormous funding inequality that exists between the public and separate school divisions in Saskatchewan. While I was at a recent parent-teacher meeting at St. Pius School, I was informed of a $2.6-million disparity in Regina alone. This means that Education Minister Ken Krawetz has allocated almost $300 less for every separate student in the city. -David Wood, Regina, The Leader-Post

NDP Social Services critic David Forbes said persistent pressure on renters due to record low vacancy rates in some communities with ongoing rent increases has put some people in impossible situations. "Renters came here today looking for one answer: Will this government introduce some form of rent control? Yes or no," said Forbes, who raised the cases of a handful of specific renters during question period at the legislature. -The Leader-Post

Premier Brad Wall, for instance, skipped the hot seat of question period on Wednesday and Thursday for the friendlier confines of a chamber of commerce-sponsored luncheon and good-news school funding announcement. -James Wood, The Legislative Notebook, The Leader-Post

As the Vancouver Sun said in a recent editorial, Mr. Douglas is a Canadian hero. His history no longer belongs to CSIS, Library and Archives Canada or even the government. It belongs to the people...It shouldn't take a court case to make this clear. It's time governments tell these agencies just that. -The StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan Party government - indeed even the federal government - would be well advised to get behind the movement to free the Tommy Douglas dossier. CSIS and Library and Archives Canada have gone to extreme measures for years to block access to hundreds of pages of the secret file the RCMP amassed on the former Saskatchewan premier. What Archives Canada and the Canadian Security Intelligence Services don't seem to realize, this information belongs to Canada's history - no to their whims. -The StarPhoenix

Brad Wall's government must support this initiative unanimously. Those Saskatchewan citizens who followed Douglas and his thinking have the absolute right to study their former leader's past political life. The rest of us also have the absolute right to examine the history of this man, Tommy Douglas. -Stew Fettes, Regina, The Leader-Post

The provincial government's finances are no longer in the pink - which is why some Regina property taxpayers are seeing red over the biggest municipal mill-rate increase in a decade. If the province had delivered a promised $8.4-million in additional funding to the city this spring, Reginnans would not be facing the 4.5% hike announced on Friday. -The Leader-Post

"Push has come to shove. Right now the chiefs of Saskatchewan have said, 'Enough is enough. Let's get together and counterattack the aggression, the attack on on our treaty rights by this provincial government." -Morley Watson, Vice-Chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, CBC News

"So I think university students are in for a rude awakening on budget day. You have already talked about the domestic abuse program in Saskatoon. These are more smaller programs, but nonetheless important to people. And so I think you know that there will be quite a few things that are happening on budget day that may not make people happy." -Stefani Langenegger, CBC The Morning Edition

"Tuition is going up and yesterday university students came to say, please, can it not go up more than two percent? Universities are already asking for significantly tens of millions of dollars more in operating, in their funding grants that they get from the government. Even if the University of Regina, for instance, gets the extra 93 million dollars it is asking for, it is still hiking tuition by five percent. If it gets something less than that, I think a five percent increase to their operating grant, they will have to hike tuition by 14%." -Stefani Langenegger, CBC The Morning Edition

"We know the cities are not getting 90%...we know they are getting what they got last year, which is 90% of the previous year;s PST revenue, not one full percentage point, as they were promised last year at budget time. We know they are not getting that." -Stefani Langenegger, CBC The Morning Edition

"The government has done nothing to indicate that they won't be cutting this subsidy. And they have used the analogy, well, you know what, chiropractic care works, we get it works, it helps people. So does dental care, so does massage therapy, so do a whole number of things that the government doesn't subsidize. I would be stunned if they don't cut the subsidy to chiropractic on budget day." -Stefani Langenegger, CBC The Morning Edition

With the Saskatchewan Party planning to axe government positions in Wednesday's budget, the government has made the size - and growth - of the civil service a hot button issue in provincial politics. -The StarPhoenix

I attended The Power of Song concert by the Saskatoon Symphony on March 13. The fabulous performance featured several local choirs. I was less impressed, however, by the performance of cabinet minister Don Morgan. ...He used the royal "we" in an indiscriminate way that at best was careless and at worst calculated to take personal and partisan credit for a decision that surely was not made in his office or around the cabinet table but somewhere in the management ranks of SaskTel. -K.B. Kawchuk, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

In Saskatchewan, some 125,000 people apparently rely on chiropractic care. And if the petition (presented to NDP health critic Judy Junor) of 20,000 signatures in favour of continued chiropractic funding is anything to go by, who knows? This could even turn into a surprise election issue. -Bronwyn Eyre, The StarPhoenix

This week, Health Minister Don McMorris noted many health care-related professionals aren't subsidized, including optometrists, dentists, physiotherapists and massage therapists. True enough. But adding chiropractors to the list strikes me as a step backwards, not to mention penny wise, pound foolish. Cutting all subsidization will only lead more people into the medical system and to fill more prescriptions... -Bronwyn Eyre, The StarPhoenix

When it comes to funding chiropractic treatments, I can relate to the guy who called in to John Gormley's radio show last week. ...In the segnment I heard, every caller was against de-subsidizing chiropractic services - which is expected to be announced in the provincial budget Wednesday. Currently, the provinces subsidizes $12.25 per chiropractic visit, and the patient pays $17. If services are delisted patients will pay $35. -Bronwyn Eyre, The StarPhoenix

Ms. Heppner said members of her constituency association designed the poster and asked for her approval before they began distributing it. ...In Martensville, the event's organizers were unapologetic. "I don't have a problem with it," said Rick Gorelitza, whose name and number appear on the invitation. "It was discussed for quite some time. There's always someone out there willing to kick up dust over nothing." -The Globe and Mail

Stung by criticism from New York's Bravest, a Saskatchewan provincial cabinet minister tendered a tepid apology yesterday after a graphic 9/11 image was used to publicize a pig-roast fundraiser in her riding. ...The invitation is superimposed over a New York Times photo of the WTC's south tower taken moments after hijackers flew United Airlines Flight 175 into its upper floors. A Saskatchewan Party logo sits at the upper left. In New York City, where media outlets restrict the use of images that might bring back nightmares of an attack that killed more than 2,700 people in the city's heart, the poster came under sharp criticism. -The Globe and Mail

A group of residents from the rural Saskatchewan community of Warman say their elementary school is so overcrowded that a paint storage room is also serving as a classroom space for a deaf student. A delegation, including the town mayor, travelled to Regina Thursday to press the provincial government for a new school. According to the group, Warman Elementary School has almost 700 students in kindergarten to Grade 5. It was designed for half that number. -CBC News

A shortage of staff to run heart-lung machines is causing problems at Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon - even leading to an open heart surgery operation being cancelled this week. Cardiac surgeon Dr. Taras Mycyk says perfusionists, who run the heart-lung machines, are becoming exhausted from overwork. ...Documents obtained by CBC News concerning perfusionists in the Saskatoon Health Region reveal long-running tensions over workload and compensation. -CBC News

Heppner said she signed off on the flyer without thinking there was any problem with it. ...In the legislature Wednesday, NDP MLA Sandra Morin condemned the advertisement in a member's statement. "To use a graphic image of the burning twin towers - in which thousands of people tragically died - to raise political dollars, is both shocking for its lack of respect, and disturbing for its lack of judgment," she said. -The Vancouver Sun

A flyer put out by a Saskatchewan Party constituency association that used a picture of the twin towers burning on Sept. 11 to advertise a party fundraiser prompted an apology from the premier and one of his top ministers Wednesday. An April 11 fundraising dinner for Martensville constituency association features a speaker New York fire chief Richard Picciotto, who had been trapped in the north tower that day in 2001 when terrorist acts caused the tower's destruction and the death of nearly 3,000 people, including 341 firefighters and 23 police officers. The event is a pig roast, with those words featured on the flyer over top the flames coming from the building. -The Vancouver Sun

"I really want people to vote for us because they believe us and they trust us and they've been part of building our platform," Lingenfelter said. "I want to have that kind of program and platform to hold my feet to the fire and make sure I'm able to deliver on it, that it will be properly funded, that we know what kind of money we're going to have so that we can deliver on what we promise." -Nipawin Journal

"We're doing a pre-session tour of the province," Lingenfelter told the Nipawin Journal. "We've been out for a few weeks now all over the province, talking to people about what the issues are, what we should be raising when the session starts on March 8, and also now that budget is imminent, what we should be looking for." -Nipawin Journal

Take the pertinent Warman Elementary School issue the NDP Opposition raised in Thursday morning's question period: A deaf Kindergarten boy and his teacher had to use a paint closet because that was the only remaining space available in the overcrowded school for one-on-one sessions to help him with his hearing. By no small coincidence, the collapse in potash revenue was one of the factors behind the Education Ministry removing $30 million from its capital spending budget this year - money that might have speeded up the construction of Warman's new middle school that's ranked seventh on the government's priority list. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

We learned last week the province will record a head-scratching $204-million loss because we have had to rebate to the potash companies royalties collected on sales that never materialized. We then learned this week that the latest budget figure - that $204-million loss - includes royalties now being paid by the potash companies on sales expected to occur in the 2010-11 budget year. In other words, the expected potash sales for the coming year aren't so far even covering the hundreds of millions of dollars of rebates being paid back to the potash companies. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Since last fall's mid-term update for the 2009-10 budget, the stunning $2-billion miscalculation of potash revenue has simply engulfed most every other development in government this past year. In fact, virtually every issue in which the NDP Opposition has scored points in the first week of this spring sitting can be traced back to that massive potash miscalculation. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"We've never rallied at the legislature before - we've never had to," said Dr. Shane Taylor, president of the Chiropractors' Association of Saskatchewan (CAS). "Most of us have had patients approach us and say, 'Is there anything I can do?' We've said that if they have a compelling story, write it down and send it to the health minister, and we're asking these people if they are willing to go to the legislature." Currently, the government covers $12.25 per chiropractic visit and the patient pays $17. If chiropractic services are delisted, patients will pay $35 per treatment. -The Leader-Post

Uncertainty about continued government funding for chiropractic services is a sore point with chiropractors and patients, so they are increasing the pressure on the Saskatchewan Party. In an unprecedented move, Regina and area chiropractors are asking patients to rally with them Tuesday at the Legislative Building. -The Leader-Post

"It was inappropriate without a doubt. They wanted me to talk about September 11 and they bundled it with a fundraiser and with a pig roast. It wasn't too bright on someone's part." -Chief Picciotto, Fire Department of New York

A flyer distributed by a Saskatchewan Party constituency association with an image of the burning World Trade Center towers has been catching attention south of the border for all the wrong reasons....The New York Daily News featured a story on the flyer on its website, with comments from readers. "The FDNY hopes that no one ever forgets what happened on September 11th," Fired Department of New York spokesperson Frank Dwyer said in the story. "However, we do think that the use of images of the attacks for political or monetary gain, like the image on this poster, is in bad taste." -The StarPhoenix

Lingenfelter said the SaskParty government needs to step up and follow through with promises made. "One of the big disappointments, especially in rural Saskatchewan, is that Brad Wall campaigned in the last election that things were not as good as they should be. He said if you just elected Brad Wall as premier he would fix the waiting lists and the rural doctor issue. The fact of the matter is that both have gotten much worse, so I think people feel betrayed and very disappointed in the SaskParty and Brad Wall personally. So we'll be pushing that, as to what solutions he has." -Meadow Lake Progress

The spring session in the Saskatchewan Legislature began on Monday, March 8 and the NDP was prepared to hold the Wall Government to account as members returned. NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter said many pertinent issues need to be dealt with, and soon. "I have personally met with students, parents, seniors, educators and many others who have told me they are worried about health care, the cost of living and finances. These are very real concerns that the NDP has always taken seriously." -Meadow Lake Progress

The article 'Educational assistant cut eyed' (SP, Feb. 22), worries me and likely many others. No one will dispute the need for more professionals such as psychologists, speech and language pathologists and others in the field of education, but when parents, teachers, even children and the general public look at the entire educational picture, they will likely agree that special-needs children will not be served by fewer educational assistants. -Peggy Durant, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

To reduce the number of educational assistants and replace them with specialists is like adding doctors in a hospital but reducing the number of nurses. Specialists diagnose but not administer the treatment. -H.E. Christopher, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

Education Minister Ken Krawetz was noncommital about Warman's prospects for school funding. ...NDP MLA Cam Broten said the government - which is considering projects such as a new stadium in Regina and large-scale carbon capture and storage sites - has to get its priorities straight. "If we're neglecting students at the local level that's a real concern, because education is one of the most basic rights and greatest concern for parents," he told reporters. -The StarPhoenix

Since 2005, the Prairie Spirit school division request for a middle school to teach grades 6-8 has been on the Education Ministry's capital request waiting list. It is in seventh place on the ministry's priority list for capital projects. But the government, which saw its budget derailed by potash revenue projections that ended up off by $2 billion, already deferred $30 million of the $61 million originally promised this year for education capital projects as a cost-cutting measure. -The StarPhoenix

"This is real situation with real people and real children and it is a concern. We are even calling it a crisis," Warman Mayor Sheryl Spence told reporters at the legislature. "We haven't addressed it as a crisis until this year for the simple reason we thought that there would be movement this year on a middle-year school. However, we don't see that happening," added Spence, who said she heard only "excuses" from the government Thursday. -The StarPhoenix

One of the fastest-growing communities in Saskatchewan says it's in desperate need of a new school and is getting no help from a Saskatchewan Party government trying to tighten its belt. The existing kindergarten to Grade 5 school in Warman - built to accommodate 350 to 400 children - has nearly 700 students, with another 100 expected to enrol in the fall. -The StarPhoenix

A flyer distributed by a Saskatchewan Party constituency association with an image of the burning World Trade Center towers has been catching attention south of the border for all the wrong reasons. ...Among the flames in the picture are the words "pig roast," which describes the fundraiser's dinner. -The StarPhoenix

After hobbling around needing hip replacement for almost two years, I was finally called. The surgery went well, but I found the staff at Pasqua Hospital to overwhelmed. It's a mad house there. It is systemic - too much for too few people to do in facilities that are overwhelmed by the needs of the population. We must find solutions to the problems our health care system suffers from. -Michael Hegan, Regina, The Leader-Post

