Sask Party Insiders Pt 6: Sask Party's 2022 Fiscal Return... The Expenses
Oh yes. It's as fun and special as you think it is.
I’m going to break my analysis of the Sask Party’s 2022 fiscal return into two parts: revenue and expenses. Today’s post will be about the latter, with a post on revenue to follow in the next day or two.
Because it seems like after fifteen years, perhaps predictably, some of you have become a touch desensitized to the unethical quagmire that is the financing of province’s political parties - well, at least one - in Saskatchewan.
Put simply, Saskatchewan’s political finance laws are some of the worst in the developed world. In fact, I’d venture they’re worse than some in the undeveloped world.
Saskatchewan’s election financing laws allow unlimited political donations from virtually any entity, including corporations, unions and donors from anywhere in the world. Yes, the world. In the next post you’ll see how many donors have offices, which are clearly head offices, in other countries. I really don’t care if they have one in Saskatchewan too.
There are few regimes anymore, besides the Sask Party’s, to which a person or group of people can lawfully, openly hand a wad of cash with the full expectation of a favorable government policy or taxpayer-funded contract in return.
A policy or contract that flagrantly prioritizes the business interests of the “donor” over the best interests of the residents, voters and taxpayers that politician is elected to serve.
The federal government, as well as British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia ban out-of-province, corporate or union donations to political parties.
Saskatchewan’s political finance laws are shit for one reason: they are the perfect tool for the authoritarian Sask Party to use to entrench themselves even deeper into power over Saskatchewan.
The Sask Party has proven, time and time again, that the more money donated to their party, the more favours from this government those people and their companies receive. The Sask Party’s legacy donors have long since been established. Don’t just take my word for it. The evidence is all right in front of us.
The annual fiscal return required by Elections Saskatchewan from every registered political party in the province is divided into two segments: revenue (or in the antiquated language of the twenty-year old return - “Contributions”) and expenses.
We’ll start with Part II of the Sask Party’s 2022 return.
The Expenses
The reason I’m starting with their expenses instead of revenue will be clear by the time you finish reading this one.
Please draw your attention to numbers 2, 4, 5, and 11.
We’ll start with number 11.
Number 11 reveals that in 2022 alone, the Sask Party spent $200k on “licences and permits”.
Those aren’t hunting or fishing licenses. We don’t know what they are, but I think it’s fair to assume much of that is the licenses and permits required by the SLGA to serve and sell alcohol at a private fundraiser, like a golf tournament or a Premier’s Dinner.
Like each one we’re going to review, that “license & permits” amount doesn’t make sense.
Let’s use this year’s Saskatoon premier’s dinner, which will be held in mid-June (be a shame if it was protested, hint hint) as an example. By my rough calculations, that meal and facility will cost the Sask Party over $60K.
Now multiply that $60K cost (which doesn’t even include things like corkage, “sponsorship” printing or things like digital rentals or a/v needs) by two, to account for the price of putting on the same annual premier’s shindig in Regina.
Now bump that figure up even more to include expenses for all the annual premier’s dinners the Sask Party also holds in smaller centres.
Then there’s the golf tournaments.
I’m assuming Saskatchewan golf courses still require the Sask Party to pay for using their greens, like they do every other actually worthy cash-starved non-profit organization in the province trying to fundraise cash just to operate, by hosting golf tournaments every year.
All of which are competing with the Sask Party’s golf tourney fundraisers.
But I digress.
You see where I’m going with this, right?
While the Sask Party raises a pile of cash through fundraisers like golf tournaments, premier’s dinners, 9/11 World Trade Center Terror Attack-pig roasts
and god knows what else, those fundraisers still cost money to host. Yet the Sask Party is claiming they only spent $23K on facility rentals. How does that work?
Who knows?!
I guarantee not Elections Saskatchewan or Chief Electoral Clown Michael Boda.
Number 5 on the Sask Party’s expenses reflects $100K spent on party advertising in 2022.
That sounds like a lot, doesn’t it?
It’s not and I don’t really buy it. The average ad buy on a Rawlco Radio station for a week can run you $5000 or more. The Sask Party has spent roughly $35,000 per year on Facebook advertising, which brings the portion left for their mainstream media (aka Rawlco Radio) ad spend down even further.
The form states that the “Particulars”
of the party’s advertising would be laid out in
Part II b).
Really. Are they now.
The Sask Party has so few f*cks to give about things like The Election Act, 1996 and integrity that they can’t even be bothered to follow the most basic instructions on the goddamn form.
“Phoenix Advertising” is the name of an ad agency, not a “Name of Broadcaster or Publisher”. The Sask Party did not use Phoenix Advertising as a conduit (which is sketchy af anyway) to buy $100K worth of advertising - in one day - last year.
How the heck does such a flagrant disregard for not just the spirit of and actual legislation on financial reporting, but the concept of democratic transparency from a political party, slide right past Elections Saskatchewan?
Who knows?!
I guarantee not Elections Saskatchewan or Chief Electoral Soggy Pizza Pop Michael Boda.
In fact, I can find absolutely no record of a single dollar paid to Rawlco Radio anywhere, including through the General Revenue Fund (ie the Ministries) the Sask Health Authority or the Saskatchewan Crown corporations.
Once again in 2022, Rawlco Radio was the Sask Party’s top cash donor.
