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Archived Weekly Comments

MONDAY MORNING COMMENTARY BY LEADER RICK SWENSON

FEBRUARY 6, 2012

Late last week, it was another sad day for democracy in Saskatchewan. The Sask Party once again demonstrated their obsession with blocking the PC Party’s ability to rebuild and communicate with Saskatchewan citizens.

I received a letter late last Thursday from Speaker Dan D’Autremont saying that because of the way that Grant Schmidt and I had acted during our visit to the Legislative Building last December, our access to the people’s Legislature would be severely limited.

As you will all probably remember, Mr. Schmidt and I went to the Legislative Assembly to present a letter to Justice Minister Don Morgan requesting a judicial inquiry into the way that the Sask Party has interfered in the operation of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan’s Trust Fund. Mr. Schmidt and I met with members of the media out in the rotunda and explained what we were doing there that day. We then went and dropped the letter off in Mr. Morgan’s office and attended Question Period in the Legislative Chamber.

When Mr. Schmidt and I entered the Legislative Building, like everyone else, we registered with the Security Guard, received our badges and inquired as to where Mr. Morgan’s office was located. Because of these actions, Mr. D’Autremont is asserting that Mr. Schmidt and I broke all of the protocols of the Legislature and therefore breeched the security of the building. He is alleging that when we signed in, we indicated we would be going to Room 203. First of all, Room 203 is the government Caucus office – it is where all the Sask Party hacks and backbenchers hang out. It is the last place in the world that Mr. Schmidt and I would have been going to, to drop off a letter asking for a judicial inquiry into the actions of the Sask Party. It is the last office at the far west end of the building – the total opposite of Morgan’s office which is at the far east end of the building and on the 3rd floor at Room 355. Obviously someone from security, D’Autremont’s office or the Sask Party has provided the wrong information.

So now if either one of us wishes to attend the Legislature, we will be escorted from the front door to either the Chamber or the Speaker’s office and we will have to get permission from the Speaker to go anywhere else in the building. And if – and only if – the Speaker grants us permission to go to another room, we will be escorted by security guards and when we leave, we will be escorted by security guards to the front door so that we don’t get off the path, we don’t talk to anyone and therefore, we don’t cause the Sask Party any problems in the Legislative Building. That means they don’t want us talking to the media, they don’t want us talking to the Official Opposition and they don’t want us presenting PC Party policy and options at the people’s Legislature.

To my knowledge, no other former MLA, Party official or member of the public has been treated in this way unless they were someone that previously posed as a serious risk to persons in the building or to the building itself.

I can assure you that in over 30 years of attending that building on thousands of occasions, I have never been a risk to anyone. I believe Mr. Schmidt would be in the same category.

It is obvious by these actions that the Sask Party and all of their functionaries fear the PC Party and what it stands for and the message it wishes to bring to Saskatchewan voters. So much so that they are willing to trample on the basic democratic principles and privileges which we should all enjoy in our society.

I have attached a copy of the letter which you can read for yourself. Please click here to view.

I passed this letter on to Murray Mandryk, columnist for the Leader Post last Friday because he was one of the members of the media that interviewed Mr. Schmidt and I that day and was obviously aware of what transpired. Mr. Mandryk subsequently wrote an article that appeared in the Regina Leader Post on Saturday, February 4th. I have attached the link below so that you can read the article.

http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Swenson+saga+legislature/6100753/story.html

I will be fighting this attempt to muzzle the PC Party and this attempt to basically ban us from doing our part to make Saskatchewan a more democratic place in which to live. It is ludicrous to think that Grant Schmidt and I would have to have an escort of security guards to talk to the media in private or that we should have to report to Dan D’Autremont and tell him who we wish to speak to. We either have a democratic process in this province or we don’t. Mr. Wall - the Premier -needs to stand up and take responsibility for this action and tell people where he comes down on this issue. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised because for 6 long years, they have avoided going to court with us and still have their people interfering with our Trust Fund but they have never been afraid of the spoken word before so now the Sask Party has sunk to a new low.