It's not known where the axe will fall, but Health Minister Don McMorris has done little to deny claims that chiropractic services will be delisted. In short, it will become clear on budget day (March 24) that the government will do less for everyone in the year ahead. -The Leader-Post

Many people are also worried about cuts to health-care services as the Wall government tries to hold the health-care budget - its biggest single expense, consuming 40 per cent of all government spending - to only a three-per-cent increase. -The Leader-Post

As many councils had already budgeted on that additional funding, there have been forecasts of widespread property tax increases this spring to make up the shortfall. A promised second round of education property tax cuts has also been shelved as the province scrambles to recover from the slump in potash sales and revenue. -The Leader-Post

The rumour mill is churning about government program cuts and job losses and Premier Brad Wall has already confirmed that cities and towns won't be getting the extra money the government promised them in last spring's budget. -The Leader-Post

Anyone focused solely on the recent negative vibes about the upcoming provincial budget could be forgiven for thinking that Saskatchewan is going to endure hard times in 2010. -The Leader-Post

While the number of perfusionists in the province hasn't been increased in the last decade, their workload has. The number of cell-saver procedures, where blood is washed and purified for transfusions, has increased from 47 in 1998 to more than 560 in 2008...-The Leader-Post

The effect of the perfusionist shortage is an increasing number of cancelled open heart surgeries, which doubled from 35 to 73 between 2005 and 2007...Last week, a surgeon cancelled an open-heart operation minutes before it began because it was evident "the perfusionist was in no condition to do the job," Chris Driol, President of Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan said. -The Leader-Post

Saskatchewan's perfusionists are being over-worked to a "crisis" level and more are needed to reduce the number of cancelled open heart surgeries...Of Saskatoon's four perfusionists - specialists who operate heart surgery - two have gone on leave due to work-related issues in the last month...-The Leader-Post

With the eradication of the Domestic Abuse Outreach Program (DAOP), it occurred to me that perhaps the government is in fact proud of its accomplishment in ensuring the Ministry now takes no responsibility, outside of child welfare, to support families who experience violence, and the in the prevention of family violence. -Tracy Muggli, Former Social Worker with the DAOP

A letter send to the government in December by Family Service Saskatoon on behalf of 14 other local agencies said the agencies had received no notice from the government before being told the DAOP was being discontinued. But Justice Minister Don Morgan told reporters that consultations had taken place, although he could not say with whom. -The Leader-Post

Victims of domestic abuse in Saskatoon are losing out on vital help because of Saskatchewan Party cutbacks...The domestic abuse outreach program (DAOP), which has been in existence on a contract basis with the Ministry of Social Services since 1990, was eliminated with its 2.5 positions at the end of last year by the government, which intended to move the services in-house. -The Leader-Post

In Canada, Conservative governments in provinces such as Ontario and Saskatchewan preached all the usual small-c conservative virtues but bequeathed deficits that subsequent governments had to eliminate. They cut spending for a while but left provinces in hock. -The Globe and Mail

Meanwhile, another anti-labour bill we hear about (Bill 80) is being prepared by Mr. Wall's government. ...It appears this bill is taking aim at the unionized workers in the construction trades. Ready or not, labour minister Rob Norris has already assured a business association Bill 80 is going to pass. -Henry Neufeld, Waldeck, Sask., Lloydminster Meridian Booster

One of the first pieces of legislation on winning government, was Mr. Wall's promised attack on the workers of Saskatchewan by resurrecting an old Grant Devine anti-labour statute (Bill 104) which is now Bill 6. This bill makes it nearly impossible for workers to organize a union at their place of work (that is bargain collectively). -Henry Neufeld, Waldeck, Sask., Lloydminster Meridian Booster

Brad Wall, while leader of the opposition made the remark (John Gormley show) if he ever became premier, he would go to war with the labour unions of Saskatchewan. In this case, the word 'war' is camouflage for helping his business backers reduce their labour costs. -Henry Neufeld, Waldeck, Sask., Lloydminster Meridian Booster

On the opening day of the provincial legislature, more than 200 Saskatchewan health-care workers and supporters gathered at the Legislative Building to protest the pace of contract talks. The boisterous bunch - from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union (SGEU) and Service Employees International Union West (SEIU West) - waved flags, carried signs, blew whistles and chanted, "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Brad Wall has got to go." -The Leader-Post

The mayor of Big River is confused this morning about the province's plans for his town's sawmill. Brian Brownfield tells us Premier Brad Wall met with the local reeve recently and during their discussion Wall said that the town's sawmill could be getting 400 thousand cubic meters of logging rights. ...Since last month's meeting, though, Brownfield says he has not heard any more about those logs and he says the town is getting impatient. -CBC News

"It goes directly back to our budget criticism on Day 1, that $2 billion was ludicrous and had they had that number right then we wouldn't have had those advance payments in this amount. Because they allowed such a ludicrous number to be placed into their budget, it now has large consequences for Saskatchewan people." -NDP Finance Critic Trent Wotherspoon

Potash revenues were supposed to boost the coffers in Saskatchewan, but now the province is in the hole on the mineral and will be forced to pay back money it collected from producers. ...The province won't say exactly how much it will have to give back because of confidentiality rules in the Mineral Taxation Act, but it will be at least $203.9 million. -Canadian Press

"I think the big question on everyone's mind is how did things go so wrong so quickly? We've gone from record revenues and record surpluses in the provincial budget and coffers to what we are seeing now is a billion dollar deficit and expected cutbacks that are to be coming in the next budget." -NDP MLA Deb Higgins, Discover Moose Jaw

The proposed 75 per cent cuts to the EA jobs, by the provincial government, should alarm adults in this province. -Burna B. Purkin, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

NDP Finance critic Trent Wotherspoon said the government was "ludicrous" with its potash projections from day one. "Many kids get their hand caught in the cookie jar and all of a sudden a lot of honesty comes out. I think this is pretty telling." -The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan Party government must refund millions of dollars to potash companies that overpaid royalties to public coffers... That pushes the budget's once-positive $1.9-billion projection for the pink mineral into unprecedented red territory, according to the third-quarter 2009-10 budget update released Tuesday. For the first time, the province will record a negative number - minus $203.9 million - in potash revenue. -The Leader-Post

Just this week, Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer announced that for the first time ever the government will post a negative number - minus $203.9 million - in potash revenue for this year after having to refund royalties to potash companies. -The Leader-Post

A proposal to eliminate school boards is one of just a handful of policy resolutions that will be considered at this weekend's Saskatchewan Party convention in Regina. ...The resolution calls for the government to dissolve property-taxing school boards and fund education directly from general revenue. The responsibility for services such as school facilities and transportation would revert to municipalities. -The Leader-Post

Some small Saskatchewan communities are facing a water rate hike. SaskWater is raising rates for its customers by nine per cent beginning with the April billing period. Non-potable water customers will see an increase of anywhere from 5.9 to nine per cent. -The Leader-Post

Why did our government build a pavilion at the Winter Olympics for $4.1 million? ...Can we really afford these things? It will be up to the taxpayers to pick up the tab. -Elsie Braun, Regina, The Leader-Post

Water and sewer rates have gone up, there's a proposed power rate increase and property taxes will be rising. In addition, parking rates are going up, there's a proposed increase in transit and paratransit fares, teacher assistants are being cut and there might be more cuts when the provincial government brings down the budget. Will there be an increase in wages? I doubt it. -Elsie Braun, Regina, The Leader-Post

The government is desperately attempting to portray it as an unfortunate set of circumstances that have conspired in a slight overpayment. Well, the problem here is much, much more than that. ...Whatever it is, it's incompetence well beyond anything voters should ever have to tolerate. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But the really, really bad news is that this Sask. Party was dead wrong about last year's breathtaking $1.927 billion potash revenue forecast (the original budget estimate) and is actually going to lose money in potash revenue. Yep, the great free-enterprisers who've railed on for decades about Tommy Douglas driving out the oil companies are now giving away every penny of our potash royalties this year to the potash companies. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

NDP finance critic Trent Wotherspoon is right when he describes this as budget incompetence on a Grant Devine scale by a Saskatchewan Party government that has clearly allowed itself to be led around by the nose by the potash industry. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

In an unprecedented situation, the province will actually lose $203.9 million in potash revenue in 2009-10, according to the third-quarter budget update released Tuesday, because the government overcharged the potash companies for royalties in 2008-09. And what's truly irritating is that the government won't even tell us how much the potash companies were overcharged, citing confidentiality under the Minerals Act. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Evidently, it can get worse than Saskatchewan making almost no money from potash. We can actually wind up owing the potash companies money. Yes, folks, you read that right. Saskatchewan people will pay all 2009-10 royalties back to the potash companies. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter wasn't impressed with SaskPower's proposed rate hike, especially in light of the Saskatchewan Party government's recently announced plans to freeze government spending and restrain public sector wages. -The Leader-Post

By late summer, residential customers could be paying another $6 on their monthly power bills, and farmers $16 more, if SaskPower's proposed rate hike is approved. And the Crown is serving notice that rate increases of this magnitude or greater can be expected for the foreseeable future. -The Leader-Post

Krawetz's assertion that the document was misinterpreted is an insult to the comprehension abilities of all his teachers, principals, superintendents, levels of education bureaucracy, and parents. The emotional impact of what he proposed, as parents saw the education of their children pulled away to be replaced by nothing, is reprehensible. -Frederick Rackow, Regina, The Leader-Post

I do not believe Education Minister Ken Krawetz when he says his proposal to cut the number of educational assistants (EAs) by 75 per cent was misunderstood by everybody (Feb. 26, Leader-Post). Many teachers, principals, superintendents and officials in the ministry read that document and understood EAs were going to be reduced. ...Due to the callous nature of the proposal, and the arrogance of Krawetz's backpedaling, I believe we need a new education minister who respects Saskatchewan's education system and students. -Fred Rackow, Regina, The Leader-Post

For a government that rode into office two years ago on a platform of "accountability" and "transparency", Premier Brad Wall's administration has sometimes struggled to prove its commitment to principles. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Despite rationalizations from Education Minister Ken Krawetz the "draft proposal" to get rid of thousands of educational assistants who work with special needs students is another case of the provincial government deciding to act without consulting anyone and then having to back down in the face of justified criticism. -The StarPhoenix

Critics are skeptical of the minister of education's comment Thursday that a government document proposing the elimination of 75 per cent of educational assistant jobs in the province was "misinterpreted" by some school divisions. "They can wiggle and try to get off the hook here as much as they like, but this was not right," said Trevor Bearance, an education consultant who most recently worked with special needs students in the Southeast Cornerstone school division. -The StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan Party's 2007 election campaign promise to establish a health-care ombudsman has been put off for at least another year because of the government's financial crunch. -The StarPhoenix

"The analogy might be closer to broccoli," he said of this year's upcoming budget. "It's less satisfying in the immediate term, its better for your long-term health, and I don't know about you but I can actually stop at just one," Wall said. -The Leader-Post

"Deficits are like potato chips...they're not very good for your long-term health, and bet you can't stop at just one." -Saskatchewan Party leader and Premier Brad Wall, The Leader-Post

"Little by little, the Wall government is contracting out and selling off pieces of our Crown Corporations. The end result of all this privatization by stealth will be big profits for private companies, many of them from out of province, paid for by higher utility bills for Saskatchewan families." -NDP SaskPower critic, Warren McCall, NDP Caucus

Stung by the loss of almost $2 billion in potash revenue last year, Gantefoer aims to balance his budget by slashing spending, retreating from promises to boost funding to cities and towns and likely raiding the province's "rainy day fund" for a second successive year to stay in the black. -The Leader-Post

"It's still an extra $500,000 that the people of Saskatchewan are paying (for the Olympics) when we're talking about fiscal restraint, when we've got a billion-dollar deficit, when things are being frozen and deferred and cut. Half a million dollars is a lot of money for a lot of communities," said Danielle Chartier, the Opposition's Tourism, Parks and Culture critic, who expressed concern the additional costs are only now coming to light. -The Leader-Post

With less than three weeks to go before the Winter Olympics, the cost of Saskatchewan's presence at the games is jumping higher. Last week, the Saskatchewan Party cabinet approved an additional $500,000 for the province's temporary pavilion at Vancouver, raising its cost to $4.1 million. -The Leader-Post

For a party that is so obviously stealing ideas from the Conservatives, it's more than a little rich that its ads label Lingenfelter as having "no new ideas." The ads also say the NDP leader is "down on Saskatchewan" for saying the economy is in "free fall" and citizens are "grumpy." Saskatchewan people grumpy in the winter? Who knew? As for the economy, the message coming from the provincial government itself hardly suggests a smooth road ahead. -The StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan Party's new television attack ads that target NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter reveal as much about the governing party as they do about the man who wants to inherit the premier's chair - perhaps more. ...For a majority government such as the Saskatchewan Party's to adopt such attack advertising suggests a puzzling element of panic. -The StarPhoenix

...when it comes to issues like power-rate increases, we need to hear something from Wall other than there's nothing much we can do. Really, the big problem for Saskatchewan right now might be a tale of two Brad Walls. It's the second Brad Wall - the one required to provide a vision for dealing with local concerns - who now must improve his game. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Wall made an interesting point when he claimed a 25-per-cent increase in the size of the civil service in the 10 years he's been an MLA (to 12,677 full-time equivalents from 10,174 FTEs in 1999). Sadly, that point significantly lessened when it was discovered that Wall has miscalculated his FTE number by about 1,000. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But with the 2010-11 provincial budget coming, the locals are having a hard time deciphering Wall's plan or even the signals he's sending. (If potash is recovering and we are about to lead the country in growth, then why the freezes in municipal grants, health spending and government hiring?). Nor has Wall been able to generate much confidence - at least so far - that he has a workable solution to deal with these issues. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...call it a tale of two Brad Walls - a provincial premier punching far above his weight on the national and international scene...but lost ground back home, where people are starting to become increasingly worried about health-care spending cuts, government hiring freezes and another whopping electrical rate increase. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

One of Premier Brad Wall's fondest cliches these days is his 'Tale of Two Cities' lament about Saskatchewan's two stories. The 'best' of times are everything else going in the provincial economy and the 'worst' of times are the potash industry, which should be just a glitch in a province with a vast diversity of wealth, a Dickensian Wall tells anyone who will listen. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Premier Brad Wall was in Saskatoon this week to repeat his nostrum that reducing the size of government is the wisest course to ease the budget crunch. ...What's questionable, however, is whether the premier's solution - to build a smaller government through managing vacancies created through retirements - will best serve the interests of the taxypayers who count on receiving effective and efficient services for their money. -The StarPhoenix

A government that apparently counted on Saskatchewan's resource boom to continue unimpeded as it increased program spending by more than 32 per cent since 2006-07 is being just as shortsighted in how it plans to tackle the problem now that the cash flow has slowed. -The StarPhoenix

Faced with a deficit of more than $7 million, the Saskatoon Health Region is cutting jobs. The region, which is the largest employer in the province, with 12,000 nurses, managers and health care service and support workers, cut 21 positions on Thursday. -CBC News

I have no doubt that Wall will keep his promise (which doesn't happen very often) to cut the civil service. He will slash health administration to the breaking point. Then, when things (shock) start falling apart due to work overload, unfilled positions, lack of expertise, etc., the Sask. Party will start saying how awful the system is and that we should start allowing the private sector to have a greater role. Sask. Party's Big Business Pals: 1, People of Saskatchewan: 0. -Kent E. Peterson, Humble Opinion Blog

According to CBC News, Billboard Brad (the Poster Premier) wants to cap health spending at a 3% increase in the upcoming March budget. I've never been very good at math, but I know once a settlement with health workers is factored in, a 3% increase is actually a cut. -Kent E. Peterson, Humble Opinion Blog

Saskatchewan's finance minister now projects provincial potash revenue for the 2009-10 year won't reach the $100-million mark. Rod Gantefoer, who made the comments while speaking in Saskatoon Thursday, said compared to the nearly $2 billion in revenue the province expected from potash at the beginning of the fiscal year, the final figure will seem like almost nothing. -The StarPhoenix

Setting aside the $1.8 billion overestimation of potash revenues in the last budget, the premier's current favourite number - a 25 per cent increase in the civil service, to 12,677 full-time positions in the past 10 years - appears to include double counting about 525 positions that were moved into the government proper from the property management Crown corporation. It's also not unfair to suggest the Wall government has done nothing so far to indicate it has the political will, fortitude or discipline required to impose spending limitations of this magnitude. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Urban and rural residents of Saskatchewan should be concerned about these closures. Using producer cars not only reduces farmers' costs, but it saves on trucking distances. There's also the added benefit of reducing the carbon emissions inherent in moving grain to market, as rail transportation is more efficient than trucking. Rural and urban economies on the Prairies are intertwined. Chipping away at farm income and farm stability is the opposite of what we should be doing to maintain a healthy economy for all of us. -Denise Kouri, The StarPhoenix

The New Democrat Opposition is urging the government not to cut STC routes. For many people in rural Saskatchewan, especially seniors, the bus is a crucial service. "Many people in these towns depend upon STC for their link...to the bigger cities, whether it be for medical appointments, or to visit family or perhaps make connections to travel elsewhere in Canada," said NDP MLA Ron Harper. -CBC News

Brad Wall was forced to borrow money to make up for his deficit budget, but I doubt we will be seeing those billboards. Brad Wall makes the leadership of Grant Devine seem like the "Good Old Days". -Kent E. Peterson, The Carillon

To illustrate the absolute absurdity of everything that is Brad Wall, let us not forget the billboards. They were big and colourful and featured the smiling face of our dear premier. If you were unfortunate enought to catch a glance of these squandered dollars, in over-sized rectangular form, you know what they said. ...While the global economy was collapsing and corporations with double the revenue of Saskatchewan were declaring bankruptcy, Brad Wall was attending photo shoots. It's partly understandable. We all paid for those publications, we might as well get quality. -Kent E. Peterson, The Carillon

He promised a children's hospital and delivered dashed dreams. He promised better days, but attacked our unions. He promised help for students, but raised our tuition. He promised much more, and has broken the majority. Most shamefully, he promised to keep his promises. -

It takes a special kind of incompetence to turn a booming Saskatchewan economy into a bust. Ineptitude is a soft and fluffy term when it comes to describing a government that had $2 billion in the bank then ran a $1 billion deficit shortly thereafter. It could all be forgiven, probably, if it were not for all of Brad Wall's broken promises. -Kent E. Peterson, The Carillon

After more than two years of Saskatchewan Party rule, populism is fleeting it seems. We no longer see Ken Cheveldayoff smirking, and God knows he loves to smirk. Long gone is the love affair rural Saskatchewan once heaped so abundantly on Bill Boyd. The standing ovations Doreen Eagles once received have now been replaced with utter indifference. She's happy to have at least that. The bumbling Fred Bradshaw now fears for his seat and Rob Norris is still Rob Norris - despite our collective wish that he wasn't. In short, what goes up must come down. -Kent E. Peterson, The Carillon

The NDP held a noon hour lunch at Tommy Douglas House for the Day of Caring and leader Dwain Lingenfelter stopped by with the proceeds, over $4100.00. Lingenfelter was struck by the response from across Saskatchewan. "It's important we help our neighbours and friends here and we always do, but what's even more impressive is these are people we don't know. They're in another part of the world, they need our help and Saskatchewan people have stepped up to the mark and we're just very, very proud of this." -Murray Wood, News Talk CJME

Wall said in an interview Thursday that the current budget deliberations have been tougher than the past two and "we're going to need help from the savings account" to balance the budget. In other words, it will be a deficit budget. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Perhaps worst of all, this is a government that didn't pay attention to the details of budgeting. Believing that the tide of money would just keep flowing in, it allowed operational spending of government departments to increase to $10 billion from $7.7 billion. As has been previously stated, the Sask. Party government has had more of a spending problem than a revenue problem. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But if Gantefoer and his government have been unfairly criticized for their work in math class, they surely deserve the criticism they've received for their poor grades in basic philosophy and economics. This is a party that clearly drank its own bath water, convincing itself that its mere presence in government offices as believers in the free enterprise system somehow magically turned around the cyclical nature of Saskatchewan's commodity resources and the revenues that governments derived from them. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

If you were troubled by Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer's math last year, you might be really bothered by his math going into the 2010-11 budget deliberations. This time, however, the troubling math won't just be quibbling over miscalculations of potash revenue. The troubling math will be the depth of the cuts that we should be expecting in the March budget. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It seems unlikely that citizens of Saskatchewan, who well remember the price they paid for fiscal recklessness and irresponsibility under conservative rule in the 1980s and 1990s, are going to ignore Premier Wall's inability to manage the finances of the province because - ludicrously - Mr. Wall wants voters to believe Mr. Lingenfelter isn't enthusiastic enough about the province. It's the Wall government's enthusiasm for billion-dollar "mistakes" that are worrying the voters these days. -Brian Topp, The Globe & Mail

These days Premier Wall has particularly good reason to be worried by the experienced and wily NDP Leader across from him in the Saskatchewan Legislature. After all, Mr. Lingenfelter now has some beautiful material to work with. The Wall team, eastern-establishment darlings though they might still be, stand revealed this winter to be as fiscally incompetent as the last Saskatchewan Tory government was. -Brian Topp, The Globe & Mail

When I went on the surgery list in February 2009, I was told my wait would be about a year. Then Premier Brad Wall promised shorter wait times, and five months were added on to mine. Now there is another announcement about shortening waits, and I wonder how many months this will cost me. ...Is this the two-tier system we are hearing about? If not, how do I get onto the shorter waiting list? -Andy Whiteman, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

"New Democrats are at our best when we are reaching out to people across Saskatchewan and listening to their concerns, their ideas and their dreams. That's exactly what our comprehensive Policy Review is all about: it's about listening to Saskatchewan people, engaging in conversation about the future of this great province, and then moving forward to turn those dreams into reality." -NDP MLA for Saskatoon Massey Place, Cam Broten, Saskatchewan NDP

The effects of this government's unprecedented financial mismanagement are now being felt by its most vulnerable citizens: our seniors. As the cost of rent continues to increase across the province, senior citizens are struggling to find an affordable place to live. Despite what the Sask Party says, senior citizens in this province are in a worse situation than they were before this government came to power. -NDP Housing critic, David Forbes, The Southwest Booster

Despite the overwhelming need, there are currently no seniors' housing projects under construction in Swift Current and very few anywhere in the province, for that matter. As we head into the 2010 budget with a $1 billion deficit, the Wall government will continue to ask low-income people, rural Saskatchewan, and senior citizens to pay the price. This is simply not acceptable. -NDP Housing critic, David Forbes, The Southwest Booster

Two Saskatoon city councillors say Monday's announcement by Premier Brad Wall that cities will receive the same amount of revenue-sharing money as last year will put further strain on a difficult budget year. "This will make us pull in our horns a bit and go through the books closely," said Councillor Myles Heidt. "Now to me, what we have to do is sit down and take a real look at what core services we're going to be providing or raise taxes significantly." -The StarPhoenix

"Corporations are not the big bad wolf. They're doing exactly what they're supposed to do: to drive profits up for their shareholders...They also want to see what the playing field is. There has be a balance between the profitability that corporations should expect, and still being responsible tenants of the province." -NDP Environment critic, Sandra Morin, The Carillon

When asked about the trends against industry regulation in other provinces and the U.S., Furber argued that strict regulations ultimately produce stronger economies and healthier societies. "You have to protect the citizens of the province and the environment of Saskatchewan for future generations. We can't compromise that for some perceived immediate financial benefit." -NDP Energy and Resources critic, Darcy Furber, The Carillon

"I don't think post-secondary education should depend on the amount of money that your parents have. Our view is that through bursaries, through meaningful utility rates, through housing costs that are not unaffordable, and having proper childcare in place that we can make post-secondary education fully accessible for all students." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Carillon

The NDP leader expressed his desire to ensure that students do not emerge from university with enormous debts that render them incapable of functioning as productive members of society. He assured the audience that the NDP is working towards making university degrees more fiscally manageable through bursaries that can eliminate costs such as living expenses. -Ethan Stein, The Carillon

"I hear stories from across the province of doctors being forced to leave their communities, facing overwhelming workloads and burnout. Saskatchewan families counting on our health care system don't deserve to be the latest victims of Brad Wall's mismanagement of the province's finances. It's time for the Wall government to show a real commitment to rural health care and the thousands of people who depend upon it." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, R Town News

In addition to ignoring the worsening rural doctor shortage, the Wall government has broken their promise to fund 13 long-term care facilities in rural Saskatchewan. $152 million was cut last November, worsening the situation for hundreds of seniors waiting for a space in a long-term care home. -R Town News

The $1.3-billion surplus of 2007 has become a deficit of more than $1-billion in just two years. Wall can't keep his promise to rural and urban municipalities on infrastructure projects; this doesn't help workers' prospects. -Helen M. Baker, The StarPhoenix

In reference to debt, Premier Brad Wall should pay down the remaining billions of debt saddled on Saskatchewan taxpayers by his former boss, Grant Devine. Like Grant Devine, he's taken the province back into deficit. -Helen M. Baker, The StarPhoenix

Remember when then-minister for parks, Christine Tell, explained two years ago the government needed to increase campsite fees so that consumers would better appreciate these amenities' true value? Gee, I can't imagine how much more we will all appreciate our electricity in August, when SaskPower hike its rates by 7.5 per cent to 7.9 per cent. Heck, we've hardly got over the euphoria of last year's increase of 8.5 per cent. Please stop. It's getting tough to afford all this appreciation. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...the Sask. Party has done a poor job of explaining its strategy to the public, and an even worse job of sticking to its principles. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

...the government needs to explain why it is selling cabins in provincial parks, contracting out IT services, or making deals with out-of-province firms to build power plants. The government needs to tell taxpayers exactly what the benefits are, in terms of cost savings, increased efficiency or improved service. More importantly, it needs to articulate a consistent strategy rather than saying one thing and doing another. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

Recently, the government announced it had contracted Northland Power of Toronto to build and operate a 261-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant at North Battleford. The cost of the plant? A cool $700 million. The cost of the power being sold to SaskPower? Who knows? Terms and conditions of the 20-year deal with Northland haven't been disclosed. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

Another major change in policy was getting government out of the business of picking winners and losers. Under the Sask. Party, the private sector would lead the economy, while government would set the business climate. But since its election in 2007, the Wall government has been going largely the opposite direction. Far from getting government out of business, it has created a welter of government economic development funds and agencies...Does this look like the actions of a government that's committed to getting government out of business? -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

One thing the Saskatchewan Party government promised to do was to get the private sector more involved in the economy. ...After more than two years on the job, the Sask. Party record is a mixed one, at best. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

"It's going very, very slowly and our membership's getting frustrated...we have an understanding that the economy is slow and all the rest of it. But the simple fact of the matter is we have to get something up here because our membership expects it and we're losing doctors left, right and centre." -Dr. George Miller, General Surgeon, Moose Jaw, The Leader-Post

The snail's pace of negotiations with the provincial government over a new agreement on fees is fuelling uncertainty amongst doctors about their future in Saskatchewan and could lead to job action by physicians... Dr. George Miller said in an interview Wednesday that the doctor's previous contract came open in April of 2009 and it seems the Saskatchewan Party government is dragging its feet. -The Leader-Post

Consider where FNUniv was just one week ago: Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Minister Rob Norris was badly bogged down in his own talking points that "this chapter is closed" and the "status quo is not on" at FNUniv. It was also a week ago that Norris uttered the less-than-encouraging proclamation that "we didn't start this fire", leaving everyone to wonder how willing the provincial government was to sit back and watch FNUniv burn to the ground. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It's quite possible that the Saskatchewan Party government had a game plan for the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) that's suddenly gone awry with the federal government's announcement Monday that it was also pulling its funding from FNUniv. There again, a far more nefarious interpretation is also possible - that this has been a rather orchestrated effort by the Sask. Party and Conservative governments to close down FNUniv once and for all. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Since the federal Conservatives have reneged on their promise to let Saskatchewan keep its oil royalties, their counterparts in the Saskatchewan Party have done the same to us in clawing back money that was going to be included in the budgets of cities and RMs. How many more years are we expected to put up with these lies? -Rodney Perry, The Leader-Post

