(No Paywall) As 2023 Winds Down, Here's What I'm Working On
There's never any shortage of bullsh*t to dig into, that's for sure.
It seems like every day, the Saskatchewan government does something new and exceptionally stupid.
Destructive, even.
I’ve been stressed about getting something new out to you guys, because I’m working on about four different pieces right now that each have a ways to go on the research side. So, I thought I’d try something other Substack writers do and send out a little list of what I’m working on.
Here’s what you can expect to receive from me as 2023 winds down and we move into 2024, a big election year in Saskatchewan at both the provincial and municipal level.
Saskatchewan Crop Insurance Corporation (SCIC)
For the second year in a row, Saskatchewan’s Finance Minister Donna Harpauer has used farmers as an excuse for her increasing inability to do her job. Specifically, Harpauer has again blamed the province’s staggering operating deficit on SCIC, for paying more in the 2023 crop year than it received for premiums.
Donna Harpauer doesn’t tell the truth and what the Saskatchewan government pays farmers every year, especially as climate change continues to decimate agriculture operations, is absolutely unsustainable.
While SCIC did pay out record indemnities in both 2021 and 2022, it also ran a combined $1.5-billion surplus in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
So where TF did that money go?
I’m going to show you.
In the meantime and in respect to the sustainability of this kind of corporate welfare, I’ve unlocked this piece for you, which I wrote in April 2022:
Breast Cancer Hell
Finding a lump is every woman’s worst nightmare.
The first thing you’re going to do is call your family doctor… if you’re fortunate enough to have one in Saskatchewan.
While many breast lumps are not cancerous, a doctor is almost definitely going to send you for diagnostic testing, meaning a mammogram and/or biopsy.
According to the American Cancer Society, when breast cancer is detected early, the 5-year relative survival rate is 99%.
In Saskatchewan, women’s lives are being put at risk, or outright deteriorating, because wait times for breast cancer diagnostics are off the charts. Instead of days, it’s taking months for women who find lumps to get diagnosis and therefore treatment.
The Sask Party’s solution?
Send scared women to Calgary, to the same private healthcare facility the Sask Party government is already shoveling copious amounts of your money into to reduce Saskatchewan’s ridiculous ortho-surgerical wait times.
I’m sure having to find the ways and means to get to Calgary will definitely help Saskatchewan women in the unwanted, frightening position of determining whether she might have breast cancer.
“…having breast cancer is a serious stress and crisis event…diagnosis and surgical treatment of breast cancer is a process that most breast cancer patients have to go through. This process will have a huge impact on the patient's psychological, social, and family functions and then seriously affects the quality of life of breast cancer patients.” - National Library of Medicine, Analysis of the Role of Continuous Early Intervention in Improving the Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Patients, June 16 2022
Don’t worry though, the government will reimburse her up to $1500 for travel expenses - as long as she has the cash up front to get to Calgary in the first place.
I’m looking into two aspects of this one:
Which Sask Party MLAs have holdings, specifically hotels, in Calgary. I know there’s at least one.
The connections between Sask Party insiders and Kensington Capital Partners Limited, an investment firm with $2.6 billion in assets under management. Kensington purchased the company the Sask Party is contracting (Clearpoint Health) in 2019.
Saskatoon and Regina City Councils Hitting Rock Bottom.
Thank heavens it’s a municipal election year, because both houses need to be cleaned out.
Saskatoon City Council just jacked up property taxes by an eye-watering 6.04 per cent in 2024, followed by a predicted 5.64 per cent in 2025.
Far more egregious, IMO, is the pathetic, wrong-headed and underreported debate that went down during Saskatoon City Council’s budget deliberations.
Earlier this week, one of the only decent Saskatoon city councilors left, Mairin Loewen, recommended a ratio change that would increase taxes for businesses by just over four per cent and drop residential property taxes by two per cent. This change would bring Saskatoon more in line with other Canadian cities, while still keeping the resident to business tax ratio attractively low.
However according to CTV, “Darren Hill, Randy Donhauer and Troy Davies were among the councillors concerned about businesses not being consulted.”
When have Saskatoon residents ever been consulted about their taxes being raised?
"This is not good governance. This is not the way that we do business. This is reckless and I cannot support it." - Saskatoon Ward 1 Councilor Darren Hill, CTV Saskatoon, November 29, 2023
Hill talking about recklessness is special. More importantly, he knows that the city of Saskatoon is not a business, nor should it be ran as one.
"This would be a completely full chamber right now if I advertised that this conversation was happening today (to Saskatoon businesses). And unfortunately, I wasn't given that opportunity.” - Saskatoon Ward 4 Councilor Troy Davies, CTV Saskatoon, November 29, 2023
Davies was given all kinds of opportunities to “advertise” the property tax conversation to residents of his ward. He should go run for the Sask Party if he’s dumb enough to believe businesses vote.
Meanwhile in Regina…where do I even start?
Everytime we think the Regina Exhibition Association Ltd (REAL) debacle can’t get any worse, it does. This time it was ousted-chair Wayne Morsky who managed to make things even stupider, by releasing an open letter that cast all kinds of aspersions on Regina City Council, the City of Regina’s manager and more.
I know for a fact that Wayne Morsky met with Tim Reid and Regina Ward 2 City Councilor Bob Hawkins on Wednesday. There’s no way this letter was written by Morsky alone.
I’ve already said what I have to say about Tim Reid:
We’re now going to create a timeline of every shitshow that has blown up under Sandra Masters toxic stint as Regina’s mayor.
In 2023 alone, members of Regina City Council have commited ethics violations, launched ill-fated lawsuits, had the police called to one of their meetings and defended a misogynistic marketing campaign that resulted in embarrassing international scrutiny.
We’re going to look at this closely, because we must be clear about where our cities have been, to know where our cities should never, ever go again.
Scott Moe and Consequences
I’m so tired of talking about this guy, but he has no right to behave as bizarrely and destructively as he does without ongoing scrutiny.
The latest example was Moe saying he's not expecting “any consequences whatsoever” for his decision to stop collecting the carbon tax through SaskPower, despite the fact doing so would equal an unprecedented breaking of federal law.
Beyond the fact Premier Scott Moe clearly believes he will never face consequences for breaking the law, I don’t believe the Sask Party government has done anything with the carbon tax revenue they’ve already been collecting… beyond funnelling it into the General Revenue Fund. Like everything I write, this piece has become a lot longer than I intended, so I’m not going to get into this issue beyond that.
I believe I can lay out facts that detail how the Sask Party government hasn’t even followed its own climate change plan. I don’t really care because the plan is useless, but I want to know where the money went. Saskatchewan people have been paying into a Saskatchewan government-held climate change fund for some time now and I can’t figure out where the money has gone.
I will.
Today’s post is open to everyone, but the work I described above won’t be. Please subscribe if you’d like access to all of what I publish.
Have a great weekend,
