Government must stop leaning on like-thinkers

Turning the corner on a new year (an election year) and a new decade should be the perfect time for the Saskatchewan Party government to take stock of its biggest problems and how it needs to address them.

Yet this is proving to be a difficult task for this 12-yearold government — even if its problems are blatantly obvious to even the most casual political observers.

Unfortunately, the Sask. Party appears to be following the same course as past aging governments: Exhausted by an inability to find viable solutions to either long-standing problems or newer ones of their own making, invariably, old governments start doling out Band-aid solutions or leaning on like-thinkers who are usually more inclined to give government the answers it wants rather than the answers it needs.

This is the big problem with Saskatchewan’s new curriculum advisory committee, finally appointed after a three-year delay and not expected to produce anything for at least another three years.

Yes, much of the attention/ criticism has centred around largely unfounded allegations of nepotism in the appointment of Trent Hargrave, son of Crown Investment Corp. (CIC) Minister Joe Hargrave.

In the wake of the GTH news this week involving the son of Policing and Corrections Minister Christine Tell, Regan Hinchcliffe, the NDP have had a field day with allegations of people with Sask. Party connections getting the friends and family rate at taxpayers’ expense. It’s a criticism that’s likely unfair, but — maybe more significantly — misses the point when it comes to the real problem plaguing government right now.

For example, having any company move into the GTH offices at a reduced sublease arrangement roughly $28,000 a year below costs isn’t a solution for taxpayers. More significantly, it isn’t a solution for the longtime GTH woes. What to do with the GTH or Brandt/cnib debacle are issues the Sask. Party should be cleaning up before going to the polls.

But what may be even more annoying than slipshod solutions themselves is the penchant for government and/or its apologists to aid and abet by playing along.

We all should be demanding better answers than we are getting through temporary fixes or appointing more committees unlikely to accomplish much of anything.

Right now, we have an aging government that is getting away with creating the perception of delivering solutions rather than actually finding workable solutions. This takes us back to the announced education curriculum committee.

The problem wasn’t necessarily that it was Hargrave’s son — a local car dealer appointed by the Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce who has since wisely withdrawn from the committee. The problem is the ridiculous overrepresentation on an education committee of chamber of commerce types who can only be expected to add so much.

This is not to say there’s anything wrong with having chamber of commerce representation or even that every interest group needs to be represented. But how ridiculous is it not to have Indigenous representation (there is no Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations representative) from P.A. and the north on a committee exploring long-term curriculum development and high school graduation requirements, when First Nations and northern high school graduation rates have long been one of the foremost Saskatchewan problems?

There are more chamber of commerce types (four) than teachers (two, although there are three school division members). Even if post-education job placement is the government’s exclusive end goal (and there’s a legitimate argument that it should be more than that) local chamber types are likely of less value than actual educators or others who might be able to speak to what’s not working in the classrooms right now.

There again, having more business people and fewer teachers likely limits unpleasant discussions on classroom overcrowding, support for English as a second language or equitable on-reserve/off-reserve education funding.

Government should seek out the best solutions ... or at least appoint those who can help find the best solutions.