Allegations of ‘cheap politics’ fly as NDP questions Wyant’s expenses
The provincial NDP is taking issue with the minister of education expensing meals and coffees while teachers are penny pinching for supplies — but the Sask. Party government is accusing the Opposition of “cheap politics.”
Speaking on Monday to reporters, education critic Carla Beck said the party received details of the minister’s expenses through a freedom of information request.
The party found that in 2019, Gordon Wyant expensed a total of $23,487.72, including $3,420.01 for charter flights and $5,948.40 for commercial airfare.
But Beck took particular issue with some of the minister’s smaller ticket items — meals between Gary Lane (a retired judge as well as former premier Grant Devine’s finance minister and past president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan), coffee bought for his own deputy minister and buying lunches for a Saskatchewan Party backbench MLA.
“The minister doesn’t seem to think there’s anything wrong with expensing two lunches with a colleague that he sits with everyday when they’re in session,” she said.
Wyant also claimed expenses for meals and coffee with Ken Krawetz, former Sask. Party MLA and finance minister, and Rob Bellamy, a former Sask. Party candidate, donor and chair of the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board.
An emailed statement from executive council sent Monday said Wyant met with the individuals raised by the NDP in his capacity as deputy premier and education minister to discuss issues facing the education system, the government and the province. “For the NDP to dismiss all of these individuals as simply ‘Saskparty insiders’ is disingenuous and cheap politics,” it added.
The statement noted the bulk of the flight costs was for a charter to La Loche, with the premier, deputy premier and prime minister, for a funding announcement.
Spending $57.95 on lunch or $10.89 on coffee to meet with donors, colleagues and ministers isn’t the issue, according to Beck.
“It’s a very small amount but you have to take this in the larger context,” said Beck. That context includes years of asking teachers to do more with less and often expecting teachers to pay out of pocket for necessities.
“We are literally talking about teachers counting the number of pages of paper they have access to in their school because school budgets are so low,” she said.
According to the NDP, teachers in Saskatchewan spend on average $500 out of pocket for classroom expenses. Beck said these expenses were not paid for with Wyant’s MLA funds but money from the Ministry of Education itself.
“On their own it may not be such an issue,” she said.
Beck said the NDP has requested the Sask. Party release all ministerial expenses from 2019 ahead of the next legislative sitting.
On Monday, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, representing 13,000 teachers in the province, voted 90.2 per cent in favour of job action. This comes after a breakdown in negotiations between the province and teachers.
Saskatchewan is submerged in a crisis today: The NDP has uncovered that deputy premier Gord Wyant doesn’t pay for his coffee at work.
Dissolve the legislature. Call an election. The Saskatchewan Party has clearly lost its mandate to govern.
There it was, in a freedom of information (FOI) request Wyant’s office sent back to the NDP, leaping out for all and screaming moral bankruptcy scandal:
A $9.77 coffee with his own deputy minister.
Wyant’s demon caffeine addiction has us paying for his coffees and occasional lunches. We weep. The country is broken.
This is the biggest thing to hit this nation since federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer uncovered the CBC commie plot to brainwash 24-month-olds with leftist propaganda condemning Paw Patrol. D’oh!
So what’s a $9.97 coffee tab in relation to this year’s $15.317 billion provincial budget? It’s literally the equivalent of a teacher and a businessman screaming at each other over 1/1000th of a penny ... which neatly sums up politics in Saskatchewan today. Actually, it pretty much sums up politics across this country.
We need tens of millions to address classroom size and composition, yet our energies are expended on whether Gord Wyant takes a penny but doesn’t leave a penny at the Legislative Building’s cafeteria till. (Heck, if the guy is this fastidious with his receipt-keeping, make him finance minister and tell him to treat the budget like it’s his own money.)
One gets the NDP’S frustrations after being unfairly hit with massive FOI bills for basic public information, and one gets travel by Wyant, Premier Scott Moe et al. has gotten excessive. One even gets the political quest for the next Holy Grail like the $16 glass of orange juice that took down former federal Conservative minister Bev Oda.
But it’s just so symptomatic of the bigger problem that’s slashing through all party lines and philosophies and, frankly, tearing us apart in our neighbourhoods, provinces and nation.
Enough. Enough with the pettiness, the ceaseless grievances, the outrage, the brinkmanship politics, the arrogant refusal to listen to the other side, the absence of reason and the ridiculous tribalism. Can we consider — even for a fleeting second — that the other side isn’t made up of horrible, unworthy people and that one or two of them may actually have a point?
Pardon this rant about ranting, but after the bitter impasse of the Co-op Refinery lockout, Patrick Moore, blockades and pipeline protests and, yes, even Gord Wyant’s stinking $10 coffee tab ... well ... it’s enough.
Enough of the Inquisition-age religious zeal that makes it a heresy for decent, logical, intelligent people to hold a dissenting view even within their own broad, general beliefs.
Each day, we are summoned to prayer at our respective Church of Infinite Sorrows for the Perpetually Aggrieved. Thou shall not question the sermon or thy will be banished from thy church ... or worse, you just won’t get many “likes” or “retweets.”
But guess what? You still get to apply reason and logic to issues.
Can we consider Teck Resources is not proceeding because it was simply uneconomical at $60 a barrel and that Scott Moe, Jason Kenney, Andrew Scheer, Michelle Rempel Garner and #wexit are wrong that Justin Trudeau gleefully killed it out of spite? This seems to be the Calgary Chamber of Commerce view.
Or might those who claim to speak for First Nations who tell us nothing has changed and there’s been no progress with the colonialist settlers these last 150 years be forgetting a few things? Urban reserves that emerged out of the original 1992 treaty land entitlements ($450 million) with hundreds of millions in settlements since? The $2 billion in residential school survivor compensation? The Sixties Scoop settlement/apology? Gaming framework agreement? Numerous other programs worth billions? Untold First Nation entrepreneurial success stories?
Everything is not always bad. The other guys are not stupid and evil. And the country is not broken. As talk show host Charles Adler noted, about the only thing broken is leadership.
But let’s set aside this rant, grab a coffee and calmly discuss it. To avoid animosity, we’ll split the tab.