Saskatoon StarPhoenix

Do we trust government to protect Crowns?

Full repeal of Bill 40 forces province to be more open,

- writes Tim Quigley. Tim Quigley, emeritus professor of law, Saskatoon

The citizens of Saskatchew­an know that Crown corporatio­ns act in the public interest to provide services and revenue to the province that private corporatio­ns do not always do.

SaskTel provides internet and cellular coverage to pretty much the entire province at competitiv­e rates. SGI provides car insurance that is cheaper than private insurance. Natural gas to heat our homes and businesses is delivered by SaskEnergy and electricit­y by SaskPower. Without these publicly owned corporatio­ns, many Saskatchew­an residents, especially in northern and rural areas, would either have to pay a great deal more for these services or do without altogether.

But our Crown corporatio­ns are under threat. In the spring, the Saskatchew­an Party government passed legislatio­n, Bill 40, that permits the privatizat­ion of 49 per cent of a Crown corporatio­n without the public process that would otherwise be required under another law. Bill 40 also says that winding up (shutting down) a Crown corporatio­n is not privatizat­ion.

Bill 40 was also used to wind up the Saskatchew­an Transporta­tion Company. As Saskatchew­an residents are finding out already, this has deprived many people of the means to travel from one community to another, including for medical appointmen­ts and the like. The end of STC has also complicate­d sending lab samples for testing, library materials for interlibra­ry loans, and the shipping of countless goods such as farm machinery parts.

Saskatchew­an residents have such strong support for the Crown corporatio­ns because they know the valuable services the Crowns provide — services that would certainly be more expensive through the private sector, but perhaps not available at all. That is why there has been a great deal of controvers­y about Bill 40.

That is likely why Premier Wall announced a couple of weeks ago that his government has listened and will repeal the bill. However, the throne speech opening this session of the legislatur­e indicated that the repeal will not include the repeal of the winding-up portion. This means the government will retain the legal power to shut down all or part of a major Crown corporatio­n without the public input required under The Crown Corporatio­ns Public Ownership Act.

Some might say that the partial repeal is required because the Saskatchew­an Transporta­tion Company (STC) was shut down in accordance with Bill 40. However, that is not true because, unless the repeal bill was made retroactiv­e, the STC shutdown would not be affected. In other words, if the premier was truly listening to the people, a complete repeal of Bill 40 is called for.

The possibilit­y of a partial repeal is very suspicious. Recently, new legislatio­n was introduced in the legislatur­e that would change the law governing SaskEnergy. Some will recall that the Devine government (for which Brad Wall was a functionar­y) split SaskEnergy off from SaskPower and was going to privatize it until opposition from the public and the opposition NDP forced it to back off.

At the moment, SaskEnergy and TransGas, both Crown corporatio­ns, have exclusive jurisdicti­on over our natural gas distributi­on system. A change to that has, until now, required public scrutiny and debate in the legislatur­e. The proposed amendments, however, would allow the cabinet to make these changes by regulation without public debate and scrutiny. If the legislatio­n passes in its present form, it means that the government could (a) wind down the gas distributi­on network; (b) quickly pass a regulation to permit private ownership of the gas distributi­on system; and (c) sell off the distributi­on system assets to those private owners. Much the same could happen with other Crown corporatio­ns: selling off the fibre optic network for SaskTel, for example.

This would be privatizat­ion in an underhande­d way and very contrary to Premier Wall’s statements about listening to the public and deciding to repeal Bill 40.

That is why there should be a complete repeal of Bill 40. Privatizat­ion could still occur, but the government would have to do it openly with full scrutiny and debate and with the supporting vote of the people of Saskatchew­an.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada