Moe displays indifference to democracy

It’s telling that Premier Scott Moe and his government have almost entirely abandoned any pretence of discussing plans for Saskatchewan, focusing their attention on picking symbolic fights with the federal government. But while Moe uses his public profile to jaw at Justin Trudeau over federal issues, we should pay much closer attention to the democratic vacuum he’s creating in our province.

This past week, Regina’s city council approved a statement in response to the revelation that the already controversial conversion of parts of Wascana Centre to commercial use will exceed what had been publicly discussed. Unfortunately, though, unanimity among Regina’s elected municipal officials counts for nothing: it’s the province which holds ultimate control over both the Provincial Capital Commission and the structure of municipal government.

And Moe is showing his willingness to meddle on that front by hinting at scrapping the existing timeline for municipal elections — raising the prospect that our ability to vote on how we’re governed in our communities may be delayed by a year solely for the Saskatchewan Party’s convenience in the timing of the next provincial election.

At best, that trial balloon falls short of the even more outrageous intrusions into Ontario’s municipal elections recently inflicted by Moe’s apparent political soulmate, Doug Ford. Moe’s interference is more a matter of apathy than of malice and vengeance.

But the underlying attitude of indifference toward meaningful localized decision-making is the same — and it represents one of the most consistent themes of the Saskatchewan Party’s tenure in office.

In some cases, the result has been massive structural changes, which have undermined our civic institutions generally — ranging from the elimination of the ability of school boards to raise or save the resources they need to keep schools functioning, to the amalgamation of health decision-making into a single provincial entity, which continues to be the source of waves of disruption serving little apparent purpose.

In other cases, the Saskatchewan Party has used a variety of subsidiary bodies under its control for questionable ends. That problem is most obvious in the sequence of events which saw provincial ministries, Crown corporations and municipal resources all conscripted toward the development of a Global Transportation Hub which has served only a few well-connected friends of the Wall cabinet while turning into a scandal for the province.

Of course, the GTH fiasco has culminated in the government’s recent musings about dumping the whole mess on the City of Regina — signalling that the Saskatchewan Party is also happy to use municipalities to absorb the losses from its own mismanagement.

To be clear, municipalities and most other local institutions are created under the ultimate constitutional authority of the province. And so there’s little serious question as to the province’s theoretical ability to alter them.

But a provincial government which actually viewed our municipal councils and other localized bodies as serving a meaningful purpose — whether to allow for democratic representation in the case of municipalities and school boards, or to ensure localized and expertise-based decision-making in other bodies — would know better than to interfere thoughtlessly in their operation. Unfortunately, the Saskatchewan Party government has never recognized the value of having decisions made anywhere other than in its own backrooms, nor for any purpose other than partisan gain.

If we care about improving our province’s governance at all levels in the face of Moe’s destructive philosophy, then there’s only one reliable means at our disposal — and that’s to use the one form of democracy which can’t be avoided by provincial decree, to elect a governing party which values thoughtful decisionmaking at all levels.

Fingas is a Regina lawyer, blogger and freelance political commentator who has written about provincial and national issues from a progressive NDP perspective since 2005.

And Moe is showing his willingness to meddle …