"Since the board has been dissolved and reforms are being made, as requested, the Wall government must indicate their support for this institution. One has to ask: Did the Wall and Harper government want to get this valuable institution back on track, or were they looking for an excuse to shut down this university for good?" -NDP First Nations and Métis Relations critic, Warren McCall, R Town News

Health regions will find it tough to find significant savings in their budgets with more than 70 per cent of spending going to fund doctors, nurses and other workers. With the provincial government bleeding red ink, Saskatchewan's health regions have been told they must share the pain of looming provincial budget cuts. -The Leader-Post

When Mr. Yates raised in the legislature last fall the case of Brock Wiebe, a prisoner who had been inadvertently released before his time was up, it elicited a veiled threat from Corrections, Public Safety and Policing Minister Yogi Huyghebaert. "Have you got a visit from the police yet?" he asked the Opposition critic - a remark that was rightfully found in contempt of the legislature by Speaker Don Toth. -The StarPhoenix

A state of affairs is unfolding in southwestern Saskatchewan which demands the attention of our premier and minister of health. The citizens/voters of this region have legitimate concerns about the policies, directions and leadership of the Cypress Health Region. ...does the premier care about the concerns and needs of the people of southwestern Saskatchewan? The health minister has responsibilities for the health care of Saskatchewan citizens and yet he has not responded to these communications. Is he doing his job? -Alan S. Howard, The Leader-Post

News of talks ending between Domtar and Iogen was more surprising than the mill's date with a wrecking ball, said Prince Albert Northcote NDP MLA Darcy Furber. "Iogen not being able to use that site could cost 100 jobs; Domtar shutting down, with the impact on forestry, trucking, logging...it's upwards of 2,500 jobs." -NDP MLA Darcy Furber, Prince Albert Daily Herald

Saskatchewan Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer was recently at a federal, provincial and territorial housing ministers' meeting in Quebec and does not think that the low-income housing situation will improve any time soon. Nor does she appear to see any role for the government in providing low-rental housing. -Elecia Chrunik, The Sasquatch

Many of the tenants facing rental hikes receive social assistance and disability support, and, without large rent supplements, will have difficulty paying the extra rent or finding another place to live. The vacancy rate is 0.9 per cent in Moose Jaw, the second lowest in the province after Regina, and there are no major plans to build low-income housing in the city. -Elecia Chrunik, The Sasquatch

Oddly, cuts to other government programs - like culture, or health care, or government services - aren't seen as job killers, but as necessary sacrifices to a government's bottom line in these "tough economic times." The provincial government just cut $1.3 million from its budget, $8.4 million of which came out of "vacancy management." Otherwise known as cuts to public sector employment. -Carle Steel, The Sasquatch

What right do glorified bureaucrats have to question or interfere with an MLA doing his job? And even if they are investigating a specious violation of the civil service code of conduct, could it possibly justify a two-hour shakedown of an Opposition MLA over information he brought forward under the absolute privilege of the legislature? ...We've seen politically motivated investigations before, but we haven't previously seen our government give investigators free rein to harass opposition politicians. In our democracy, that crosses a line. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Premier Brad Wall and the Saskatchewan Party caucus must feel uneasy reading such a headline as 'Infant mortality highest in Sask.' (SP, Jan. 22)...To add to Brad Wall's shame is the fact that he agrees with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament until March. Surely the premier realizes that Parliament should be functioning at full capacity to deal with such issues as infant mortality, particularly in the North. -Peggy Durant, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

The forest is a provincially owned resource, so for the government to take such a hands-off approach is mystifying. Premier Brad Wall needs to step outside his ideological boundaries and realize that sometimes tax dollars can be used effectively to help kickstart stalled industries whose payback is potentially enormous. -Brad Bardal, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

When the Saskatchewan Party government took office, it wasted no time in tearing up a memorandum of understanding between Domtar and the former NDP government to restart the mothballed pulp mill in Prince Albert. The stated reason for doing so what that no tax dollars should go toward getting the mill running again, and that the government would come up with a better plan. Now Domtar is applying for a demolition permit. -Brad Bardal, Saskatoon, The StarPhoenix

The government last year poured $3 million into examining future possibilities for uranium development, including nuclear power. The NDP has argued similar resources should have been offered to examine other power sources so all the options could be better compared. "(The government) had so much effort and concentration on the nuclear file that you sort of get the sense they're not really sure where to go now." -NDP MLA Warren McCall, The StarPhoenix

"The bottom line is we need to have more success than we're having now. We want to bring recommendations in that provide more support to families, more preventative services, taking fewer children in care, returning children who are in care back to their families quicker and really make sure we have recommendations regarding long-term planning for children." -Bob Pringle, Saskatoon City Councillor, Chair of the Child Welfare Review Panel and former NDP MLA

It's not so easy to calculate the long-term benefits - if any - of a pavilion promoting this province for two weeks. The extra $500,000 in funding for that pavilion approved by cabinet last week brings its total cost to $4.1 million. However, once everything else has been tallied, including the cost of travel and accommodation for who knows how many officials and politicians, plus a previously announced $1.5 million contribution for athletes and the staging of the games, the bill balloons to $7.2 million. -The Leader-Post Staff

At a time when the Saskatchewan government is skating on thin ice financially, a last-minute bill for an extra $500,000 towards its presence at the 2010 Winter Olympics is unwelcome news. Taxpayers are now on the hook for almost $8 million for the Feb. 12-28 games in Vancouver and many will undoubtedly wonder a) why the bill is so high and b) exactly what they are getting for their money. -The Leader-Post Staff

Ontario has introduced a senior homeowners' property tax grant, a grant provided annually to offset taxes for seniors with low and moderate incomes who own their own homes. ...Why doesn't Saskatchewan offer this type of relief for its seniors? I think it is high time we pressed this issue by writing our legislators and demanding that we, the seniors of Saskatchewan, get an equivalent or better deal. Get on the bandwagon. More voices make change. -G.E. McMurtry, The StarPhoenix

If you buy a house on credit, does it make sense to pay down the debt each month in such a way that your family can not be provided with the essentials? A high school kid taking a life skills budgeting class could figure this out. But that is what this government has done. When you budget on hope and not common sense you get the predicament created by the Potash bust. -William Gibbs, Southwest Booster

The hope of a children's hospital has been taken away. Will the thirteen long term care homes get the funding they were promised? Also there is promised long term care home for Meadow Lake. There was promised economic development at Big River. All these projects are up in the air. There is the promise of new funding for Municipalities. What about promised education property tax cuts? And just where will the School Boards make up for shortfalls from lower education taxes? -William Gibbs, Southwest Booster

Regina's housing market has gone from being the most affordable in Canada to moderately unaffordable in less than three years. -The Leader-Post

According to numbers posted on the Saskatchewan Surgical Care Network website, there were 28,769 patients waiting for surgeries as of Sept. 30, an increase from 27,807 at the end of June and the highest number in at least two years. -The Leader-Post

The number of Saskatchewan patients waiting for surgeries rose while the number of procedures performed declined in the most recent period where statistics are available. -The Leader-Post

But the actual transition from a "have-not" province (we've been a "have" province for six years now) to one leading the nation in economic growth was a five-year process that really started in the last three years of NDP premier Lorne Calvert's administration. -Murray Mandryk, Rosetown News

Still another theory is that the Saskatchewan Party's over-inflated optimism combined with a naive willingness to believe whatever industry executives told them, allowed the government to pick a high number out of the sky. At budget time, Energy Minister Bill Boyd was even privately predicting that potash revenues would top $3 billion. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

From the highs of the March provincial budget ($1.926 billion in expected potash royalties) to the lows in November's mid-year update ($109 million), Saskatchewan rode the rocky pink roller-coaster this year. And much to the chagrin of government, this ride could get even wilder in 2010. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"For all the words the prime minister is saying I don't think he's being totally truthful with the public of Canada and the truth is he's running away from a difficult situation with the committee looking at the Afgahn (detainee issue)." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter

"I want to be very clear that I'm referring to (Wall) and his team of cabinet - but mainly the premier because he's the leader - as loser, but no one else." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Leader-Post

"There has been lots of cases in Canada where governments have been off on projections, even by millions of dollars - maybe $100 million - but we're talking about a government that was off by nearly $2 billion, or 20 per cent of its budget. That's a blunder of historical proportions." -David McGrane, Political Expert, University of Saskatchewan (West Central Crossroads)

"There doesn't seem to be any substance in how he's going to make that happen and I think that's what's causing a lot of concern in the business community and in the public. You need more than that in order to get the province's economy back on track." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, West Central Crossroads

"There isn't another jurisdiction in North America that would have seen their cash flow increase by 25 per cent from $8 billion to $10 billion, and still they can't manage it. They're running a $1 billion deficit. It's just irresponsible." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, West Central Crossroads

But let's also give some Christmas cheer to new NDP Opposition leader Dwain Lingenfelter who has actually been a surprisingly strong advocate on rural issues - especially in the last three months when a tightening budget has the government thinking of cuts. -Murray Mandryk, West Central Crossroads

"The last budget was a total disaster and it wasn't just potash that was wrong - it was every line. And we're counting on the government to be more transparent; to inform the public both on the income side and the revenue side, and on what the true story is." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Outlook

"What we're hoping is the government and the Premier are doing their own work now, because we can't afford two budgets in a row that lead us into deficit." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Outlook

"First the government removes our ability to govern education property tax rates at the local level and now they are saying zero percent increase in our budgets. This calls for action from education providers to lobby the government for stable and adequate funding. Children's lives and education are being jeopardized and we cannot let that happen." -Larry Ahenakew, Chairperson, Northern Lights School Division

"...we can't afford two budgets in a row that lead us into deficit. The last budget was a disaster and it wasn't just potash that was wrong - it was every line. And we're counting on the government to be more transparent; to inform the public both on the income side and revenue side, and on what the true story is." -NDP Leader Dwain Lingenfelter, The Outlook

NDP social services critic David Forbes said there has been lots of talk but little action on the issue since the Sask. Party took office more than two years ago, as reflected by the worsening statistics in the report. "It seems to have become a trademark of this government to drag its feet." -The StarPhoenix

The auditor has continually raised issues about whether policy is being followed to ensure the proper placing and protection of children in care. But in more than half the audited files - 53 per cent - workers had inadequate contact with children, up from 39 per cent in 2008.

Mr. Wendel suggests the problems here, as well as in some other problem departments, stem from a failure to develop and implement a proper human resource plan. "It's either a capacity or commitment issue," he points out, where the agencies don't have adequate staff, have in place the wrong staff, or have people without the proper training to do what's needed. -The StarPhoenix

The Environment Ministry in particular remains a perennial laggard in addressing the concerns raised by the auditor's office, seemingly lacking direction from the top, sound management in the middle and follow-through at the rank and file level. -The Star Phoenix

With the Saskatchewan's boom gone bust in a hurry as potash revenues hit the dumpster, and Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer talking about freezing government spending...suddently the $1.05 billion summary deficit projected this year is getting plenty of attention. -The StarPhoenix

But as Mr. Wendel noted in an interview, what he said a year ago in presenting an almost identical assessment of the government's performance but got little attention at the height of the economic boom, bears repeating today: "Nobody is going to care about summary and GRF statements until there's a deficit." -The StarPhoenix

...we have a public sector that improves its measurable output at a rate slower than the rest of the economy, and a government that sees expenditure announcements as more important than performance. That means constantly increasing government expenditures, which put Saskatchewan one potash crash away from a fiscal crack-up. -David Seymour, Special to The StarPhoenix

The auditor also continues to be concerned about the protection of children in the care of Social Services. "Ministry employees are not following the established processes for the proper care of these children. The ministry lacks timely information on how many children are wards, who they are and where they live," Wendel said. -The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan government has been gambling with public money by letting ongoing problems linger, according to the provincial auditor. -The Leader-Post

The voting public should rightly ask why the government's high-profiled UDP was stricken from the record. After all, for 11 of the 12 months since the 2008 Throne Speech, the UDP and nuclear controversy was front and centre in the media. Such an omission doesn't happen by accident. -Jim Harding, R Town News

...when I looked at the sparse section on energy, way down near the bottom of the Throne Speech, there was no mention of the previously high priority Uranium Development Partnership (UDP). I wondered if I had been in a long, deep dream. Had I only imagined that last October the Wall government gave $3-million to the UDP to recommend how to expand the nuclear industry? -Jim Harding, R Town News

The government thinks that to win the next election it must tackle health-care waiting times, but there's nothing in the Throne Speech on how environmental degradation makes us all sicker. -Jim Harding, R Town News

When we learned that the long-promised emergency helicopter is no longer in the plans because, as Health Minister Don McMorris explained, it's just not feasible under the current economic restraints. This was something that the Sask. Party promised for more than a decade while in Opposition. -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

Some of this potential damage emerging out of the mid-year update are things we've already discussed like the deferral of capital spending to 13 rural nursing homes and hospitals and the reduction in agriculture spending at a time when farmers and ranchers could surely use some help. -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

...perhaps the biggest blunder we are now seeing is the Sask. Party government's proposed solution that always seem to involve taking something away from rural Saskatchewan. In fact, the longer this legislative sitting went, the more was taken away. -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

The government clearly made a blunder when it assumed a worldwide recession would have no effect on world potash sales at a time when the potash industry in North America was severely over-valuing its product. An even bigger mistake was the record government spending based on what were clearly shaky revenue projections. -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

Most of the digging was designed to bury the $1.05-billion summary financial statement deficit announced in the mid-year budget update - a far cry from the surplus the government promised in March. -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

