Premier Wall continues using private email server

Front-runners busy touring the province and even beyond in their quest for votes

REGINA Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has continued to use his private email for government business, despite vowing five months ago he would stop doing so.

In May, Wall’s use of a private email server for government business was called into question by the Opposition NDP, prompting Wall’s office to say in a statement that the premier, “has indicated he will be using a government of Saskatchewan email account for government business.”

But the government admits Wall has used his Saskatchewan Party account from time to time in the months that have followed.

Earlier this month, Wall emailed his Chief of Operations and Communications, Kathy Young, from his Saskatchewan Party account.

In the email he asked if someone was tweeting to CBC reporter Geoff Leo to tell him an email regarding the Global Transportation Hub (referenced in a story by Leo that day) had previously been sent to the provincial auditor.

From her government account, Young replied that the tweet was going to be sent and provided further information about how the email in question went to the auditor and the CBC.

In this weekly series, Leader-Post reporter D.C. Fraser and StarPhoenix reporter Alex MacPherson round up everything happening on the campaign trail as candidates compete to be the next leader of the Saskatchewan Party and the Saskatchewan NDP.

It was a quiet week on the Saskatchewan Party leadership campaign trail, with no significant policy announcements and just a smattering of other news.

Most of the candidates, it seems, spent the last part of September on the road, meeting constituents and shoring up support among rural voters.

One interesting development, however, was Tina Beaudry-Mellor’s condemnation of NDP leadership candidate Ryan Meili’s — more on him later — plan to introduce a $15 minimum wage across the province. The province’s minimum wage on Sunday went up to $10.96 per hour from $10.72, based on a formula used since 2012.

Insiders seem to agree that Beaudry-Mellor has little chance of defeating experienced veterans like Gord Wyant and Ken Cheveldayoff — strangely, those same insiders have been awfully quiet about Alanna Koch’s chances — but she is widely regarded as the most progressive candidate among the five running to replace Wall.

Which is why it was surprising to see the Regina University MLA come out so vociferously against Meili’s proposal, which fits perfectly with broad conversations about a so-called “living wage” and his own work combating poverty and ill-health.

“This is not the time to impose a $15 minimum wage,” she wrote in a tweet, arguing that Saskatchewan already indexes its minimum wage.

The last part is true, of course, but it’s hard to see Beaudry-Mellor’s eagerness to toe the party line as a missed opportunity to not just gather some votes from liberals in the party, but establish herself as a candidate who is willing to sacrifice politics at the altar of compromise.

The same could be said of Wyant’s decision last week to ditch his membership in the federal Liberal party.

The other candidates, meanwhile, have kept even lower profiles. Judging from their Twitter feeds and recent news photographs, Ken Cheveldayoff and Scott Moe are doing their best to attend every event in the province. Including, in Cheveldayoff’s case, a 2017-18 budget reversal announcement at the University of Saskatchewan.

Even more bizarrely, Cheveldayoff’s camp is holding a fundraiser at a country-and-western bar this week. That wouldn’t be unusual except that the bar in question is in Calgary.

His reasons for doing so, apparently, are because there are deep pockets to the west with influence here — but any evidence of outsiders deciding on the next premier will likely unsettle some.

At the same time, the Saskatoon Silver Springs MLA on Friday announced that he is “committed” to the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program, and that he wants to expand its total capacity from 6,000 people from 5,400 and add a referral program where new immigrants can recommend other skilled workers they know.

Koch — who is widely thought to have the old-school Sask. Party machinery behind her — has been much quieter. Her camp hasn’t issued a news release and her 105 tweets consist of generic party positions (No carbon tax, etc.) and a Ryan Reynolds retweet mocking people who choose not to eat gluten.

Scott Moe, who has the broadest caucus support of any candidate, has been more active but he hasn’t said anything new.

On Thursday, in what has become the standard Sask. Party platform plank, he told The Canadian Press that he will never allow a carbon tax to be imposed on Saskatchewan and that “we’ll use everything in our disposal … and that may include going to a court of law.”

The real action, meanwhile, has been in the NDP race. Meili released late last week an ambitious platform that aims to integrate social issues like education, health care and reconciliation and the broader economy. The basic idea is that people will be better-able to contribute if communities are strong and investment diversified — the fusion of ideas Meili has long espoused.

The complete document really is worth reading, as is Meili’s plan on how to pay for it all, which includes plenty of platitudes and two nuggets sure to upset the Sask. Party establishment: A pledge to raise corporate taxes and a second to review how royalties on natural resources including potash and oil are collected.

Meili is widely regarded as far to the left of his sole competitor, Trent Wotherspoon, and his campaign platform contained few surprises.

What it did achieve, however, is something we have yet to see from another candidate in either race: The staking out of a position that is bold and different from what came before.

We’ll use everything in our disposal … and that may include going to a court of law.