Your feedback is welcome on anything you see in the Monday Morning Commentary. Please send your comments to contact @pcsask.ca. If you know of anyone that would be interested in receiving this by email, please forward me their email address. Also – don’t forget to check out our ever-changing website at pcsask.ca.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.

JANUARY 30, 2012

I noticed in last Saturday’s Leader Post an advertisement for the position of Chief Electoral Officer in Saskatchewan. As some of you will remember from last year, the PC Party banned together with the Saskatchewan Liberals, the Green Party and the New Democratic Party to block the Sask Party’s attempts to get rid of the current Acting Chief Electoral Officer.

What should happen here is that Mr. David Wilkie should be confirmed in the position as he and his crew did a very fine job of running the last provincial election campaign. The PC Party has an excellent working relationship with all of the officials at Elections Saskatchewan and we really appreciate their willingness to help out with various challenges. I am somewhat suspicious, however, because the Chief Electoral Office recently brought forward a challenge to the way the Sask Party was issuing tax credits and that issue has now been referred to the Manitoba Department of Justice for an impartial, out-of-province adjudication. There is also the issue of the boundary re-distribution which the Premier popped into the Legislative Assembly on the last day of the fall session without any warning to any of the other parties. That legislation changes the way that voting numbers are arrived at but also talks about increasing the size of the Legislative Assembly. Hopefully, this is not a move by the Sask Party and their inner circle of friends trying to gerrymander the electoral process to their own benefit. The last thing Saskatchewan needs right now are more $85,000/year back bench politicians who do nothing but collect a paycheque and say “yes sir” to Mr. Wall and his friends.

Last week it was announced that the STARS program was ready to launch, however, one small – or rather should I say large – problem came to light. There is not a hospital in Saskatchewan that has the ability to receive one of these helicopters anywhere close to the hospital. Any patients brought in by helicopter will have to be landed at the nearest airport and transported by ambulance to a hospital – defeating the purpose. It seems the government did a study which showed that if this was the case, there would be no saving of time and in fact, the transferring of patients a second time, increases the risk to the patient. Would it not be better to establish the landing areas and delay the implementation of the helicopters and beef up the ambulance service in our rural areas in the meantime until the landing pads are finished. Once again, just like in the past, the Wall government was more concerned about making a big flashy announcement than doing the due diligence for a health care delivery system. This is just like the carbon capture project with Montana that was cancelled, the domed stadium project in Regina that was cancelled, the lean hospital project in Moose Jaw which was announced without even having a site established – all of this in the name of getting Mr. Wall a legacy project and getting Sask Party MLAs elected.
It may be several years before the studies and construction will get helipads established at even one Saskatchewan hospital but I suppose that will be a promise for the next election campaign.

Hopefully at this week’s SUMA meetings, civic leaders will be pushing the provincial government and their federal counterparts to come up with new ideas for infrastructure and housing requirements. There was some interesting numbers that came out the other day by the City of Moose Jaw which showed that out of every tax dollar collected in that city, only 5 cents went to the city. The rest went to the federal and provincial governments. One area of huge concern is multi-family housing and its lack of construction. In the last election campaign, the PC Party suggested that perhaps this would be a good sector to start tax harmonization on. In other words – people and builders taking advantage of the current federal program and the limited provincial one could get their PST and GST on associated construction costs back in order to provide incentive for this badly needed area. It is obvious that much of Saskatchewan’s immigration is tied to individuals who could initially only afford multi-family housing as they work their way into our work place. I can’t think of a city or good size town in Saskatchewan that does not need more of this type of housing. Let’s hope and watch with interest to see what comes out of this week’s SUMA meetings.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.

JANUARY 23, 2012

Here is a further note on last week’s commentary. The Premier went off to the First Ministers’ Meeting with his health care agenda - which was announced with much fanfare - only to have the Prime Minister quickly close the door on that subject. It is obvious that we in Saskatchewan must tackle our health care problems with our own made-in-Saskatchewan solutions. We are a growing province and a province blessed with resource wealth. We cannot expect other Canadians to pay for our own ineptitude. The solutions will be found when the public starts to demand more accountability from the politicians and starts to come up with innovative solutions by our own medical professionals.

