Separation talk masks more complex issues
One suspects Premier Scott Moe might even be welcoming this Western separation angst as a distraction from more domestic issues actually harder to resolve.
Speaking to reporters at the legislature after the ceremonial opening of the $1.9-billion Regina bypass, Moe again failed to denounce those wanting to remove this province from its 114 years in Confederation.
“Let’s face it, the discussion around separation is alive and happening in communities here in the province, but there are other options,” Moe said Monday.
It seems the breakup of the country should be meritorious of something more than laissez faire responses we’ve heard from Moe. But he may have his reasons.
While Moe likely doesn’t see separation as a serious threat, he may see political benefit in letting the talk percolate as: (a) leverage he can use in dealing with Ottawa, which happens to have the side benefit of directing voter anger at an entirely different level of government and (b) a way for his Saskatchewan Party to deflect from local issues actually tougher to address.
Health-care delivery is always such an issue. There may be more grandiose issues, but health-care issues are costly, unresolvable and always accompanied by strong emotional attachments.
Although he is loathe to pour water on the separatism talk, this does not mean Moe has separatist sentiments. “My position is that Saskatchewan should be in a strong and united Canada,” he told reporters. “We have to work with the prime minister of Canada to ensure that Saskatchewan will be a strong and united partner within the nation. This conversation is in the prime minister’s hands.”
Translation: He has a rural caucus that got him elected Sask. Party leader two years ago that has been hearing from constituents angry about the federal election results. It won’t win the Sask. Party any more seats. If anything, it may hurt them in the cities, where voters seem more bothered by Moe not doing what Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister did by denouncing separation.
But politics is always about emotion.
It’s for this reason Monday’s bypass ceremony wasn’t about the massive overbuilding/ spending to accommodate the Global Transportation Hub on the west side.
Far better than talk about a billion dollars of unnecessary costs for what may now be a political vanity project is to talk about the “lives that will be saved” by east-end overpasses, which is exactly what the Moe government did Monday.
However, lest one think that only government preys upon emotion, consider the ageold eagerness of oppositions to point to failings in the health system, as we saw Monday when NDP health critic Vicki Mowat raised the story of Angela Mclean spending nearly a week in the hallways of Pasqua Hospital in Regina.
This is by no means to suggest that Mclean’s horrific situation isn’t a real problem or that Mowat isn’t sincere about wanting a resolution.
Health Minister Jim Reiter, who was quick to acknowledge Mclean’s experience was “not acceptable,” did not need to be quite so aghast that this issue would be raised in a political forum or that it would be tied to underfunding. His Sask. Party, in opposition, used the exact same tactic, as did the NDP Opposition before them.
That said, Reiter is right that health spending has soared 60 per cent under this Sask. Party administration to $5.8 billion from $3.4 billion in 2007 when it took over government from the NDP.
For decades, Saskatchewan governments and oppositions have duked it out over not just the global health spending dollars but also the minutia.
While Mowat argued Monday that the Canadian Institute for Health Information suggests per-capita spending on emergency rooms has fallen since 2015-16, the government countered that emergency department visits have actually declined in both Regina (five per cent) and Saskatoon (one per cent) despite eight-per-cent population growth since 2015-16.
But it’s never really about the numbers. Politics is always about emotional connection to issues, and no issue brings out the emotion like health care.