Mercifully, the fall sitting of the legislature has come to an end for the Saskatchewan Party government. Actually, it was a rather mercifully end for a lot of us in this province - especially those living in the rural areas. The longer the session went on, the deeper the Sask. Party dug itself into trouble...although it mostly seemed as if it was the rest of us getting covered in dirt. -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

The government is warned by the auditor that its books can't be trusted and it sees that warning as just more political games? Let's hope not. Let's hope Wall and company can still be a little humbled by at least the provincial auditor. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

In terms of the economic costs, the economic costs are straightforward. We are the ones who are going to pay. There is no one else there. So the costs will end up coming out of our standard of living. -Eric Howe, Professor of Economics, University of Saskatchewan (CBC News, Blue Sky)

(the Wall Government) inherited such a fiscally solid position that I think they felt that they could buy anything they wanted with our money. And frankly, as we all know, there always is a budget constraint. And I would say the deficits that were run by Devine and the deficit that is now being run by the Wall Government are, in fact, entirely analogous. -Eric Howe, Professor of Economics, University of Saskatchewan (CBC News, Blue Sky)

Brad Wall's government inherited an extremely positive, extremely solid fiscal position. And that, unfortunately communicated to the members of the provincial cabinet that there effectively wasn't a budget constraint. And sadly, if I violate my own budget constraints, it costs me and it costs my family. When they violate their budget constraints, it doesn't cost them, it costs us. -Eric Howe, Professor of Economics, University of Saskatchewan (CBC News, Blue Sky)

We have gone in those three years from having a one billion-dollar surplus to running the second largest deficit in the history of the province. To find a larger deficit, you would have to go back to the last year of Grant Devine's government. -Eric Howe, Professor of Economics, University of Saskatchewan (CBC News, Blue Sky)

First, the province warned it might not be able to keep a promise of more direct funding to school boards and a cut to your property tax. Well, now the finance minister is warning that a promise cities and towns of a set share of the provincial sales tax might not come through, either, And that might also affect your property tax. -Garth Materie, CBC News, Blue Sky

Promises made, promises broken. How might the province's backtracking on funding promises to municipalities and school boards affect you and me? The bad news just keeps on rolling this week. -Garth Materie, CBC News, Blue Sky

Saskatchewan's agriculture ministry has found another $20 million to give back to the provincial general revenue fund. The ministry has now contributed $40 million to the government's cost-cutting and restraint measures that were required after expected potash revenue didn't materialize. -Karen Briere, The Western Producer

...workers aren't being given the information they need nor is the Saskatchewan Party government providing support to ministry employees in enforcing labour laws and health and safety rules. -The Leader-Post

Adding to the health region's financial challenges are the province's belt-tightening measures. In response to lower-than-expected potash revenue, the provincial government announced $8.1 million in program reductions, including $5 million trimmed from the health regions' non-clinical programs. -Pamela Cowan, The Leader-Post

Brad Wall's honeymoon is officially over - and his big troubles as premier have begun. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

The grand rural-urban conservative coalition which brought Wall's Saskatchewan Party to power is beginning to unravel. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

The Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association has denounced the loss of the PST point. Local school boards, a foundation of political conservatism in the province, are getting angry and restive. ...Regina's right-wing mayor, Pat Fiacco, formerly a darling of Wall's Sask. Party, has been uncharacteristically pointed and public in his criticisms of the government. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Post

The negative political fallout for Wall has begun, most particularly among his "natural" constituency, his right-wing base in the province. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

The province has moved overnight from a healthy projected surplus to a billion dollar deficit - the worse since 1991, the year of the scandal-ridden Devine Tory government which left Saskatchewan an economic basket case. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

A multitude of cuts are being carried out beneath the public radar throughout the whole government and its bureaucracy. To deal with the crisis, the government has pulled over half a billion from the rainy day fund carefully built up by the previous NDP government. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

The Wall government has begun to renege - no children's hospital, no long-term care facilities, no one PST point for the municipalities and no stable funding formula for the school boards(many have slipped into deficits). -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

The potash boom lasted just long enough for Wall to begin delivering the promises in the budget. But the boom suddenly vanished. Expected government revenues from potash have fallen from the budget's projection of $1.96 billion to $109 million, and it is still unknown if the floor has been reached in the collapse in both potash prices and demand. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

Unfortunately for Brad Wall, his political ponzi scheme collapsed after only eight or nine months. The government's budget was so out of touch with reality - it was based on endlessly high potash revenues - that many in Saskatchewan never believed it for a moment. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

Last March, the Wall government brought in a budget with huge tax cuts...Despite naysayers among experts who suggested this was a fantasy budget that could not work in the real world, Wall proclaimed Saskatchewan's booming economy recession-proof, and it would all work out. Then he crossed his fingers and hoped it would last until the 2011 election was over. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

Premier Brad Wall had a political ponzi scheme ready to soar in Saskatchewan. Unfortunately for the Saskatchewan Party, it's been grounded by the worldwide recession before it could really take off. -John F. Conway, The Prairie Dog

Right from Day One, minding the pennies hasn't exactly been the strength of Premier Brad Wall's government. Political operatives and ordinary civil servants were hired and fired with little regard for the salaries and severances being paid. -Murray Mandryk

But how could a government that had reduced the public debt by about $2.8 billion suddenly have a debt problem? And how could a government that increased the operational budgets of government departments by $1.5-billion or 18.5-per-cent in just two years possibly be contemplating a spending freeze right now? -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

We're now talking about freezing spending in the 2010-11 budget. And we're talking about it in the context of significantly increasing provincial debt - something tat we hoped we left behind us in the 1980s and early 1990s. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Since the mid-term financial report that saw both the debt and government spending increase, there have been solid reasons to fear Saskatchewan's return to the bad old days. ...as it referred to Devine's massive, debt-inducing and sometimes unnecessary mega-projects. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...the government actually went a surprising step further by suggesting it would consider any community's proposal to facilitate nuclear waste disposal - a significant departure from Premier Brad Wall's stated position that Saskatchewan has no appetite for nuclear waste. -Murray Mandryk

As Canada was being hammered by environmentalists at the international climate change talks, Heppner - in Copenhaagen in Premier Brad Wall's stead - clearly decided her best tactic was to lend support to the embattled Conservatives who once employed her as a communication strategist. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It would have been nice if Saskatchewan Environment Minister Nancy Heppner had curbed her enthusiasm for the federal Conservative government Wednesday. This didn't seem to be a great day to be lending one's unconditional support to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's environmental policy. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Gantefoer was stumped when asked about another order-in-council that saw Norris appointed to something called the Investment Board. "I don't believe that's under my purview," he said before an aide interjected that it was inactive. Gantefoer is in fact chair of the Investment Board. -The StarPhoenix

The Saskatchewan government has been gambling with public money by letting ongoing problems linger, the provincial auditor says. In Vol. 3 of his 2009 report, provincial auditor Fred Wendel said public money remained at risk in some areas because of poor financial controls. -The StarPhoenix

The provincial government is not following proper accounting principles and its net debt is more than $8 billion - double what is reported - the government's financial watchdog reported Tuesday. -The StarPhoenix

Van Mulligen challenged those numbers. He said in recent private-sector forecasts from the big banks suggest growth will be well below one per cent this year. He also questioned the potash revenue projections, adding that recently Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan has cut back production and extended layoffs in the mines. -CBC News

NDP finance critic Harry Van Mulligen said the budget is built on "blind optimism," ignores signs that the economy is slowing and isn't sustainable over the long term. "Strong and steady...we think this budget is wrong already," he said. -CBC News

Disturbingly, it was a similar unfettered belief in the surging market that likely led the Sask. Party government this spring to ignore the better advice of its own ministry of finance and bet the budget on a repeat of 2008's record potash revenues. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Facing a mid-year 2009-10 budget report that ushered in Wall's first real governing challenge (in the form of a $1.05-billion overall deficit), what we saw is a disturbing return to some old Conservative notions. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...it's first taste of economic adversity (in the last few months) has really served to demonstrate how deeply rooted this Conservative economic philosophy might really be in Wall's governing Sask. Party ranks. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The political instinct that the Saskatchewan Party premier must fight in 2010 is his dyed-in-the-wool conservative belief that we will simply grow our way out of the budgetary problems we're now encountering. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Judging by both his reaction and Gantefoer's counterattack, a siege mentality seems to be developing in corners of the executive council that won't be helpful to Wall in the long run. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Wall, had he been on his game, would clearly have recognized that his petulance simply wasn't the right approach. ...Unfortunately, his less than constructive sentiments appear to be reinforced by those around Wall. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Taxpayers not only are owed a clear and concise update of Saskatchewan's financial circumstances, but also deserve a premier who is capable of demonstrating leadership, especially during the kind of increased economic turbulence we're likely to see in 2010. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But we also witnessed in late 2009 a politician with an unfortunate tendency to feel hard done by, even when the circumstances don't really merit it. It was a defensive Wall whom we saw after the mid-year budget, complaining that reporters were unfairly provincial. He complained that reporters were unfair not to put in context today's $1.05 deficit with the $2.3 billion debt paydown in his first year. Since then, we've seen Gantefoer use letters to the editor to make similar claims of unfairness. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Given the economic challenges that face him in 2010, it certainly will be a significantly tougher task for Wall to be seen as a positive influence. After an early term debt paydown of $2.3 billion, the mid-year budget update from Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer for 2009-10 clearly shows $1.05 billion summary deficit that will be added to the provincial debt. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

With the $1.8-billion shortfall, Gantefoer scrambled to freeze spending, cut programs and delay or defer promised tax cuts and large-scale capital projects, like the children's hospital in Saskatoon. And all because somebody miscalculated - badly - on the price of a pink rock. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

But as financially embarrassing as the potash production/price collapse was to the industry, it was a massive body blow to the finances of the Saskatchewan Party government and a huge slap in the face to the, whose ministry relied heavily on the potash industry's projections. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

And with the news this week that Domtar is dismantling the shuttered Prince Albert pulp mill, Saskatchewan Party MLA Darryl Hickie's 2007 campaign pledge that "a vote for Darryl is a vote for the mill open and people working" isn't likely to be forgotten for a while. -The StarPhoenix

While there has been internal finger pointing at both finance and energy officials for the budget miscalculation, the reality is the government had neither the mechanism nor the interest in making an independent assessment. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Besides severely limiting the Sask. Party government's flexibility to spend in the lead-up to the next election, the massive miscalculation and debt has political foes and analysts conjuring up unfavourable comparisons with the Grant Devine government of the 1980s. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Scrambling to offset the shortfall, the government postponed the Children's Hospital in Saskatoon and 13 rural nursing home-hospital projects. However, the government is now threatening to freeze municipal grants and education propertu tax cuts. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It was the biggest single miscalculation of resource revenues in the province's budgeting history and produced the second-biggest overall deficit in Saskatchewan history: $1.05-billion on a summary basis. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

After gambling nearly $10 billion in spending on the notion that potash revenues would again hit $2 billion, the Saskatchewan Party government spent much of 2009 stunned by a $1.8-billion decline in potash revenues from its March budget prediction. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Describing himself to be as "fiscally conservative as anyone you'll ever meet," Howe said the Saskatchewan Party government has dug itself a "fairly deep hole" - the largest deficit the province has seen since the Progressive Conservative government's last budget in 1991. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"If I were to ask the Finance Minister (Rod Gantefoer) one thing, it would be: `Where did the money go?'" Howe said Wednesday, adding that the Devine government also blamed its deficits on recessions even when Saskatchewan wasn't in recession. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

University of Saskatchewan economist Eric Howe - whom the Saskatchewan Party government recently praised for insisting that this province had avoided the recession - said in an interview Wednesday that the current government has a spending problem and not a resource revenue problem caused by failing potash sales. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

One of the province's foremost economists says the Brad Wall government is suffering from the same mindset that plagued the Grant Devine government and added $10 billion in debt in 10 years. -Murray Mandryk

Even more legitimately maddening was the remarkable hubris of Advanced Education, Manpower and Labour Minister Rob Norris and his staff, who seemed unwilling or still unable to answer issues raised by the unions at the hearings last summer. There again, if a government is intent on jamming legislation through anyway, should we be surprised it didn't attempt to answer questions? Unfortunately this is what happens when governments get a little too eager to do the bidding of their supporters. It tends to lead to trouble. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The best the rest of us can hope for is that whoever is in power isn't so beholden or captivated by its supporters that it starts to make really bad, rash policy decisions. Unfortunately, this was precisely the disturbing thing about Sask. Party MLAs trying to ram through Bill 80 in the waning hours of this sitting for what seemed to be little reason other than placating their business clientele who came to the public gallery to see Bill 80 passed. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

NDP education critic Pat Atkinson said the government is leaving everybody - including school boards - in the dark about its intentions. "We have the biggest education funding change in the history of the province. School boards no longer get access to the tax base, so the minister promised them continuity and stability going forward, and now he's saying we may not have this in place before the next election," Atkinson said. "I think it's very disappointing. What's really disconcerting is that many school boards used reserves this year in order to deal with education financing." -The StarPhoenix

Further education property tax cuts promised by the Saskatchewan Party under a new funding system for school divisions may not happen in 2010, a casualty of the government's financial woes... With the government taking over the responsibility from school boards for setting education property mill rates, taxes are supposed to go down again in 2010 and the province's share of funding increase to 66 per cent. But with the government promising a belt-tightening budget, Krawetz said that may not happen. -The StarPhoenix

Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco said he expects the provincial government to live up to the plan it outlined in the last provincial budget. "There was certainly never a caveat attached. Our expectation frankly was to get the full cent lasy year and we settled with 90 per cent of the full cent. People have really come to rely on the predictability of the new municipal operating grant. A promise made should be a promise kept. And once again, PST does not reflect their ability to sell potash to China or India." -The Leader-Post

With the government already talking last week about potentially backtracking on its promise to further cut education property taxes and increase its direct funding to education next year, the Sask. Party's two big-ticket items from this spring's budget have hit unexpected bumps before being fully implemented. -The Leader-Post

A promise to boost funding for municipalities in next year's provincial budget may be sacrificed to the Saskatchewan Party government's current financial predicament. -The Leader-Post