As I mentioned last week, I had the opportunity to spend a few days at the Crop Production Week in Saskatoon mingling with many other agricultural producers and those people that support the agricultural industry. As James Yachyshen, past PC candidate in the Biggar constituency and I walked around at the show, it was easy to get into conversations with farmers and their suppliers about the changes that would occur because of the removal of single-desk selling from the CWB.

What became very apparent early on in these conversations was that people did not appreciate the extremes on either side of this debate. Those extremes are the “in-your-face” approach of Federal Minister Ritz to the class action law suit launched by big-time Regina Liberal lawyer Tony Merchant which would see the assets of the CWB sold off and the cash distributed to all farmers in western Canada that sign up for the lawsuit. Both of these gentlemen, in my view, will not arrive at the middle ground consensus working arrangements which we are all going to need to make our farming decisions. The majority of farmers simply want to make a living and they want as many tools available to them as possible so that they can make good economic decisions for their farms and for their families. Ideology has never paid the bills or put food on the table for the majority of people. My take on three days of wandering around the show and at various commodity meetings is that people want to see a viable wheat board offering good marketing opportunities along with the existing private companies and processors.

This means Mr. Ritz and the Federal Government need to step up and give the CWB the necessary tools to be competitive and to provide the marketing opportunities for Canadian grain that they have successfully done with our overseas customers for many decades. At the end of the day, these long-term commercial arrangements with satisfied customers world-wide are our most important asset in the farming business. We cannot consume domestically 1/10th of what we produce. We must market world-wide. The CWB has the ability to do that and I would hate to lose that window on the world. The majority of agricultural producers and the suppliers that James and I talked to were on the same wave length. The PC Party needs to stand up for that principle.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.

JANUARY 16, 2012

This last week was a very busy one for me and for the province. The second week of January is the Crop Production Show in Saskatoon which draws many thousands of visitors who are interested in the various components of agriculture in our province. This is when many organizations hold their annual meetings and report back to their members. I took the opportunity to attend various meetings, seminars and the very large trade show on Monday, Tuesday and Friday of last week. There are big changes coming in agriculture and I will be commenting on those in the weeks to come and making observations relating to the many conversations I had with individuals while attending the Crop Production Week.

The other issue that has really come forward in the last week is the deplorable situation occurring at emergency rooms in our major hospitals. Regina has been particularly bad with emergency rooms stacking patients in the hallways and in fact, leaving patients there for not simply hours but days while they look for suitable beds. The other situation that is occurring is people with injuries, medical emergencies, sick children and other unfortunate circumstances are sitting 3-4-5-6 hours to see a doctor in these emergency rooms. The only reason they go there is that there are no private clinics available or they simply don’t have access to a family doctor any longer.

So this week our Premier, who is going off to a First Ministers’ Conference in Vancouver next week, makes a whole host of health-related announcements. Announcements which confirm what the PC Party has been saying about our health system for sometime. These announcements by the Sask Party Premier are aimed at assuring people in Saskatchewan that they will not have to wait at an ER, that access to a doctor will be guaranteed and that waiting times for surgical procedures will be brought down to 3 months. He has also announced that people afflicted with MS will be sent to the US for clinical trials starting this spring.

All of these items will require large expenditures of taxpayers’ money, reorganization of people, equipment and buildings and will require direction from the top - i.e. Mr. Wall’s Minister of Health. At no point in all of these announcements has Brad Wall asked SAHO or any of the health regions their opinion or has any consultative process been set forth. We are at a crisis situation with emergency room service and access in this province. The only way to rectify this situation will be to dedicate people and resources and new procedures to solve the problem. The health regions have known about this developing situation for many months. Nurses and other health care professionals have talked about it for a long time. Why have not the health regions and their legions of bureaucrats been able to come up with solutions? The reason is that our structure with the politicians controlling the budget and wanting to have the ability to look like heroes to the voters means that the health regions are simply bureaucratic fall-guys for a flawed process.

