Citizens in dark as Crown deals done in secret

Since the Saskatchewan Party government passed legislation to open up our Crown corporations to privatization, the government has claimed that approaches to potential buyers represent nothing more than possible partnerships. So let’s take a look at what the Saskatchewan Party actually means when it talks about partnerships with its big business buddies.

To start, Bill 40, the Saskatchewan Party’s legislation to open up Crown corporations to sell-offs, may actually be far more wide-reaching than even most opponents have recognized. It’s true that Bill 40 allows for a sell-off of up to 49 per cent of the shares of any Crown without public comment or review. And there’s definitely reason for concern about Wall’s apparent desire to pursue that as one possibility.

But there are other ways to fundamentally alter public control and ownership of a Crown — from outsourcing work, to long-term leaseback arrangements to shutting it down entirely as the Saskatchewan Party has done with STC.

Bill 40 eliminates any public consultation process for those types of action as well, so long as a single step or set of transactions doesn’t affect majority or controlling interests of an ongoing Crown. And that leaves open all kinds of options for Wall to hand over varying degrees of control and ownership of our Crowns while shrouding any dealings in total secrecy.

What’s more, many of the mechanisms to undermine public enterprise have been lumped under the Saskatchewan Party’s past selfproclaimed partnerships. Which means that we can predict what Wall has in mind for SGI, SaskTel and other Crowns exploring “partnerships” from the previous dealings handled with the same messaging.

For example, the Saskatchewan Party’s controversial changes to liquor retailing were presented as SLGA “partnerships” with private sellers — including both existing off-sales, and new retailers. We knew from the beginning that jobs would be cut at the SLGA stores which were being shut down. But we’ve learned more recently that the layoffs don’t end there: Additional jobs are being cut even at SLGA stores that remain open.

Those are being spun as having always been expected, and arising solely out of changes to wholesaling rules rather than the store selloff. But there’s an obvious problem: Whatever additional attacks on SLGA jobs the Saskatchewan Party and its partners expected due to the wholesaling changes were kept secret at the time. So if the government is right in saying it knew all along that the cuts were inevitable, it then misled the public by omission in hiding them when liquor policy was actually up for discussion.

Similar problems — including glaring absences of planning, communication and general regard for the public interest — abound among the Saskatchewan Party’s most prominent partnerships.

Regina Bypass Partners is currently receiving attention for having neglected the size of farm equipment in building a roundabout explicitly intended to accommodate it. The Global Transportation Hub has loudly announced deals with businesses, then gone far out of its way to conceal the details that show the public paying for private benefits. And SaskPower has hidden behind corporate partnerships even as its attempt to hype CCS proves an increasingly costly failure.

In the end, there’s little doubt what the Saskatchewan Party’s idea of a partnership means. Wall’s government gets together with handpicked corporate interests behind closed doors, and the former uses its power to enrich the latter without informing the public.

That’s a great deal for the lucky few invited to the table. But there are well over a million more partners in our Crowns who should push back against the Saskatchewan Party’s backroom deals.

That’s a great deal for the lucky few invited to the table.