To the victor goes the spoils

The Saskatchewan Party has been in power for two months now and they are claiming that Saskatchewan's economic boom is a result of their policies.

Minister Lyle Stewart says while in Opposition the party did much to push the NDP Government towards business tax rchanges (sic) and the like.

Saskatchewan is about fourth for job growth in Canada.

Through the work of Enterprise Saskatchewan, increasing investment and the hopes of employing the untapped aboriginal workforce, Stewart would like see our province be second in the country this time next year.

First of all, what did the Saskatchewan Party stand for while in Opposition? Tax-cuts - which the NDP had been cutting for nearly a decade now - and... well... that is about all they stood for. Had they been an effective opposition I would have given them credit. However, when you are in power, you can rewrite history and claim that you were the best Opposition this side of Moosomin.

Secondly, Lyle Stewart wants to see Saskatchewan ranked second for job growth in 2008? I thought Saskatchewan was having trouble filling many vacant positions, so where are they going to get all the "new" workers from? Also, if the government wants to shoot for increased job growth, why shoot for No. 2 when you can be No. 1?

While Lyle is taking credit for Saskatchewan's good numbers, his boss is off to dine with the Prime Minister. Before going, he demonstrated Saskatchewan new relationship with the Government of Canada by praising the Tories $1 billion aid package.

Saskatchewan's premier calls a $1-billion federal aid package for single-industry towns suffering economic hardship "a step in the right direction."

[...]

Premier Brad Wall says the money could help Prince Albert and Big River, Sask., where hundreds of workers lost their jobs when mills closed in both northern communities.

The money could help P.A., eh Brad? You mean like it would have helped the P.A. mill to stay open if you had kept your promise?

But Wall also said he also wants to know if the money could be applied to the agricultural sector where producers have been hit hard, especially by the high value of the Canadian dollar.

Saskatchewan is expected to get about $36 million from the new fund.

Wow - $36 million out of $1 billion - that is only 3.6% of the total.

As Mr. Wall goes to Ottawa, the NDP is claiming that he is going to sell out Saskatchewan on equalization. That is probably true to a degree. Mr. Wall will eventually sign a deal with Harper over equalization payments that will be less than what the previous NDP government was asking for and had been promised, but better than what they were offered. This is not actually so bad because when Harper made his infamous campaign stop in Saskatchewan last election and promised that resources would be excluded from the equalization formula, Harper was actually making poor policy choices. To a degree it is similar to his GST cut promise - good politics but bad policy, only with the equalization formula he had to break his promise.

Wall said he will negotiate on the basis that Saskatchewan will always be a "have" province thanks its resource wealth and thinks he will be more successful in securing federal dollars if he proposes spending in specific areas like roads and other infrastructure as well as skills training to address the shortage of workers.

"Saskatchewan needs its own agreement with the federal government," said Wall, adding he is not interested in what Calvert has to say.

Although, it is nice to see the Premier shaking up the view within bureaucracy that Saskatchewan should be a "have" province (instead of Saskatchewan always being on the margin and never receiving any benefits), Brad, along with Lyle, his economic development minister, really should take a basic economics course. Natural resources are a scarce commodity, i.e. they will not last forever. They are prone to whims of the market cycle (please refer to the 1930's, 1980's and 1990's for examples of various commodities going bust). This means that Saskatchewan's "have" status will not last indefinitely. Perhaps, if Lyle and Brad are looking at growing the province's work force and getting more out of that $1 billion Tory hand out, than the new Saskatchewan Party government should look into setting up manufacturing, or other value-add industries.

On a related note, Palliser MP Dave Batters has ended his self-imposed silence (one assumes it is self-imposed and this may only be temporary), to say that Brad really is Stephen's new whipping boy.