PREMIER ON SASKTEL

Crown not for sale: Wall

Premier Brad Wall is adamant SaskTel is not for sale. The Opposition NDP and labour groups charge the premier has a plan to sell off the Crown corporation, which is the last publicly owned telecommunications company in Canada.

On Wednesday, Wall’s governing party poked at that sore spot by introducing legislation that would define what “privatize” means.

Such a change sets the table for Crown corporations to seek investments in it by allowing up to 49 per cent of the Crowns, including SaskTel, to be sold without any interference from the Crown Protections Act, which is a quasi-safeguard for the sale of any Crown corporation.

Members of labour groups booed deputy premier Don Morgan at an event Thursday morning and, later in the day, showed up to the legislative assembly, where the NDP spoke out against any plans to privatize SaskTel. Wall insists that is not his plan. “We don’t want to do that. We’ve campaigned against that. We don’t want to change the Crown Corporations Act or the Crowns that are protected therein,” he said.

“It prohibits privatization, that act. We thought we should define it.”