Mr. Wall and his Minister of Health need to accept responsibility, bring the issues and the potential solutions to the Legislative Assembly, do away with the health regions and put in place people who are responsible for solving the problems. If they or the Minister assigned cannot solve the problem to the satisfaction of the users – that being us the taxpayer and our families – then you replace them with someone else that can. No longer can we afford to play ring-around-the-rosie with our medicare system and let our elected officials off the hook. They will simply keep blaming medicare rather than getting to the root of the problem.

There are many individuals, groups and politicians who simply say we should privatize our system and get the efficiencies of private enterprise. There have been some good examples of private clinics performing surgeries that help alleviate the backups in our system. I would hate to lose our publicly-funded medicare system in Saskatchewan and Canada because our elected officials don’t have the courage to clean up our current system. The health regions were put in place by politicians for political reasons. They can be removed by politicians for good medical reasons. This all starts with accountability and there is none in the current system. I hope when Mr. Wall comes back from Vancouver he lives up to his commitments and is willing to do more than simply pander to the critics of medicare.

Your feedback is welcome on anything you see in the Monday Morning Commentary. Please send your comments to contact@pcsask.ca. If you know of anyone that would be interested in receiving this by email, please forward me their email address. Also don’t forget to check out our ever-changing website at pcsask.ca.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.

JANUARY 9, 2012

It was interesting to note when Saskatchewan’s job numbers came out at the end of last week that we had only added 3100 jobs last year in a supposed-booming economy. During the same period, Manitoba – a province that was half covered with water in 2011 – added 5800 jobs and Alberta a whopping 98200 jobs. In fact only New Brunswick and Quebec had fewer numbers than Saskatchewan and our economy is supposedly doing so well.

Another number that was shocking is that First Nations unemployment has risen over 6.1% since the Sask Party came to power in 2007. And it was no surprise to me that the region that lost the most jobs in 2011 was the Moose Jaw/Swift Current one. It was obvious when campaigning in Moose Jaw last fall that the economic boom in Saskatchewan was not hitting my area at all and in fact, this region lost over 1700 jobs in the last year.

It is unfortunate that these numbers were not available before the last provincial election campaign because I believe this is an indication of how the Sask Party government’s approach to our resource development is falling short. We need to be adding value to our resources. Things like upgrading and refining our oil and gas rather than shipping it out and finding ways to value-add our uranium and agricultural resources is an absolute must if we are going to have long-term employment for the future. Anyone that believes there is no difference between the Progressive Conservative Party and the Sask Party only needs to look at the two different approaches to economic development.

Recent meetings between rural municipalities and urban areas who were affected by last year’s flooding with the provincial government’s disaster relief people shows that there is a wide difference of opinion between those most affected by the flooding and the bureaucrats in charge of remedying the damage. Our provincial government and its political masters have made many pronouncements over the last year about how quickly they are responding to the needs of people but the evidence is showing that this response has a whole bunch of conditions attached to it and that the cleanup is going to take much longer than anyone would like. The actions of agencies like Sask Power, the Watershed Authority and the inability of this government to manage uncontrolled drainage in this province needs to be the focus of a royal commission. Much of the reasons behind last year’s flooding, I believe, can be laid at the doorstep of various organizations controlled by the provincial government who have either been sacred cows or simply agencies that would perform unpopular political decisions and therefore the best option is to simply do nothing.

This province must have strong laws governing the draining and release of waters upon neighbouring land and communities without the proper licensing and public review being in place. It is time that these rural Sask Party MLAs stood up and performed the roles that are demanded of elected officials. It is not always popular to do the right thing but posterity demands that you do the right thing for the generations that come after. Obviously many of these people need to be replaced if they are not willing to do the job properly.

Your feedback is welcome on anything you see in the Monday Morning Commentary. Please send your comments to contact@pcsask.ca. If you know of anyone that would be interested in receiving this by email, please forward me their email address. Also don’t forget to check out our ever-changing website at pcsask.ca.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.

JANUARY 2, 2012

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope that the holiday season brought much joy and happiness to you and your family. I know it certainly was good around our house and I have the waistline to show for it. Winter or I should say the lack thereof, has not been hard to take so that when we finally do get into the cold and snow, it will seem a much shorter time until spring arrives.

