Wall gov’t not yet quite there

Saskatchewan is growing at a rapid pace, but whether our provincial government is growing up as rapidly is a question that’s as intriguing as it is important.

Wednesday’s speech from the throne offered some indication that Premier Brad Wall’s administration certainly has grown, although perhaps not as fast as it needs to grow up.

Some governments certainly have no choice but to grow up quickly. Roy Romanow’s NDP government that took over a nearly bankrupt province in 1991 is a case in point. Meanwhile, Grant Devine’s 1980s Progressive Conservatives never bothered to grow up at all, spending like teenagers with their first credit card and regressing to the behaviour of kids left in a candy store.

Fortunately, Wall and his close associates, who once worked for Devine and are now running things, appear to have moved well past their political teen years. And they’ve enjoyed the added good fortune of presiding over a dynamic economy — a key component in the Saskatchewan Party government’s growth that has allowed it to ease into the job without having to grapple with any hideous decisions.

This week’s throne speech revealed a government that’s a long way from its right-wing rural roots. Gone are vestiges of the Saskatchewan Party that rose from the ashes of the PC party 16 years ago, a party that vowed at its early conventions to scrap the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, sell Crown corporations, fire civil servants and force them to get “real jobs,” and herd those annoying innercity punks into boot camps.

This even is a more thoughtful government than the one that came to power six years ago — a government that Wall told reporters Wednesday now sees throne speeches as a measure of “guidance and discipline.” Consider the four highlights in the speech in the context of a better guided and more disciplined government:

■ A new program enabling seniors with complex health issues to receive house calls from physicians or nurse practitioners.

■ Public disclosure of nursing home inspection reports.

■ “New collaborative emergency centres” in Shaunavon, Spiritwood, Wakaw and Canora.

■ “Hot spotting” pilot pro- g rams aimed at “high-risk, high-use patients” who overuse emergency rooms in Regina and Saskatoon.

The hot spotting is an especially encouraging sign, considering the party’s once rather primal right-wing opposition view on such matters. Even as recently as its 2009 throne speech, the government was still adhering to the yapping dogs on the right who demanded an end to the province’s needle exchange program, touting the need to keep kids safe.

This week we heard the government explain that hot spotting would help address such problems as ER overuse. It noted that the top five emergency room users accounted for more than 500 visits last year, with a single patient alone accounting for almost $1 million in ER costs. No details on medical conditions are ever revealed, but you can bet that at least one of the top five is an addict whose issues could have been dealt with elsewhere.

But those who are inclined to marvel at how far the Sask. Party has come would be well advised to consider also how far the government has yet to go.

Consider the divisive political advertisements that stir resentment over First Nations and revenue sharing. First Nations education and economic concerns, sadly, merited no more than four minor references in the 19-page throne speech.

And as encouraging as the health initiatives in the speech were, our province lags behind other jurisdictions in addressing the above issues — many of which are tied to a growing, increasingly urban Saskatchewan. The throne speech certainly could have been more creative.

For example, the Ottawa Hospital has a special care unit at the Salvation Army to help the homeless who suffer everything from liver, lung and throat cancer to mental illnesses to alcoholism and drug addiction. The Targeted Engagement and Diversion program aims directly at those who wind up in hospital emergency rooms. So why not adapt it for Saskatchewan?

Wall was right when he told reporters that the throne speech is about “getting the big things right,” and about “working hard to get the specific things right.” However, his government is not quite there yet.

The throne speech shows the Wall government has come a long way, but it still has a ways to go.