Moe panders to his base at worst possible time
There is no possible way anyone inside the Saskatchewan Legislature this week could not hear the honking horns in support of Unifor Local 594 members as locked out Co-op refinery workers took their picket line to the front of the Marble Palace.
Prior to Thursday’s news from Federated Co-operatives Ltd. (FCL) of a tentative deal, what had become one of the longest demonstrations in front of the legislature saw the locked-out workers there at 6 a.m. before the politicians arrive and there when the politicians went home at night.
But when asked this week about the six-month lockout, which went on far longer than it should have, Premier Scott Moe again insisted he couldn’t get involved in a private labour matter. Asked how it was different than the private matter of the CN Rail strike in which he demanded an immediate recall of Parliament to legislate them back to work, Moe said rail workers fuel the economy. Evidently, that is different than workers who literally make fuel for the economy.
Equally hard for Moe to ignore this week were rallying members of Service Employees International Union West (SEIU-WEST) — some of the 13,000 members who Moe praised for their sacrifices during the COVID -19 pandemic. And why were they there? Well, they haven’t had a contract in three years and are now threatening to walk out in the middle of this health crisis.
Admittedly, with so many bombs going off everywhere this week — including new COVID-19 outbreaks at the Clearwater River First Nation and now at a Hutterite colony near Maple Creek — Moe’s government could be somewhat forgiven for not getting to everything at once.
After all, the legislature was back in business this week so that Finance Minister Donna Harpauer could present her 2020-21 Saskatchewan budget. It revealed a massive $2.4-billion deficit due to declining revenues that resulted Thursday morning in the DBRS Morningstar lowering Saskatchewan’s credit rating to AA (low).
But what was the Saskatchewan
Party government’s legislative priority this week? How about banning municipalities from ever banning handguns? No municipality in Saskatchewan was asking for this. And even most gun owners don’t have handguns.
Why? Well, as Moe explained in a tweet, if your car is stolen the problem isn’t the car owner. True. Somehow we still aren’t seeing a rash of 7-Elevens held up by perpetrators with concealed Toyota Camrys. There again, cars are registered.
The intent here is not to defend Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who is playing similar games of pandering to his political base with the handgun bans (near impossible to get in this country anyway) and by banning assault rifles (banned in Canada since 1978). You want to deter gun crime? How about harsher sentencing with no plea bargaining or reduced sentences for time served?
The intent here is to underscore that if Moe, Trudeau and Donald Trump spent as much time solving problems before them as they did hammering in wedges, we’d all be better off.
And Moe’s government pushing through the “ban the gun ban” legislation for the sole purpose of pandering to your base before the Oct. 26 vote — especially in a week like this — was just a little bit much.
Yes, the government did do some good and productive things. We saw that in announcements for new nursing homes in Grenfell and La Ronge. Why wouldn’t they? The right thing is even a better vote buyer.
But consider that in just one 24-hour period this week Moe and his government:
■ Announced oversight on policing that doesn’t have independent civilian oversight;
■ Provided $120 million for a remand centre in Saskatoon in a tough budget where it couldn’t find $1.3 million for AIDS Saskatoon for a safe consumption site;
■ Told us racism is more of personal thing rather than systematic;
■ And gave us the ban on the ban that no one asked for.
Are these really the right things to do — the right priorities? Or were they the right thing to do to get votes?
It was all a bit sad, given the real problems on the government’s doorstep.