After all, if there are two separate economic stories - potash and everything else - why might municipal taxpayers be asked to pay for the shortfall in the provincial government revenue? Isn't that why municipal revenue increases were tied to the PST - a far more stable, predictable source of revenue - in the first place? Are there really two stories in Saskatchewan? Or are there only two stories when it comes to the government justifying the consequences of its overly optimistic potash revenue projections? -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But what might be even more interesting is how it flies in the face of all the spin we've been hearing from the Sask. Party government since the mid-year financial statement about how everything is good in the province except for potash. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Wall was spinning the notion Tuesday that the province would still be matching this record contribution to municipal funding (which, is a lot nicer way to put it than calling it a funding freeze) and that the increases would go ahead as soon as resource revenues got better next year. This will come as cold comfort to normally amicable leaders like Fiacco and Earle who are already counting on additional municipal revenue in 2010 to avoid passing on property tax increases to people like you and me. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Even more irksome to SUMA is the fact that Gantefoer would speculate with reporters Monday on arbitrarily changing the agreed-upon formula without at least first notifying municipal leaders. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...public interest will certainly be piqued when Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco (often and unfairly criticized for being too aligned with the Sask. Party government) or SUMA President Allan Earle (who seems like he could get along with anybody) now say that the Sask. Party is going back on its word. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Judging by the justifiably irritated reaction of municipal leaders to Finance MInister Rod Gantefoer's musings that his government might not go ahead with further municipal funding increases because of dwindling potash revenue, one gets the impression that this province's most significant stakeholder group isn't all that confident in the Sask. Party government in the wake of its mid-year financial report. In fact, it's this reaction from the municipal leaders that should be most worrisome to Brad Wall's administration right now. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It's really a simple choice: Either we have two stories in the Saskatchewan economy right now - potash and everything else, or; potash is the only story in Saskatchewan. If it's truly the latter, the government has more problems on its hands than anyone thinks. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

If there are really two stories in Saskatchewan - potash and everything else - why on earth would the Saskatchewan Party government even consider not making good on its promise to increase municipal funding? -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan Party government is prepared to back away from both education property tax cuts and increased funding for municipalities it promised for 2010...But the Opposition NDP said it will be taxpayers who will bear the cost of broken promises that spring from Sask. Party financial mismanagement. -The Leader-Post

In the spring, the Sask. Party acknowledged it would break its 2007 election promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 32 per cent below 2004 levels by 2020 - a target it had adopted from the previous NDP government - in favour of laxer federal targets. NDP environment critic Sandra Morin said she would be glad to see any movement from the Sask. Party on emissions after a lack on action on the issue in its first two years. -The StarPhoenix

With all the activity the uranium/nuclear issue in Saskatchewan these days, residents might want to check their homeowner insurance policies to learn how much coverage we get in the event of what the industry and government call a "nuclear incident." Hint: Look in the section entitled Exemptions. -Elaine Hughes, The StarPhoenix

What is the Brad Wall government doing with the healthy financial legacy it inherited? It is following the example of the former Conservative government. It has cut taxes and spent wildly. It looks as if this government will continue on that road until the NDP will again have to take over and get us back on track. Ho Hum. What else is new? -Jack Driedger, The StarPhoenix

Yes, the pink elephant of potash the finance minister saw when he dreamed up the 2009-10 budget has proven to be an illusion, but given the array of spending increases at provincial agencies, Messrs. Wall, Gantefoer and Krawetz should keep their word. -The StarPhoenix

Yet the reality is that, on a summary basis, the province's books for the current year are in the hole to the tune of $1 billion. Unless Mr. Wall's administration remains focused on spending money to build for the future instead of trying to placate voters by throwing gobs of cash at causes on the basis of short-term political rewards, things could get ugly in a hurry. -The StarPhoenix

If indeed Mr. Gantefoer was trying to float a trial balloon to learn what reception the notion of holding back a grant increase to municipalities would get, it turned out to be lead balloon that was dropped on his feet the moment he handed it to municipal leaders. -The StarPhoenix

Having made the commitment to stable funding, it's disingenuous of Mr. Gantefoer now to suggest, as he did this week, that "municipalities are just as astute as anyone else and are looking at the challenge that we're facing with the potash shortfall and saying, `Marybe we better be a little bit prudent as well, and wait and see what's actually going to be made available'." -The StarPhoenix

The volatility of resource markets, the very reason that Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer is now scrambling to gain control of a budget that hurtled off the tracks, is precisely why his government shouldn't be backtracking on a stable funding deal with Saskatchewan's municipalities and its commitment to further ease property taxes. -The StarPhoenix

NDP energy and resources critic Darcy Furber, who raised the issue in question period, said the government clearly has its mind made up about Big River. "It certainly seems the government has killed any hope that Big River had. The 200,000 cubic metres the minister alluded to is on-quarter of what it takes to make that mill viable. Without the wood allocation, that mill is dead." -The StarPhoenix

Should a government ever be throwing money into Death Valley? And shouldn't it stop when its annual budget deficit hits a billion dollars? How addicted to spending do you have to be to think this is a good idea? It's time for Wall to come to terms with this addiction. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Finally, the government absolutely needs to eliminate all nonsensical spending, like the $25 million Bill Boyd's Innovation Ministry dedicates to researching and developing private sector ventures that the government says would otherwise be headed for Death Valley. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It's ridiculous to believe every ministry needs a director of communications, but it's even more ridiculous when you consider that the Sask. Party has turned these jobs into dumping grounds for former executive council political hires. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

However, no one in Saskatchewan should be expected to suffer before Wall's own political apparatchiks, so the first act should be a voluntary government MLA wage freeze accompanied by wage freezes or even rollbacks in all executive council, ministerial and caucus offices. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Mr. Premier, you need to stop talking about any debt you've retired and instead focus on the debt you're now creating at the Devinian pace of a billion this year. Again sir, you have a spending problem. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Mr. Premier, stop looking for places to spend money you don't have right now. Start looking for places to save. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Brad Wall has become addicted to spending and not even the intervention this week by his old economics professor, Eric Howe, helped Wall come to terms with his vice. Evidently, another intervention is required. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Wall truly appears to be suffering from Devine's affliction - the need for just one more hit of resource revenue to give the government one more spending high. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Wall's conviction that the billion-dollar deficit his Saskatchewan Party government unveiled last month will magically turn around when resource revenues recover is an economic and political disaster in the making. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Premier Brad Wall's frightening problem right now is that he truly does think he can get out of the dark deficit hole he's dug by digging even deeper. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"Strong and Steady" was how the government described Saskatchewan's fiscal position when it released its budget in March. Since then, plummeting resource revenues have forced it to backtrack on several commitments. -Prairie Dog

"Without proper examinations, how do we know whether this financial statement is a any more accurate than the budget that they tried to fly by us last March?" Lingenfelter said. Whatever's decided, bet on Link and co. having a lot to say. -Stephen LaRose, Prairie Dog

In the Nov. 19 budget update, Gantefoer revealed that the province's operating budget for 2009-10 is a billion dollars in the red - not exactly what he forecast in March's budget. Twenty per cent of the province's projected income during the 2009-10 fiscal year - about $2 billion - was to come from potash royalties. Someone in his ministry didn't learn the lessons of the 2006-07 oil boom: if the price gets high enough, people eventually stop paying. -Stephen LaRose, Prairie Dog

Making things scarier, government spending increased by more than 30 per cent in the last 18 months, which also saw the single biggest income tax cut in the province's history. Apparently not much though was given to any scenario where the good times didn't keep rolling. Not only has the Sask. Party government now blown the estimated $2.1 billion surplus the outgoing NDP left behind, they're now selling assets to maintain the operating budget. -Stephen LaRose, Prairie Dog

It was one of the Saskatchewan Party's big promises; coming up with a new way to share money with the province's municipalities; one that was tied to the economy and one which was predictable, so local politicians weren't just relying on the whims of any one finance minister. The solution? To share one percentage point of the money raised by the provincial tax, worth about 220 million dollars. The promise was to be fully implemented this coming spring. But now Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer says maybe not: "Quite simply, if the revenue isn't there to allow it..." -CBC News Radio

More to the point though, how is this smoking flip-flop looking out for the average Saskatchewan person? For that matter, how does cutting municipal grants or not providing school tax relief meet that objective? Instead of standing up for people in these tougher times, Wall lost his way. In turn, his Sask. Party government lost the battle this sitting. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It's a telling indicator of Wall's leadership, causing one to wonder: If he can't get his own caucus focused and moving in the same direction, why should we hold out any hope the government can get a handle on its weakening finances? -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Yet Wall was trying to convince reporters Thursday that a more important theme was "moving the province forward" during a recession (a recession that we may or may not not have participated in, depending on which day you asked Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer about it). Really, Mr. Premier? ...That Wall seemed to have lost sight of these priorities speaks volumes about the way he and his government consistently ran into problems during this sitting...-Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan Party government's decision to not extend the smoking ban to restaurant and bar patios was a small thing in the context of this legislative sitting. It was even a small thing in the context of otherwise good legislation. But in a very real way, it perfectly represented the failing of not only the Sask. Party administration this sitting, but the personal failing of Premier Brad Wall to provide the leadership we should have expected from him in these times. And this might be why the Sask. Party lost this sitting. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"The people who have been hit hardest by the recession are seniors. The largest growth of new people coming into food banks pretty much across the country are senior citizens. And you've just got to say to yourself, `That's wrong.'...The seniors in this country are being left behind . And, we have an aging populations. So we have a demographic train coming at us and we don't have the tools in place." -NDP Leader Jack Layton, The StarPhoenix

The NDP also blocked the government's Bill 80, affecting construction-industry labour relations, from passing and refused to allow estimates to come to a vote. -The Leader-Post

The Premier is offering Mayor Pat Fiacco no relief. It follows criticism Regina's leader made publicly Wednesday morning that his relationship with the province has been dealt a blow with news the municipal revenue sharing agreement promised in the budget may be delayed. -Sarah Mills, News Talk CKOM

"You just can't do that, you just can't. Don't take us for granted. It is a huge step back, huge. It is absolutely wrong, absolutely wrong. It is really simple to fix. Let's get together, let's have a discussion, and talk about the future. PST is way different than potash." -Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco, News Talk CKOM

Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco thinks the relationship between the municipal and provincial government has taken a serious blow. The strong words for Brad Wall's government came Wednesday morning as Fiacco presented his Year in Review speech to a packed Queensbury Convention Centre. Fiacco believes the province is backing out of its promised municipal revenue sharing deal that would see municipalities eventually get 1% of the PST. -Mike Raptis, News Talk CKOM

"Last week, without consultation, and against everything we worked so hard to achieve, it was announced, in the media, that those funds would be frozen, that we are going to get the same amount that we got last year, even though those PST revenues have grown," Fiacco said. "We all know that the reason for that is the fact that the (provincial) government's financial position has been compromised as a result of the poor potash performance." Fiacco pointed out that potash revenues - or lack thereof - have "nothing to do with PST. It could cost us - you, the taxpayers of Regina - $8 million in lost revenue," Fiacco said. -The Leader-Post

Fiacco made a strongly worded speech to the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning in which he implored the Saskatchewan Party government not to change the funding to municipalities announced in the provincial budget earlier this year. -The Leader-Post

But all this said there is something disturbing about the Sask. Party's first inclination to look to rural Saskatchewan to fix the mess it created in its budget. -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

That prospect was raised in the wake of Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer's mid-year financial update that has produced a billion-dollar deficit in 2009-10 - the biggest such deficit since the Grant Devine Progressive Conservatives were given the heave-ho by everyone in Saskatchewan 18 years ago. -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

But what happens if NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter is right and the Saskatchewan Party is already abandoning its rural base at the first sign of tough times? -Murray Mandryk, R Town News

What Wendel was talking about was the Sask. Party government's failure to "reflect the costs of decisions made during the year" by using "inappropriate accounting policies" to overstate the surpluses and massively understate the amount of debt we've been accumulating. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

"Because the errors significantly impair the usefulness of these financial statements, we have qualified our auditor's report on the GRF (General Revenue Fund) financial statements published in Public accounts 2008-09 Volume 1. `Qualified' audit reports are not normal and should cause concern for legislators and the public. Our audit report advises readers of the errors in the financial statement." -Provincial Auditor, Fred Wendel

So given Wall's petulance last week over how unfair it was to call the current massive deficit a deficit, or how wrong-headed it was for us to dwell on the notion that debt is on the rise again, it would seem doubtful he is now going to be swayed by the easily-ignored auditor. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

If Premier Brad Wall hasn't yet been humbled by the current financial mess, a quick perusal of Vol.3 of the Report of the Provincial Auditor on the 2008-09 government accounts should do the trick. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Again, we have a looming problem of Grant Devine proportions. ...The debt is increasing because departmental operational costs have increased by $1.489 billion or 18.5 per cent in just two years of Premier Brad Wall's government. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

In fact, if the Finance Ministry's debt projection is accurate, the Sask. Party will end its first term of governance with about as much public debt as it inherited and will increase public debt by 12 per cent by 2013, if elected to a second term. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But what's more disturbing is this: it not only reverses a significant trend of public debt reduction we've been seeing in years, but will also worsen the disturbing trend the Sask. Party government outlined in its own March budget toward much larger public debt in the near future. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Not even the biggest Saskatchewan Party sycophant would dare spin the mid-year numbers as anything other than what they are - the biggest rise in public debt we've seen since the Grant Devine days. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

