Wall must offer a balanced vision

It’s a word not normally applied to participants in the partisan world of Saskatchewan politics and it’s seldom applied to a premier ... or even one in waiting.

Nor would it necessarily have been the first word that leapt to mind when one first read then-Opposition leader and now Premier Brad Wall’s The Promise of Saskatchewan vision statement eight years ago. This was, after all, a partisan document that offered the curt view that government best serves the public by getting out of the way of investment development rather than trying to manage or control it.

But if Wall’s updated economic vision statement to be released next month is to build on the province’s recent eight-year economic boom, he must recapture the broadness and self-awareness he demonstrated in his 2004 paper. In short, the word that should emerge out of Wall’s new vision statement is “balanced.”

Admittedly, the Saskatchewan Party government’s new economic blueprint needs to be more that. It must provide a multi-point plan that transfers our economic good fortune into meeting our economic and social needs for years to come.

Of course, Saskatchewan’s premier has been dropping broad hints for months on what that will entail ... although some of what he has said seems to have been governed by his insatiable need to subtly nudge public opinion in the Sask. Party’s philosophical direction.

Prior to their July Elk Ridge caucus retreat to discuss next month’s paper, government MLAs had been asked to put the following three questions to their constituents: “How do we keep growth going?”; “How do we make sure people are benefiting from the growth?”, and; “How do we deal with the challenges related to growth?”

To the surprise of no one, debt reduction, health care and infrastructure needs like highways — all of which will be topic headings in next’s month’s vision statement — emerged as the themes. However, that quickly morphed into Wall talking about the need to address the “infrastructure deficit” (you know, that horrific failure of the past NDP government that whiled away its years in public office coping with the billion-dollar-a-year debt left behind by the Progressive Conservatives) “in more innovative ways” like through “partnerships with municipalities and private sector ... so that we can get more work done.”

Of course, we do need to focus on these major issues. (Although, ensuring decent housing or support for municipal water and sewers are every bit as much a priority as highways. And perhaps Wall would be wise to add to any debt-reduction discussion a plan for a heritage/ sovereign fund that was so politically topical in last year’s provincial election). Also expect First Nations employment, technology and innovation and education to make their customary appearances

But Wall must provide more than a recitation of the usual platitudes aimed at disguising a subtle message that the private-sector “wealth creators” are somehow more deserving of a bigger portion of the resources we share than the rest of us. And given the subtle (or sometimes not) manipulation of process we’ve seen in the labour law reviews, some will wonder if Wall is even capable of a providing this relatively balanced view.

Well, he likely is, and one need look no further for evidence of that than the aforementioned Promise of Saskatchewan paper.

While still rather philosophically charged, the 2004 vision statement was as critical of Wall’s past Progressive Conservative government employer for megaprojects and GigaText as it was of NDP debacles like Spudco and dot.com investments. More, significant it meted out equal criticism of all past Saskatchewan governments that abdicated their responsibility to consider what was in the best interest of Saskatchewan people by “allowing the public sector to eclipse the potential of private investment” and “picking winners and losers” in business.

That some of his policies have clearly picked oil, potash, manufacturing, construction and other business interests as winners over losers like labour suggests Wall has sometimes lost sight of what is truly fair. But if Wall bases his economic vision on the rather simple notion that everyone deserves his or her equal share of the bounty we have been blessed with, this paper could be a significant contribution to our future.

Wall must simply rediscover the balance he had when he was preparing for the job of premier.