Now that we have 4 more years of a Sask Party government, I believe it is important for Saskatchewan people in this time of growth to get the kind of government they deserve. I do not believe at this time in our history that we need more high-priced politicians and the high-priced help that goes along with adding more MLAs to the Legislative Assembly. Saskatchewan has the most government for population of any jurisdiction in Canada. We already have more politicians at the municipal, civic, provincial and federal levels than anywhere else in our country. There is a cost associated with that and all of us pay it through our various levels of taxation. Mr. Wall’s last minute proposal during the last Legislative session to increase the number of seats in the house – an issue which he did not campaign on – is ridiculous. On one hand he is saying that his newly-elected MLA/Rider football player Gene Makowsky can take the time to once again play full-time for the Riders and in the same breath, tells us that people are not being sufficiently represented currently because Saskatchewan has seen an increase in population of about 50,000 people.

The latest stats on our immigration numbers which came out over the holiday period shows that over half of the people coming to Saskatchewan are immigrants from other countries – many of whom will not have achieved Canadian citizenship and therefore voting rights for several years yet. Saskatchewan currently has more MLAs than the province of Manitoba which has more population than Saskatchewan. Our neighbouring province of Alberta only has 83 MLAs and yet they have over 3 times our population. The real problem facing Mr. Wall is that redistribution is mandatory after every 2 elections and he will have a number of his Cabinet Ministers being forced into competing with each other for seats in the Legislature. Also, the number of rural seats will decrease under the current formula. This will have members from so-called safe Sask Party seats competing against each other, thus the proposal to add a rural seat to the Legislature along with two urban ones so that the urban growth in Regina and Saskatoon is reflected. Perhaps if Mr. Wall’s government had paid more attention to issues like rural health care, rural educational opportunities and sound economic development policies outside of Regina and Saskatoon, we would see a more even distribution of population in our province. Playing jiggery-pokery with the Elections Act will not solve this neglect by our government.

I have believed for a long time that the makeup for the seats in our legislature should be based on the number of voters in a given area not the population and that we should strive at all times to maintain an equality amongst voters. If this means putting in the proper variances, so be it. I know what it is like to service a large rural constituency and that was in an age when we did not have the various electronic and telecommunication tools that are available today. We now have fixed election dates so we have the opportunity as a province and a society to take the time to discuss this issue and come up with the right formula. Simply adding more politicians because it makes Mr. Wall’s management of his caucus easier, should not be one of the criteria in this decision.

I look forward to the debate which should occur on this matter in the lead up to the next legislative session and that all of you as voters should take the time to express your views to those with the power to influence this decision – one way or another. I can assure you that politics in Saskatchewan will never be dull and the PC Party looks forward to making sure that the political dialogue in this province doesn’t get boring in 2012.

Your feedback is welcome on anything you see in the Monday Morning Commentary. Please send your comments to contact@pcsask.ca. If you know of anyone that would be interested in receiving this by email, please forward me their email address. Also don’t forget to check out our ever-changing website at pcsask.ca.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.

MONDAY MORNING COMMENTARY – DECEMBER 19, 2011

I hope everyone’s Christmas shopping experience is a good one because it can be a very frustrating time of the year trying to get the “right” gift for that someone special. It is hard to not let the commercialization of Christmas get to you. The advertising campaigns on television almost remind you of the saturation political bombardment we saw in the last provincial election campaign. I hope that everyone has the opportunity to get together with family and friends and enjoy the true Christmas spirit.

Grant Schmidt and I attended the Legislature on the last day – last Thursday – and some people there were accusing us of being the “grinch” that stole Christmas from the Sask Party caucus. We went there to do the right thing and that was to inform the public and the media of Saskatchewan about our trust funds and the amount of money that was revealed to us during this fall’s election campaign. We were pleased to see that as of December 31, 2010, there was $3,353,862 in our trust fund. We also called for a judicial inquiry into the way that the Sask Party and its supporters have manipulated the democratic process in our province by denying us access to these funds. The PC Party feels very strongly that the public has a right to know about the funds that supported our election campaign and we will be reporting our financial statement as of December 31, 2010 to the province’s Chief Electoral Officer. We also will be reporting that the PC Party received three instalments from its trust funds for the first time since 2005. These funds allowed the PC Party to begin re-establishing its brand across this province and even though we only ran five candidates, it is a tremendous victory for our party to be able to finally use these trust funds to advance our views of how to make Saskatchewan a better place in which to live.

