Fall sitting dulled by thoughts of what’s to come
This fall sitting of the Saskatchewan legislature was not a time of brilliant political debate in province.
Please file the above under massive understatement.
Of course, some of it has to do with the relative lopsidedness of the present 48-12 assembly (excluding Speaker Corey Tochor and the two vacated government seats). This reflects the wishes of the electorate, but the tyranny of the majority within a Westminster parliament sometimes isn’t a good incubator for great debate.
It would also be fair to say that the death of a good man — Saskatchewan Party Melfort MLA Kevin Phillips — cast a pall over the place. Tragedy makes a person less pointed, but at least it often blunts the blade of a rival.
Mostly, though, the bigger problem seemed to be all the political uncertainty that accompanied this sitting, with Thursday’s end-of-anera departure of Premier Brad Wall from the assembly that went hand-in-hand with the uncertainty of the Jan. 27 Saskatchewan Party leadership vote and March 3 NDP leadership vote.
It seemed as if both parties were just mailing it in until the leadership questions have been resolved.
Yes, the NDP Opposition had a few good moments in question period.
Some of the best came from a surprising source in veteran Cathy Sproule, whose pointed criticisms of the government hiding the payouts from lawsuits on the Regina bypass were stellar. So was interim leader Nicole Sarauer, once again raising the question why the hell she isn’t running for the job, permanently.
But the ongoing problem of being a dollar short and a day late on most issues in our increasingly fast-paced social media world continues to plague this small and often-ineffective Opposition.
Yes, there was important legislation to end the potential of future governments selling off the Crown corporations under Bill 40 (the two sides didn’t much agree), dealing with agriculture producers stricken by prairie fires (solid agreement) and ensuring financial job support for women exiting relationships involving domestic violence (solid agreement).
There were even brief flashes of intense partisan political debate this province is known for ... although such moments weren’t always very constructive. (One such very bad moment had Wall responding to a Global Transportation Hub question by accusing then-interim NDP leader and now leadership hopeful Trent Wotherspoon of not acting diligently enough when it came to sexual assault allegations that happened to involve people carrying NDP cards.)
Perhaps governing politicians took their cue from those six agree-fests that passed for Sask. Party leadership “debates” this fall — the last one in Regina on Thursday night that had no Global Transportation Hub questions, but did see the six candidates viciously agree that they need to engage youth. This wasn’t the best exercise in finely honing one’s debating skills. And if their next leader is ill-prepared for the job, the party will regret the format it chose.
As per the sitting, far too many of the wounds — especially on the government side — were self-inflicted.
The sitting started with Education Minister Bronwyn Eyre’s bizarre rant on the treaty education curriculum somehow usurping her memory of her beloved settler grandparents. That she couldn’t admit she simply messed up does not bode well for her or the government.
And it ended with nonsense from Highways Minister David Marit, demanding out-of-province contractors license their vehicles in Saskatchewan (evidently, not a problem for Alberta/ Texas workers in the past who installed smart meters or worked on the GTH) to offset the advantage out-ofprovince bidders might have in not paying this province’s PST.
That Marit acknowledges this does violate the New West Partnership trade agreement and that no one can find the Alberta government policy he is retaliating against sums up a sitting where politicians were not on their game.
Really, it was a sitting dulled by both sides sitting around and waiting to see what comes next.