In the aftermath of last month's mid-year budget report, which revealed the fallacy of pinning government spending on the hopes of potash revenue forever remaining at 2008's record levels, the problem boils down to ugly bottom-line figures: According to the summary financial statement in the mid-year report - the total budget used by every other province - Saskatchewan will have a $1.047-billion deficit in 2009-10. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But after a mid-year budget report that balances the 2009-10 books through a $570-million dividend from the Crowns and a $564-million transfer from today's fiscal stabilization fund, can Wall honestly call this a true revenue-over-expenditure GRF surplus? (That would be surprising, because even Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer is saying otherwise.) -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It's hard to figure which of Wall's notions was more idiotically comical - that he now seems to think he's the first Saskatchewan politician to ever be criticized for such financial jiggery-pokery or that he could possibly feel hard-done-by by the media? ...Governments that dig deep financial holes and then try to cover them up will always be criticized. So Wall - who used to do the criticizing - now feels unfairly treated because...? -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Asked by reporters Wednesday how his ads could fairly claim that his government was running a budget surplus in its general revenue fund when the overall summary financial statement shows the province running a $1.05-billion deficit this year, Wall launched into a lengthy, self-pitying soliloquy about how unfairly his government is being treated by the media and others (see: University of Saskatchewan economics professor Eric Howe). -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...what was more telling was Wall's petulant justification Wednesday for these ads. You quickly got the distinct impression that, for the first time, he's feeling a little heat. You also get the distinct impression that he's not handling it particularly well. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall's recent radio advertisements (even if they are paid for by his own party) boasting that his government now has a balanced budget are patently misleading and borderline dishonest. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Rather than simply talk about freezing spending, the government should be adjusting its thinking to take into account what jobs it is required to do - such as looking after health, education, social services, the environment and other responsibilities that are constitutionally mandated - and then consider how to pay for them on a sustainable, long-term basis. -The StarPhoenix

And as Mr. Gantefoer calls for spending freezes, the government must recognize that its investment in expanding Saskatchewan's infrastructure comes complete with pressure on its operating costs. For example, it would seem to be counterproductive to build a state-of-the-art health science centre at the University of Saskatchewan if the government can't provide the university the wherewithal to equip the facility, staff it and hire the faculty to allow it to reach its potential. -The StarPhoenix

It is increasingly looking like the Saskatchewan Party entered the public treasury with all the finesse and forethought of Ali Baba's brother Kassim when it took office just more than two years ago. The excitement of so much wealth seems to have addled its decision-making, and now the prospect of having the taps turned off seems to be a daunting challenge. -The StarPhoenix

As was pointed out when Mr. Gantefoer presented his budget in March, it is always dangerous for a government to spend one-time money - particularly from such fluctuating sources as resource revenue - as if it would continue to flow indefinitely. -The StarPhoenix

While it is always wise for a government to examine carefully every penny of the public's money it spends, Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer's conversion to fiscal conservatism is coming late. And it has all the appearance of desperation instead of prudence. -The StarPhoenix

How can the Wall government, which is bound by freedom of information, withhold the details of a trade deal that potentially has far-reaching implications for Saskatchewan residents? -Jenn Ruddy, The Sasquatch

Wall, who opposed TILMA because of its potential threat to Saskatchewan's publicly owned utilities, has since promised Saskatchewan residents that Crown corporations will be exempt from the new agreement. However, Saskatchewan residents can't confirm this, because the Wall government is refusing to let the public see a draft of the agreement. -Jenn Ruddy, The Sasquatch

I'm not satisfied with relying solely on well-crafted government news releases for information, I like to know how decisions are arrived at and why, and also who was involved in making them. That rarely happens, though, because the government withholds so much information. -Joe Kuchta, citizen journalist

...Are we at the point where fear and mistrust is affecting how government employees do their jobs or the advice they are giving to government? Unfortunately, we may never know for certain. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But what might be even more troublesome in the broader context of the Sask. Party government is the fear and loathing such events create within the civil service. Stories like (Andrea) Dunkle's do send a chill through the entire public sector. It is the civil servants themselves who begin to ask: Is this a story simply about the insubordination of an overzealous employee? Or was this a civil servant who was perceived to not share the "premier's philosophy"? -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Whether the Saskatchewan Party government truly has as big a problem with the civil service as its enemies would have us believe is an interesting point. ...Or better put, we should all be looking for sometimes invisible fallout that stories like this create - an atmosphere in which civil servants fear the ramifications for speaking out or simply doing their jobs. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Deficit is a dirty word in Saskatchewan politics. ...The legacy of debt left in 1991 by the outgoing Progressive Conservative government of former premier Grant Devine cemented the political aversion to the D-word. -The Leader-Post

Earlier this week, Premier Brad Wall restated his resistance to a likely continental cap-and-trade system of emission reductions and his government's own plan for a provincial levy that would see large polluters pay into a "Saskatchewan Technology Fund" that would keep dollars in the province. But Matt Price of the group Environmental Defence said the problem with the premier's sales pitch is that it is highly unlikely that Saskatchewan would be able to exempt itself from a continental system nor would it actually be desirable for the province or its businesses. -The StarPhoenix

"It is not based on the sale of potash, it's not based on the sale of oil, and once again, it hasn't seen a full year in operation, and we're already starting to diddle around with it...We want the predictability. We want to be partners at the table if (it) is (changed)." -Allan Earle, President of Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), The Leader-Post

Two days after Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco's public criticism of the Saskatchewan Party government, Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association president Allan Earle made similar remarks. "Quite frankly, it worries us when we have a Municipal Operating Grant that's less than a year old and we're talking about possibly having to change it," he told reporters during a break from a SUMA board meeting. -Joe Couture, The Leader-Post

The problem is also one of perception. By appearing to oppose any system that puts a price on carbon - cap-and-trade, carbon tax, you name it - Wall risks being labelled a climate change do-nothing. But Wall can't continue to oppose every climate change initiative that comes down the pipe, without appearing to have his head stuck in the oilsands. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

On the face of it, Wall's proposal seems sensible enough. Instead of taxing carbon, let's put that money into a fund and actually use it to reduce our carbon footprint. ...The problem with Wall's plan is one of both perception and reality. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

Sure, Wall believes we can do more to reduce our carbon emissions, which he admits are among the highest per capita in the country. ...But ask him about cap-and-trade, carbon taxes or other schemes to force countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and the affable Wall goes apoplectic. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

Hidden somewhere behind all the ponies, gophers, cheesy moustaches and general warm and fuzzies that Premier Brad Wall has served up at the legislature this week has been a lot of bad news in what’s become a bad sitting for his Saskatchewan Party government. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Of all the misleading clichés one hears in politics, the worst might be the Saskatchewan Party’s mantra about refusing to be a government that picks winners and losers. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan Party government is grounding its long-cherished idea of a helicopter air ambulance service because of its hefty price tag. …“It isn’t a priority as our government moves forward, at least for the next couple of years,” Health Minister Don McMorris told reporters. -The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan Party government’s financial woes are adding up to some uncertainty for the province’s school boards – and citizens who pay education property taxes. -The Leader-Post

Consider the Sask. Party government’s other labour laws – like the amendments to Trade Union Act and the Essential Service legislation. ...As little as a month before the 2007 election, Sask. Party MLAs said essential service legislation was not necessary. As we now see in health-care contract negotiations, not only did the Sask. Party government mislead the public and labour on its intention to implement essential services legislation, but the essential services law it passed went much, much further than anyone imagined it would. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

As a government that prides itself on its practical, if ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it approach to governance, the Saskatchewan Party administration’s eagerness to potentially disrupt the construction industry with new legislation is a bit of a puzzler. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The closest thing we’ve heard from the government this week to a completely honest admission might have came from Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Minister Rob Norris who let it slip Wednesday that his government “predominantly listened to business” in preparing this bill. The truth be told is this legislation is being primarily driven by construction businesses that prefer “wall-to-wall” unionization where everyone on a job site would belong to one union. The Sask. Party government, the truth be told, would simply prefer to see this for both practical and philosophical reasons. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Truth be told – and contrary to the false assertion of committee chair Greg Ottenbreit – the trades people that came to the legislature Wednesday did not come at the behest of the NDP Opposition. They came out of deeply held concerns that this legislation threatens higher wages and might restrict their access to future jobs. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

If one ever needed a classic example of how political partisanship impedes most things – including the truth – at the Saskatchewan legislature, look no further than this week’s debate on Bill 80, The Construction Industry Labour Relations Amendment Act 2009. ...Frankly, though, the fact they weren’t particularly interested in much of anything that might have altered their already-made-up minds is exactly the problem. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...evidence emerging out of Wednesday’s hearings on Bill 80 – The Construction Industry Labour Relations Amendment Act 2009 – and past labour legislation fights on essential services and the Trade Union Act, reveals this government to be partisanly right-wing on many critical issues with little capacity or interest in seeking our broader perspectives. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Former deputy minister of social services Allan Hansen and municipal affairs deputy minister Terry Coleman left government by “mutual agreement”. Given that they received severance packages upon their departure, there’s little doubt they were dismissed without cause. What’s intriguing however is, a) deputy ministers leaving with severance are rare events in government and extraordinarily rare so long after a change in government, and b) these two weren’t leftovers from the previous NDP administration, but specifically recruited by the Wall administration. One might argue that this is a horrific development for Saskatchewan taxpayers who are now having to pay healthy severances to two more deputies – the very deputies the Sask. Party fired (at a cost to the taxpayers of $10.7 million) for “not being philosophically compatible” with the new government. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Despite Wall’s supposed “compromise” to extend sitting hours to midnight so that the Opposition could ask any budget questions it wanted during discussion of supplementary spending estimates, the government made it known to the Opposition late Monday night it had no interest in scheduling time to discuss the ministries that saw reductions in their spending as a result of the mid-year update because “supplementary estimates are required only for increases in spending.” So, there was no real budget debate at the legislature Tuesday. We did, however, have a visit by a giant gopher. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

But one does begin to wonder whether Wall and his strategists see running government as much more than a series of well-spun press releases on our somewhat dwindling good economic news, feel-good announcements and glib publicity stunts like Gopher Day. (What’s next? Belly dancers performing behind Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer to emphasize the wild gyrations?) ...And as much fun as Gainer’s appearance truly was, it’s no small irony that it occurred on the day Wall rejected extending session debate to discuss spending cuts stemming from Gantefoer’s mid-year report. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

“Hey look, there’s a giant pantless rodent on the floor of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly… So can we please stop paying attention to that billion-dollar deficit in the 2009-2010 summary financial statement that we announced last week and any cuts that might ensue.”...it’s getting hard to overlook the increasing regularity of photo opportunities by Brad Wall and his colleagues that serve little or no other purpose than to hitch the Saskatchewan Party government to popular causes while perhaps neatly deflecting attention from the mounting unpleasant fiscal realities facing the province. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

During the 2007 provincial election, Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall told us he would “manage the boom if elected.” After two years of Premier Wall’s government, we are headed for a recession and the provincial budget is in deficit. Clearly, Wall has the boom under control. -The StarPhoenix

Twenty years ago, Saskatchewan squandered decades of growth by pushing itself deep into debt for short-term political gain. During the 1990’s fiscal crunch this province was forced to make adjustments earlier and deeper than almost any other jurisdiction in the world to regain its financial footing. By now budgeting to spend resource revenue in the same way its predecessors counted on future income, this government risks inflicting similar harm on the province. -The StarPhoenix

Taxpayers deserve to have the government budget honestly. If that requires deficit spending in tough times, it’s up to the government to justify why Saskatchewan has to spend more than it makes. Mr. Gantefoer demonstrated his government’s difficulty in grasping this approach in the first sentence of the press release that announced the state of Saskatchewan’s books. -The StarPhoenix

Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer clearly was uncomfortable when he stood in the legislature Thursday to defend his government’s mid-year fiscal numbers. His discomfort was deserved. Although the minister argued he has been able to keep Saskatchewan’s books in the black, it was only due to such jiggery-pokery as tapping into questionable Growth and Financial Security Fund and using one-time revenue of $275 million from the sale of the Crown’s share of Saskferco. -The StarPhoenix

In his letter to Wall, Lingenfelter noted $293 million in spending cuts to 19 different departments and questions how families would be affected by these cuts. He also questioned how the elderly and children will be affected by deferring capital health projects like rural nursing homes and the children’s hospital. Also worth asking is: How will taking more money from the Crown corporations affect future utility rates? It’s disconcerting that Wall doesn’t now seem to think that these issues are all that pressing in wake of the mid-year mess. The premier’s better course would be to agree to at least another week of proper legislative debate. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Lingenfelter put it well Monday when he said that’s like arguing that “buying insurance is a waste of money” or that “having meetings for your farming operation or company” is a waste of time. The reality is, oppositions – regardless of political stripe – are always the voters’ best insurance against bad government policy. ...as examples of where this government could be saving money, Lingenfelter actually made a compelling case that these are issues in need of debate. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Lingenfelter’s proposal is a reasonable one. And while Premier Brad Wall’s counterproposal of somehow squeezing an extra 27 hours of House sitting time during the remaining two weeks by sitting until midnight on some days might also seem like a reasonable request, it really isn’t. …what we have here is the second-biggest budget screw up in our province’s history. If not an extra two weeks, you’d think the Wall government would see that as worthy of at least one extra week of sitting time to make amends. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...there really is no proper legislative accounting mechanism for the spending changes now happening at mid-year - something that's a particularly disconcerting issue now that Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer has dumped on Saskatchewan taxpayers his mid-year mess with a mere eight sitting days left before the Christmas break. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...here in Saskatchewan, even the usually pro-Brad Wall/Saskatchewan Party Canwest columnists are upset with the government's deceit on the economy and in the provincial budget. One day Finance Minister Gantefoer says we are in recession. The next day, he says we aren't. And then the next he says we are not in recession, but just coming out of one. -John F. Conway, Prairie Dog

...the two-year Sask. Party spending spree and its aftermath reinforces the belief that the NDP - not the Sask Party - are the real fiscal conservatives who can best mind the shop, much as the Romanow NDP campaigned on in 1991. And who was Romanow's Number One? Dwain Lingenfelter. Remember, Grant Devine was all right too. Until the money ran out. -Stephen LaRose, Prairie Dog

The Ministry of Finance, purged of high-level bureaucrats whom the Sask. Party thought were politically unreliable, forecasted economic growth of 2.4 per cent this fiscal year (four times better than what independent financial analysts were saying) and potash royalties revenues of about $2 billion. But when Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer delivers his mid-year financial statement, he's expected to announce that Saskatchewan's economy has instead contracted by two per cent and potash revenues are somewhere between $600 million and zero. That's not `oops.' That's `WTF' territory. -Stephen LaRose, Prairie Dog

