STC advocates want to know cost of service shutdown
SaveSTC wants to know cost and savings of shutting down provincial bus service
A group concerned about the controversial decision to shut down the Saskatchewan Transportation Company is blasting the Saskatchewan Party government for its “evident lack of any intention to provide accountability and transparency.”
SaveSTC, part of the activist group Stop The Cuts, previously urged the government to halt its liquidation of the long-running bus company’s assets until provincial auditor Judy Ferguson can investigate its business case for doing so. Now, the grassroots group wants the government to reveal the cost and estimated savings of shutting down STC.
“The people of Saskatchewan deserve timely due diligence regarding major decisions related to our public assets,” SaveSTC wrote in an Oct. 6 letter to newly appointed Finance Minister Donna Harpauer, which it said was sent after the government did not respond to its Sept. 18 letter asking that Ferguson be appointed to probe the matter.
“We want to know what the government’s estimated costs of this divestment are to the people of this province and how this compares with the full current and future costs as determined by the auditor. Let’s talk about the money,” said the group, which emerged in March, after the government released its unpopular 2017-18 budget with the aim of halving a $1.2 billion deficit this year.
Government spokeswoman Kathy Young said in an email that SaveSTC “will receive a response to their inquiries shortly.”
Young reiterated a statement issued earlier this month that closing down STC is an “ongoing process” that won’t be complete until late next year and, as such, the total cost has not been determined.”
JoAnn Jaffe, a University of Regina sociology professor who signed both letters, said the government has a responsibility to respond to concerns raised by all citizens, and there can be “no accountability” until it explains what closing STC is expected to cost and save taxpayers. She wants Ferguson to confirm the validity of the government’s estimates.
“It’s a little frustrating for us,” Jaffe said. “We’re doing what we consider our due diligence … and I’m not sure that the government actually realizes the degree to which this is causing problems.”
It remains unclear, however, whether Ferguson can investigate the shutdown. Saskatchewan’s auditor can only investigate the administration of public policy, not policy itself. Ferguson told the StarPhoenix last week that she is further limited because the government has not revealed its cost estimates except to say it will save $85 million in subsidies over the next five years.
“That $85 million, even to us, is something that has been basically plucked out of the air,” Jaffe said.
Todd MacKay, prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said it “wouldn’t be a bad thing ” if the government provided a more thorough accounting of the estimated cost of closing STC, as well as what it expects to save over the long run, but noted that the numbers will eventually come out, since the government is obliged to explain every dollar it spends.
More importantly, STC had been losing money for years and there is “no question that it needed to be shut down” to stop the flow of taxpayers’ dollars into a “failing” operation, MacKay said. He said the closure opens the door for private companies operating without a government subsidy.
Jaffe said public transportation is a money-losing proposition, and the notion of private companies providing the same services as STC without a subsidy is “a pie-in-thesky dream.” She believes service will return.
“I think the province is eventually going to learn that it is eventually going to have to bring back public transportation in some form. Maybe what the province will end up having to do is subsidize private enterprise to do that.”