Saskatchewan is better than this
Saskatchewan appears to be in a race to the bottom. The problem is, we don’t have to be.
With the lowest minimum wage in the country, taxes increasing every year and Saskatchewan jobs being contracted out of province, it’s time to step up and be a leader.
We have some of the most highly skilled and trained people available to do these jobs, like build and maintain roads (including multibillion-dollar bypasses), install new natural gas and power lines and install fibre optic lines and telephone lines.
We have companies owned by the people of the province that generate large profits to pay for our universal health care, our children’s education and keep our utility rates some of the lowest in North America.
We have an agriculture industry that keeps us fed and helps keep our rural communities alive.
We need our governments at all levels and of all stripes to champion these people. To pay fair wages to their public employees that are doing more work with less resources. To push to better open markets for the ag producers so they can benefit more from their world-class products. To work to stimulate the oil and gas industry and then work to maintain it, instead of just riding the wave while the boom years happen, then leave the workers in the dust when the government saved nothing for the downturns.
Instead, the working class is being pushed down. Pitting neighbour versus neighbour, public worker versus private worker, rural areas versus urban areas, green versus orange, right versus left and wealthy versus impoverished.
This is a province full of hard-working, resilient people who have given heart and soul to make businesses both private and public successful for decades.
Instead of demanding your neighbour’s wage stay the same or be smaller just because yours is, push for something better for yourself. Earn it. Then when you feel you’ve earned it, ask for it. Fight for it if you have to. You are more than likely worth it. And your employer likely knows that, too. Cordele Messer, Regina