The unfortunate part of this story is that the mutual agreement between the PC Party and its former trustees to bring this matter to a mutually-agreeable conclusion in the later part of October 2011 was once again thwarted by the Sask Party. We were informed by the former trustees’ lawyer that unless we were prepared to also settle with the Sask Party, then he could not advise his clients to settle with the PC Party of Saskatchewan for fear that the Sask Party could then potentially sue his clients. The strange part about this is that the Sask Party has always maintained that they have had nothing to do with interference in the PC trust funds. If that is the case, why then would they want to be absolved of any potential wrong doing? Innocent people or parties don’t generally need to be absolved of anything. So it seems this matter will have to drag through into 2012 but the issue that our former trustees and their supporters maintained for years that the PC Party wasn’t who they said they were has now been dashed for good. Those three cheques to the PC Party of Saskatchewan clearly establish who the beneficiary of that trust fund is. And I guarantee you that those funds will be put to work presenting clear alternatives to the current government. Saskatchewan needs, now more than ever, to have an opposition voice which appeals to both rural and urban folks because the NDP clearly does not do that anymore. Our governments only work well when there are people and organizations to keep them accountable.

In my January commentary, I will be talking about the legislation brought in by the government in the dying minutes of this legislative session to add more seats to our legislature. Saskatchewan does not need more MLAs but that is a discussion for another day because there is a lot to talk about.

Joanne and I want to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and hope that the prosperity of our great province is able to touch each and every one of us in a positive way in the year to come.

The next Monday Morning Commentary will be sent out on January 2, 2012.

Your feedback is welcome on anything you see in the Monday Morning Commentary. Please send your comments to contact@pcsask.ca. If you know of anyone that would be interested in receiving this by email, please forward me their email address. Also don’t forget to check out our ever-changing website at pcsask.ca.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.

MONDAY MORNING COMMENTARY – DECEMBER 12, 2011

After a much-needed sabbatical from politics and farming, Joanne and I are glad to be back home and back to our normal routine. One of the beauties and the curses of the internet is that no matter where you are in the world, you can observe what is going on in the world around you at any place and at any time. So even though I was many miles from Saskatchewan, a daily look at the newspapers in Saskatchewan and watching the odd Canadian television newscast means that you are never really away from home.

The opening of the Saskatchewan Legislature last Monday and the ensuing speech from the Throne really had no surprises for anyone. The Sask Party government threw a little bit of money at a whole bunch of different things. The Finance Minister had to admit to over $300 million of deficit on a summary financial basis. So once again the public has been misled about balanced budgets by their government. It was very interesting to read the comments of the new Provincial Auditor last Thursday on how she detailed what is wrong with Saskatchewan’s financial reporting methods. We are now out of step with every other jurisdiction in Canada and we will not provide good government to this province until the taxpayers of this province get a true picture of where their money is being spent.

Already the Premier is dropping hints that the big shell game played by his government and proceeding governments concerning how crown dividends are taken may be changed again this year. That change may mean that SaskTel’s dividends are not taken away this year because of the huge mess that has arisen around cell phone coverage in our province. The 4G network introduced last spring has been a colossal mess with users having many calls dropped on a daily basis. This occurred because SaskTel did not have enough money to put in the proper allotment of towers and switching space. That is because Mr. Wall’s government stripped all of the profits from SaskTel to try and balance his books – unsuccessfully. The Crowns must be managed in a different manner as the PC Party campaigned on in the last election.

On the Federal side of government, it appears that Agriculture Minister Ritz in his haste and hate for the Canadian Wheat Board, has once again not done his due diligence and now the taxpayers of Canada and western Canadian grain farmers will have further costs with the court decision handed down this last week. The Federal court judge said that Mr. Ritz had broken the law by proceeding in the manner he did. If he did not wish to call for a plebiscite amongst current western Canadian grain farmers as the legislation stipulated, then he should have repealed the section concern plebiscites before proceeding to cancel the existing act and fire the elected directors.

