MLA departures create more problems

It’s troubling to watch as a growing number of Sask Party MLAs resign their seats, triggering byelections that will cost more than $2 million.

These are the people responsible for the disastrous 2017 budget that cut funding for schools, seniors, health care, and hiked the PST. The untimely departures include the top architects of the budget, former premier Brad Wall and former finance minister Kevin Doherty.

It’s a messy legacy, and it’s easy to see why it would be tempting to bail out, but, really, don’t citizens have a right to expect more from our elected leaders?

To date, Sask Party MLAs Jennifer Campeau, Brad Wall, Bill Boyd, and Kevin Doherty have resigned. Corey Tochor is about to leave and Warren Steinley is poised to jump ship.

Quitting to take a position in the corporate world, as Campeau and Doherty have done, or to play the political game at another level, as Tochor and Steinley are doing, does not justify the broken commitment to voters or the cost to taxpayers.

At about $400,000 each, two by-elections cost about the same amount as the budget cut when it eliminated a $20 per month travel allowance for the disabled and unemployed.

Having a position of power should not entitle you to put selfinterest ahead of the people you serve. It’s difficult to see these resignations as anything but opportunistic and unethical. MLAs should be held to account, even if they are a former premier and former minister of finance. Sid Wonitowy, Yorkton