There’ll be more on that in the next post on revenue.
For now, scroll back up to number 2 of the Sask Party’s expenses.
How does a political party that holds government, a job which presumably keeps most of its elected officials and their dear leader busy, still manage to rack up $77K in travel expenses?
Compare that to Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative Party’s “Transportation, accommodation and food” expense from its 2022 annual return.
Manitoba Conservatives spent less than a third of what the Sask Party spent on travel. Manitoba has roughly the same geographical distribution and population rate as Saskatchewan.
So where is the Sask Party going?
I guess when you can take donations from wherever you want, the world is Scoot’s oyster.
Manitoba PCs paid less for fundraising overall than the Sask Party next door allegedly just pays for its liquor licenses.
Check out the BC NDP’s 2022 fiscal return. Not only is it a document produced in this century, they also have to provide an expense form for every single fundraiser the party holds. They even have to list which of their elected officials were in attendance.
The BC NDP’s research and polling number is also fascinating in comparison to the Sask Party’s.
The Saskatchewan Party spent three times as much (on a per capita basis) as the BC NDP on research and polling.
Meanwhile, in Ontario:
The Saskatchewan Party spent over twenty times more on research and polling than Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives.
You’ll note Ontario also neatly breaks out fundraising costs.
I could probably figure it out pretty quick, but I’m confident enough already to say that the Saskatchewan Party is easily one of the wealthiest political parties, on a comparative voter/population scale, in Canada.
So next time someone tries to tell you that they attended a Sask Party fundraiser as some kind of f**ked up networking effort for their worthy cause?
Remind them there were 1800 people in that room. You think the four unelected “important decision-makers” that run the Sask Party and your life got around to every single one of them?
You think those money-grubbing clowns were sashaying around Prairieland Park looking for “teacher voices”?
Fuck no.
Absolutely no networking, educating or advocating for a solitary thing beyond who’s getting Scott Moe’s next Caesar happens at any Sask Party fundraiser. Ever. Literally everyone knows this, including the man who wrote that fraudulent reply for the STF, because he worked for the Sask Party for decades, propping up their bullshit and burying their bodies.
Thank you, teachers, so much, for rewarding him with a six figure salary so he can lie to you some more… but I’m the one in exile. Especially when these people gaslight the shit out of you by pretending that paying to attend a Sask Party fundraiser is “not political donations”.
Yep, it’s personal for me. I miss my home, my pets, my lake - I miss Saskatchewan and you better believe I’m bitter about this nonsense.
The bottom line is if you’re dumb enough to pay to attend a premier’s dinner, instead of demanding Moe and his clown cabinet of Ministers do their goddamn job for the taxpayer-funded salary they receive, you’re creating more problems for all of us.
You attend a premier’s dinner, or any Sask Party fundraiser, alongside the corrupt, legacy donors and supporters they really care about, in hopes that your presence might be noted.
That’s it.
You hope your presence is noted so that later, when you need a meeting at the Legislature to discuss that other very worthy and important thing you needed to network, educate or advocate for… you might even get one.
Maybe, but probably not.
Because just like thousands of saps before you, you’ve already given the Sask Party your money, which enabled them to raise even more money…to further empower themselves over all of us.
They don’t need you.
And they don’t need your money either.
No matter how noble your cause, the cash you handed Scott Moe and the Sask Party renders their power over all of us exponentially greater.
I mean, do you actually believe you’re getting $22fuckinghundred dollars worth of food at a table for eight at Prairieland Park in Saskatoon? Come on. That’s $275 each. Two people can eat well at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant, or pretty much anywhere that doesn’t also offer a buffet, for that price.
The profit, which is what it is, that Sask Party takes in on fundraisers is staggering.
We really have no idea how staggering and they have absolutely no intention of telling you.
Because when we flip back to the Revenue side of the document, one of the sections of the Sask Party’s 2022 fiscal return, as legislated by the Elections Sask Act and “enforced” by Chief Electoral Half-boiled Ham Michael Boda, this is what the Sask Party reported under Part 1 (c):
These clowns have not a single f**k to give about voters or the democratic future of the province. The Sask Party is not even trying to pretend they don’t just outright own the government now. They are actually flaunting it, along with their blatant disregard for even the basic tenets of a functional society, by pulling shit like this.
Not even acknowledging the fundraising section at all. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so damaging.
WIth that sunshine and optimism, I will leave you with this sneak peek at what the corporate side of the Sask Party’s 2022 revenue sheet looks like:
The Sask Party, both governmentally and politically, functions as little more than a series of transactions brokered between a thin upper crust of wealthy men, mainly from Alberta, who have business interests in Saskatchewan.
Seriously, if there were a hundred people running the Saskatchewan Party’s show, I’d be shocked. Even if there was that many, it would still equal less than 0.01 percent of Saskatchewan’s population lording over the other 99.9 percent of Saskatchewan’s population in its entirety.
Every dollar invested in the Sask Party makes huge returns… for the Sask Party.
There is no amount of good that you or your cause can do that undoes the damage done by every dollar you spent, just to get your toe in the door before it gets slammed back in your face.
And yes, Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation - which has not secured a single, solitary gain for Saskatchewan teachers or their students in recent memory - I’m talking to you.
xoxo,
(Trying out some new ones, the old one was boring me).