The judge did not take issue with the government having the right to repeal legislation. That is a foundation of our parliamentary system. This is simply the consequences of a Minister proceeding in haste rather than doing things in the appropriate manner. This is a huge change for Western Canadian farmers and there will be large financial ramifications for tens of thousands of people both farmers and related businesses and services and this process I believe should have been handled in a more thoughtful way. The Wheat Board has been around for 70-odd years. One more year to make sure that this is done right in a 4-year term of government would not have been an insurmountable cost for anyone particularly when we are in a period of high prices. Maybe Mr. Ritz’s haste is because of the possibility of world wheat prices falling next year and then the open market may not look quite as rosy. Politics and good economics should not be separated for political gain.

Your feedback is welcome on anything you see in the Monday Morning Commentary. Please send your comments to contact@pcsask.ca. If you know of anyone that would be interested in receiving this by email, please forward me their email address. Also don’t forget to check out our ever-changing website at pcsask.ca.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.

MONDAY MORNING COMMENTARY – NOVEMBER 21, 2011

I would like to thank all of the people that log onto Monday Morning Commentary on a regular basis. 2011 has been a very political year with a federal election in the spring and a provincial election which just concluded a few weeks ago. It certainly has meant a lot of commentary on a lot of different issues. I would like to assure all of you that have responded to my commentaries that I read your emails and take them into consideration when talking to people around this province about what it means to be a Progressive Conservative. I don’t always respond back to every email and perhaps in future I need to do that. When I first started this commentary, I did not envision setting up a chat room but rather a way that the policies and histories of the PC Party could be communicated around this province. I also wanted to present what I think are common-sense solutions to many of the problems facing Saskatchewan in 2011. Your comments certainly help keep me grounded when presenting those solutions for the right reasons. I am looking forward to your continued feedback in 2012.

My congratulations go out to John Nilson who was named interim leader of the official opposition and leader of the NDP this past weekend. Having held a similar position for two years after a very large defeat, I can empathize with the tasks ahead for Mr. Nilson. John has proven to be very statesmanlike MLA throughout his career and I am sure he will be a welcomed change for many people because he will be totally different than his predecessor. I also believe that the makeup of the current Legislative Assembly presents huge opportunities for the PC Party of Saskatchewan. Our brand has a lot of resiliency in most rural and small urban parts of this province. All of the issues that were neglected in this last campaign because of the emphasis on personalities will still need to be dealt with. Saskatchewan people do not like political vacuums or large arrogant governments. We must be prepared to step up and be responsible alternatives to the present government.

Given all of the uncertainty in the world around us and the fragile economic state of many of our trading partners and customers, it will be interesting to see what economic direction Mr. Wall and his large government will present in the upcoming session. I noted in listening to some of the media today that Saskatchewan’s increasing debt is not Mr. Wall’s fault but simply a result of Saskatchewan’s crown corporations borrowing too much money. It is very difficult to be a crown corporation in Saskatchewan today and maintain a decent balance sheet and look after your infrastructure replacement when the government has been stripping away 100% of your profits to feed their insatiable appetite for spending. I suppose when you have this large of an election win, everyone will give them the benefit of the doubt and offer all sorts of apologies for the way our province’s business is being run. But that doesn’t do anything to balance the books and provide good government. That is just excuses. This province must find ways to put in place the long-term diversification and high quality, good paying jobs that will last for generations not just the boom and bust cycles of a resource economy. When we see that occurring, then I will be prepared to cut Mr. Wall some slack. So far this is more good luck than good management helped along by a very poor opposition. That must change for the good of our province.

This commentary will not be available for the next couple of weeks as Joanne and I have some other duties to take care of but will be back in time for the December session and looking forward to what comes out of that in the way of improving our province.

Your feedback is welcome on anything you see in the Monday Morning Commentary. Please send your comments to contact@pcsask.ca. If you know of anyone that would be interested in receiving this by email, please forward me their email address. Also don’t forget to check out our ever-changing website at pcsask.ca.

These issues must be debated for “The Right Reasons”.