Two years in, the Sask. Party has spent its time in government pummelling the labour movement with fight-picking legislation and fantasizing about all the gee-whiz things they want to spend their money on... They're kind of like the Trailer Park Boys with their first credit card. But reality is about to set in. -Stephen LaRose, Prairie Dog

Saskatchewan's business community takes a very strong interest in the finances of the province. Business owners work hard to live within their means and expect the same from all levels of government. -Marilyn Braun-Pollon, Vice President of Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Saskatchewan and Agri-business

The Saskatchewan Party has been making hay over a private member's bill introduced a week ago by MLA Tim McMillan to protect a small herd of wild ponies in eastern Saskatchewan. At the same time, the government is touting a new bounty on coyotes announced Monday that will see the province pay $20 for four paws brought to an RM office. -The StarPhoenix

...the Saskatchewan economy will officially be in a recession. This is troubling for Brad Wall's government on a number of fronts. First, this is a government that clearly hitched its star to good economic times in Saskatchewan. Well, if we are now in bad economic times, it may be tough to unhitch that star. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The government promised many things and yet many of those items are not coming to fruition because of the loss in potash revenues. Many of the deferred projects were good announcements. But, at this point that's all they are. Announcements. It may have been better to wait to make sure the provincial government actually saw the money coming in from potash revenues. The provincial government gambled on high potash royalties. They gambled big but they didn't lose. The residents of Saskatchewan lost the hand. -Melfort Journal

The provincial government’s doublespeak, misleading spin doctoring, and stupid budget projections based on huge fantasy potash revenues have run their course. Saskatchewan is in economic trouble, and it will get worse before it gets better. But Wall and his minions just deny, deny, deny, and spin, spin, spin. My advice to you? Prepare for the worst. Prepare for big program cuts. There will be more privatizations. -John F. Conway, Prairie Dog

The government needs to recognize you don’t applaud when you get sacked. Two standing ovations in the house for the finance minister was not just inappropriate but frankly insulting. You don’t applaud a deficit of one billion dollars. You show contrition and resolve. Otherwise, you just look like cheerleaders. -Murray Wood, Newstalk CKOM

The Saskatchewan Party government is facing a harsh new reality after two years buoyed by a soaring economy and swelling provincial coffers. -The StarPhoenix

...Corrections and Public Safety Minister Yogi Huyghebaert's justification for breaking his own government's protocol by not notifying the public that a man convicted of sexual assault was unlawfully at large (and then attempting to blame the problem on the NDP for raising the issue publicly) was clearly irksome. -Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

McMorris said B.C.'s position on a premium makes "perfect sense" in that “they've invested hundreds of millions of dollars" into surgical facilities. -The Leader-Post

A stunning reversal of fortune is one way of describing the predicament Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer finds himself in halfway through the fiscal year...A nightmare is another way of describing the sickening feeling of seeing $1.9 billion in projected revenues plummet by two-thirds to $638 million in the first quarter, then plunge another 83 per cent to $109 million by mid-term. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

The premier had his own word problems with reporters on Tuesday when talking about his government’s climate change program. “We had an expectation we would have an equilizat… an equivalency agreement. We still have that expectation.” Yes, Wall had to catch himself as he nearly called it equalization – a topic generally ignored by the premier since he dropped the NDP’s battle with the Conservative government for a new deal under the federal funding program. -The StarPhoenix

When 250 workers went to the legislature in June to attend public hearings on Bill 80, they were turned away. Apparently we are not the public the Saskatchewan Party is interested in listening to. -Bill Steeves, the StarPhoenix

...Wall happens to share a few personality traits with Divine. Both are unabashed optimists with few qualms about attaching themselves to the good times and hyping them as much as possible. Both tend to flitter from one big idea to the next…both the Progressive Conservative and Sask. Party governments over-spent while badly overestimating income from resource revenue. -Murray Mandryk, the Leader-Post

...on a summary basis – which includes all of the operations of government including the Crowns – a deficit projected at $25 million at budget is now pegged at $1.05 billion. That’s the highest summary deficit since the record $1.5-billion shortfall posted in 1991-1992, the last year of the Progressive Conservative government. -The Leader-Post

A Saskatchewan Party government that once boasted of being in pink is now awash in red ink. -The Leader-Post

On the heels of a mid-year financial report that shows the province is running the biggest overall deficit in 18 years, Premier Brad Wall said his government might have been too ambitious in realizing some big-ticket campaign promises this budget year. ...he told a reporter he wouldn't mind using a time machine if he had one to approach some of campaign promises differently. -Angela Hall, The Leader-Post

Rather than appear to be competent managers of the public purse, Premier Brad Wall's team has been extravagant in its spending, ham-handed in its communications strategy and incompetent in its delivery. -The StarPhoenix, Editorial

The Devine government's scrapping of the children's school dental program contributed to the image of right-wing politicians as heartless poor-bashers, something that the Saskatchewan Party should keep in mind. -The Regina Leader-Post

The ending of the dental sealant pilot program unfortunately served to link the Brad Wall government again to the discredited Grant Devine administration at a time when the premier was trying to live down his unfortunate performance on "the videotape." -The Leader-Post

...coming on the heels of McMorris axing a dental sealant pilot program for inner-city children and his scuttling of the Station 20 West project that's generated a resounding backlash in Saskatoon, the move comes across as yet another example of the Saskatchewan Party government playing tawdry politics with the lives of society's least powerful. -The Leader-Post

The Saskatchewan Party government is doing itself no favours by appearing to go out of its way to project an image of poor-bashing. The latest case involves the announcement this week by Health Minister Don McMorris that the government is cancelling the Saskatchewan Workers' Health Benefits Program. -The Leader-Post

Hickie also found himself apologizing for having said gangs are not an issue in Saskatchewan jails, when in fact his own party ran on an election platform that said more correctional workers should be hired to combat gangs in jails. -Angela Hall, The Leader-Post

Mixed Reactions to Wall's Tax Cut. -The Leader-Post

For the Saskatchewan government, the drop in royalties drives home the challenge of governing a province so heavily dependent on natural resources. While Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer has announced $233 million in spending cuts this year, these won’t come close to making up for the revenue shortfall. -Murray Fulton and Michael Atkison, Special to the Leader-Post

While Gantefoer can be excused for not forecasting the unprecedented cutbacks in potash production, he stands guilty as charged for failing to moderate his overly optimistic budget projections, despite the mounting evidence to the contrary. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

At the time, then-NDP finance critic Harry Van Mulligen warned production cuts announced by potash companies could easily derail the budget’s revenue and economic projections. “Bottom line,” Van Mulligen said, “shaky economic and revenue assumptions, plus runaway spending, equals a potential fiscal trainwreck.” As it turns out, Van Mulligen was remarkably prescient, unlike his counterpart in the government benches. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

So are Gantefoer and the Sask. Party government entirely to blame for the mess they find themselves in? With the benefit of hindsight, it goes without saying that the budget’s economic and fiscal projections were far too rosy. ...Were signs that those projections were too optimistic even before the budget went to the printers? Certainly, private economic forecasters were already signalling that the budget’s economic projections were unrealistic. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

For its part, the NDP Opposition called Gantefoer’s gaffe “the biggest example of fiscal incompetence in the history of Saskatchewan.” In absolute dollar terms, it may be. -Bruce Johnstone, The Leader-Post

…if Wall wants to avoid any more comparisons with Devine in the future, here’s an alternative: just stop budgeting as Devine did. -Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix

Second, that Saskatchewan Party’s “vision” for province has been exceedingly rose-coloured, offering only so much room for supposedly negative forecasts. ...One gets the distinct impression that it didn’t want to hear talk about a further $1.3-billion hit on potash revenue, because a single year revenue decline of $3 billion just didn’t reflect the government’s spin that Saskatchewan is a booming island in the middle of this recession. This, too, is all too similar to the Devine approach. -Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix

The problem Wall faces is two-fold. First, His government is now completely reliant on the private sector to provide such forecasts after it purged the Energy ministry and other civil servants who supposedly did not share the Saskatchewan Party’s vision. The loss of professional objectivity in the civil service is the same mistake the Divine government made, which proved to be costly. - Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix

The first thing we need to do is get past that idiotic spin that no one could see this coming and that it was perfectly reasonable to assume we would get $1.926 billion in potash revenues this year... - Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix

But even if one accepts the notion from Wall and Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer that no one could have anticipated such a decline in revenue in three months, it raises the question: Why are we formulating a budget on such unpredictable numbers? - Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix

The least flattering comparison for the Saskatchewan Party government – and the one that its supporters bristle at most – is to be measured against Grant Devine’s Progressive Conservative regime of the 1980s. …This happens to be the biggest government miscalculation since Tory finance minister Gary Lane’s budget of 1986. - Murray Mandryk, The StarPhoenix

...the Sask. Party government still doesn’t seem to know how stupid it’s been – and that’s truly frightening. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

It was the same astounding, self-congratulatory arrogance that inspired Thursday’s standing ovations that caused the captains of industry in the Sask. Party to think they knew better than their financial bureaucrats, who surely told them not to design a budget in this way. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...Sask Party politicians deserve total blame for designing a budget around the notion that potash revenue would either stagnate at all-time record highs or get even better. You hope for that, but you surely don’t budget that way. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

What was truly most disturbing was the complete and total lack of humility we saw from this Saskatchewan Party government, which should damn well be embarrassed by its own incompetence right now, rather than celebrating. Yes, celebrating. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

In a heckle across the floor to Yates, he asked whether “the police had visited him yet.” Yes, the minister in charge of policing in our democracy was asking if the police had visited an Opposition member over a question he asked in the legislative assembly. Yes, the same legislative assembly that affords members the absolute privilege of asking anything they want. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Corrections, Public Safety and Policing Minister Yogi Huyghebaert pulled a stunt that might earn him a one-way ticket out of cabinet…bumbling his way through questions on why his government released a sexual assault offender too early from jail without bothering to tell the public as per his government’s own policy. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...the Saskatchewan Party in Opposition was always rather quiet when it came to taxpayers’ money being poured into Big Sky Farms Inc., which provided jobs in its MLAs’ ridings. But now that Big Sky is under creditor protection and the Saskatchewan Party is running the government that owns 64 per cent of the company, the party is being even quieter on how it intends to help the farmers who are getting stiffed on payments for the feed grain they’ve delivered to the company’s barns. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Don’t let Energy Minister Bill Boyd teach you how to drive. …To begin with, a yellow light doesn’t mean “proceed with caution”. It means “prepare to stop.”…Second, even “prepare to stop” would be an exceedingly understated interpretation of the submissions delivered to Perrins that screamed at the government to slam on the brakes. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

...let’s offer credit where credit is due. Leadership hopeful Deb Higgins’s throne speech response was particularly good. She went through the 15-page address and found 53 old initiatives repeated in the speech. New Democrats MLAs have also generally scored well in question period by sticking to substantive issues like the essential services legislation and H1N1. - Murray Mandryk, the Leader-Post

When Energy Minister Bill Boyd openly mused last May that the “government” might pursue a police complaint of alleged forgery of fraud if no one else did, it was an incredibly dumb comment, surpassed only by his musings that government potash revenue could hit $3 billion this year. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

At least two Sask. Party MLAs have quit over Wall’s leadership and there were even rumblings of a defection in May over Wall’s last cabinet shuffle. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

Yogi Huyghebaert’s justification for breaking his own government’s protocol by not notifying the public that a man convicted of sexual assault was unlawfully at large (and then attempting to blame the problem on the NDP for raising the issue publicly) was clearly irksome. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

The indignant attempt by Corrections and Public Safety Minister Yogi Hughebaert to castigate the NDP for using leaked information to publicize the mistaken early release of a dangerous sexual offender only draws attention to the hypocrisy of the Saskatchewan Party in government. - Star Phoenix Editorial

Huyghebaert’s hypocrisy was dizzying. His Saskatchewan Party promoted whistleblower legislation when it was the opposition. - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

For Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud to tell reporters Monday that his government has no obligation to ensure the farmers are paid for the grain they’ve delivered to Big Sky is startling.” - Murray Mandryk, The Leader-Post

And in question period on Thursday, he said this: “Saskatchewan is not going into a recession, we’re coming out of one.” - The Star Phoenix

On Tuesday, the minister told reporters: “By the end of the year, we will be in a recession.” - the Star Phoenix

In an interview Monday, Gantefoer responded in this way when asked if Saskatchewan was in a recession: “No. Well, the country’s in a recession; North America is probably in a recession… While our positive growth is pretty miniscule, it’s still positive. So, technically we’re not.” - the Star Phoenix

The “wild gyrations” of the Saskatchewan economy have evidently left Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer a little dizzy – and the Saskatchewan Party government is having a bit of a hard time getting its message straight. - the Star Phoenix

I have little or no sympathy for a finance minister who tries to keep the public in the dark about the true state of the province’s economy – and its fiscal health – for months at a time. No one expects Gantefoer to have a crystal ball. But we do expect him to have the cojones to give us the straight goods, not some polished up version of the truth. - Bruce Johnstone, the Leader-Post

That things have been tightening up in Saskatchewan Party government ranks was obvious even before Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer’s confusing messaging this week that Saskatchewan “wasn’t in a recession,” that “we might be in recession by year’s end” and finally that “we were in recession, but are already coming out it.” - Murray Mandryk, the Leader-Post

But that miscalculation on potash is a big one, calling into question the competency of not only himself but also his entire government. Deficits from a government that brags about reducing public debt won’t help. Nor will humble admissions of mistakes, when operational spending has increased by 24 per cent under his government. - Murray Mandryk, the Leader-Post

Sure, there have been a few signs of surface cracking, like some ministers increasingly reliant on using their deputy ministers to answer questions on the massive severances and salaries paid to political staff. - Murray Mandryk, the Leader-Post

If you believe Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer, Saskatchewan just had the fastest recession in history. …In the space of a week, Saskatchewan went from being technically not in a recession, to being in a recession by year-end, to coming out of a recession. - Bruce Johnstone, the Leader-Post