$2B spending begs for recall of the legislature

We have just added roughly $2 billion in infrastructure capital spending to a Saskatchewan budget that we’re told will have a deficit between $1.3 billion and $3.3 billion in 2020-21 and who knows how much in 2021-22.

The last time Saskatchewan had deficits anywhere close to this stratosphere and did not bother with scrutiny or to pass a spring budget in the Saskatchewan legislature was in 1991. It left the province teetering on bankruptcy.

If now isn’t a good time to recall the Saskatchewan legislature for the purposes of scrutinization, when is?

For those eager to make political hay on the above, this is no way to suggest that Premier Scott Moe administration’s spending/deficits/ circumstances are anything vaguely resembling that of the 1980s Grant Devine Progressive Conservative government.

We are now dealing with (hopefully) a once-in-alifetime crisis that was the root cause of the all-party decision on March 19 to shut down the Saskatchewan assembly for public safety reasons before a real budget with revenue and spending projections could be tabled.

Until now, calls for resuming the legislature often centred around the Sask. Party government not doing/ spending enough to address COVID -19 issues.

Of course, there’s nothing necessarily nefarious about this, either. It’s a little thing we call democracy, where we are allowed to disagree with majority rule in the hopes of achieving consensus-best results on any issue.

The legislature needs to function to debate a wide variety of issues and one longs for the simplicity of gross mismanagement of the Global Transportation Hub or the nonsensical justifications of building an office tower in a public park.

Certainly, COVID -19 has added myriad issues like the outbreaks in La Loche and Lloydminster that badly require accountability beyond the daily briefings with a dozen or so reporters’ questions.

And given that the consistent glaring weakness of Moe’s handling of this pandemic has been his unwillingness to bring others like mayors, northern leaders and the opposition into the decision-making fold, it certainly can be argued legislative debate would be valuable.

That would certainly now include debate over the unaccounted for $2-billion package ... although this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s inherently wrong for Moe to suddenly embrace Keynesian economics under these circumstances.

Moe’s so-called $2-billion “booster shot” over the next two budget years — billed as foresight on how Saskatchewan can and will emerge once the coronavirus passes — is on top of the already-planned $2.7 billion in infrastructure spending for 2020-21 and $2.8 billion for 2021-22.

There is a case to be made for the package’s $181 million to complete deferred maintenance for hospitals and schools or the overall $320 million that’s been dedicated to municipalities to cash in on the $900-million joint federal-provincial projects under the Investing In Canada Infrastructure Program.

And a key element in this package is the $150-million Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP) created to spare municipalities from illegally running up deficits (Saskatoon faces a $32.9-million shortfall while Regina’s is forecasted to be $20.7 million).

But why this provincial money should be targeted for capital spending rather than direct grants to operational costs that would allow cities to keep seasonal workers employed is an issue worthy of legitimate debate.

Similarly, is anyone else wondering whether it’s all that wise to have an added “stimulus” of $255 million ($55 million this year and $200 million next) for highways with thin-membrane pavement? Any thoughts about the penchant for every government to do this in election years? Anyone notice how nicely the stimulus package theme dovetails into the Saskatchewan Party’s fall campaign theme?

Anyone care to explain the mental gymnastics of those demanding Parliament resume but not applying the same accountability standards to the Saskatchewan legislature?

These aren’t the kind of things that Chambers of Commerce or construction associations are about to ask. One gets why they — and perhaps even SUMA and SARM — would cheerlead a stimulus package right now.

But democracy isn’t about cheerleading government decisions.

It’s always about choices that need scrutiny. And Moe and company know full well the legislature is where that happens.