Tag Archives: Sask Party

#SaveSTC: Does Saskatchewan Have a Developed Economy Still?

Posted on by John Klein

The gov’t was totally negligent, not even doing as much to ensure people could get to their medical appointments as some guy in Regina could do with less than an hour of effort. If they had, they might have realized Greyhound was considering closure, & STC would corner market. And Hargrave and Carr have remained recklessly partisan and heartless as Saskatchewan people and cross-Canada travelers alike are left without mainstream inter-city/province/country bus service. It leaves people questioning if we’re even a developed economy anymore.

If you’re driving across Canada, and your car breaks down in Regina, you can’t leave it by train, bus, or by hitchhiking (not legally). The government only just barely authorized ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft.

The train station is a casino only, the bus depot is a cop shop & vacant building, and the airport can’t be reached by bus/bike/walking. There are plenty of friendly and sympathetic people who’ll give you a ride if you ask, but for some demographics that’s too dangerous to contemplate.

Skunk In The Stinky FP

Posted on by John Klein

The FP published a ridiculous op-ed by Brad Wall.
business.financialpost .com/opinion/ brad-wall-canada-could-impact-emissions-were-ottawa-not-so-obsessed-with-carbon-taxes

“So, in Paris we were — without intention — a few prairie skunks at this low-carbon garden party.”

His intention was to stink. Wall has remained a skunk throughout his public life.

Remember a decade ago when he promised a Green Tech Fund to develop technologies to reduce emissions, instead of a price on carbon pollution? No? Perhaps because he never delivered it. His sole mission, that he shares with the odious (climate change Denial org) Heritage Foundation when he delivers his speeches in the USA, is to delay climate action.

I know most people reading the Financial Flop Post won’t agree with me, but his ideas are terrible, and are causing global damage.

The reason CCS is even close to making economic sense from his perspective is because it’s for Enhanced Oil Recovery. So the net pollution CCS reduces is offset by some unknown amount of oil burned for every unit of carbon dioxide re-sequestered underground.

Will Mandryk Eat His Privatization Crow?

Posted on by John Klein
Has anyone watched Mandryk eat crow about this doozy of a column defending Wall’s last campaign yet?
“On Tuesday, Wall emphatically said “no” to selling SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskTel, SGI and even STC. He reminded voters he signed the old NDP Crown Corporation Protection Act and noted his only proposed change to that law is on the sale of liquor stores.
Yet there was Broten, becoming the fourth straight NDP leader telling us of their opponent’s hidden agenda to sell off all Crown corporations, including SaskTel, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SGI, STC, etc.”
“Broten has a smoking gun. Don’t let it get around, but … pssst …. Saskatchewan is running a deficit.
 
“He’s not talking about his plans for privatization, but we know, in his desire to go after quick, one-time money … anything is on the table for him.” Broten said.
 
Well, there you have it. What more proof could anyone possibly need? Wall and the Sask. Party intend to commit political suicide by first being forthright about selling liquor stores, then lying to the voters about selling off everything else.
 
So why does the NDP keep doing this?
There is the sentimentality.”
Ugh. He even mocked the smoking gun(s). Maybe he’s just sentimental about beating up on the NDP when they don’t even deserve it, instead of when they do.
This May, Wall closed STC, and changed the law in order to sell off half of SaskTel, SGI, SaskEnergy, etc. for a quick buck and to destroy public services in the hope that the private sector offers them instead. STC has been shut for weeks now, and Greyhound has expressed an interest in NOT operating buses on profitable bus routes in Saskatchewan. We went from having the best inter-city bus line in Canada, to NO bus service between the province’s largest cities of over a half million people collectively.
Mandryk’s column defending the Premier’s campaign deception, when he should have known better, helped make this possible.
—
Mar 18, 2016 11:24am
 
Media: ‘Why won’t both parties stop talking privatization?’
3rd party: ‘Change Crowns to public-owned co-operatives.’
Media: *silence* then ‘Why won’t the NDP stop talking about Crowns?’

Wall Built A Saskatchewan You Can’t Easily Leave

Posted on by John Klein

Saskatchewan Blogger Tammy Robert wrote about the bad governance of Brad Wall.

So Brad Wall had his Finance Minister write about the character of Tammy Robert.

Meanwhile, Wall’s Government has brought about a very justified human rights complaint by a Cree woman who wants to save the lives of people she hasn’t even met. That’s what the Premier should want to do, but clearly he’s more preoccupied with what’s written about him in Macleans.

3 years ago, a week before I died (temporarily), Regina City Council made illegal the Sask Party’s solution to STC’s closure. You can’t even thumb a ride to get away from Regina if you’re stuck here. WALL: That spells prosperity. Regina has a Wall, and you can’t walk, hop a train, or take a bus to get around it.

 

Greyhound and RCMP Bring #StarlightTours To Manitoba

Posted on by John Klein

Do you remember the Starlight Tours? Now you don’t have to be drunk to experience this police mistreatment, only be a First Nations person who is unwell.

A shameful story of racism out of Manitoba today. This is one of the companies the SaskParty is looking toward to offer replacement bus service due to the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) closure and sell-off happening in 2 days!

Spence said he pleaded with the police for help, asking if there was a way to get a ride or find some place to get away from the cold.

“They said there was nothing around here. I said, ‘What should I do?’ They said, ‘Your best bet is to start walking,’” Spence recalls.

Greyhound said in its defence:
“After further investigation, it appears the customer may not have been intoxicated and may have been experiencing a non-alcohol related issue.”

What the hell do they mean by “a non-alcohol related issue.”?

“Spence says at one point he was being followed by a pack of dogs.

“I just kept calm, and kept walking and eventually the dogs left me alone,” he said.”

““They should compensate me. I was scared for my life,” he said.”

This man was thrown off the bus, literally to wild dogs. Greyhound should be giving this man free bus rides for life, for this horrible mistreatment.

Sask Party Putting People Out of Work

Posted on by John Klein

The Sask Party has hit a new low.

“Province laying off 251 custodial workers, “lowest paid government employees,” says union”

A tender for cleaning services at SGI’s head office was sent out last week.

Those being laid off work in government-owned properties, like the Legislative Building and the T.C. Douglas Building in Regina.

“Unless the public will stand up and tell the government what they’re doing is wrong, or there is backlash, they’re going to do it and that is too bad,” said Bymoen.

There is concern from SGEU that the 251 employees, who currently earn a living wage, will take lower paying positions with the company or companies who may be contracted by the province to do the work.

He said when you go into non-government buildings, it is often minimum wage employees doing the maintenance and cleaning.

“They’re working odd hours, minimum wage, and whoever is hiring them is taking a premium for hiring them and managing the contract,” he said.

A friend of mine calculated the “savings” the province is seeking in doing this privatization:

“The province says it is exploring the option to determine if there would be savings…” B.S. 251 employees at a living wage costs about $10.4M at $20 an hour. To contract it out to the private sector that cost would go down to a minimum of about $5.6M, and only if the employees got minimum wage and the contractor (read: business friend of the Sask Party) didn’t take a premium for the service. In other words, the actual savings would be less than $4.4M and people who rely on being paid a fair wage would be screwed. Take my $4 a year and treat people with respect!

A Tax on Everything Is Coming

Posted on by John Klein

Run for the hills!

I realize several people who I’m friends with, think Premier Wall is great for Saskatchewan. I’ve never held a high opinion of the man, I think he’s arrogant, short sighted, and nothing close to a “man of the people” that he pretends to be. When was the last time you were invited to Bilderberg as he is?

For a decade we’ve endured his constant fiscal mismanagement of our province, giving us deficit budget after deficit budget, and what do we have to show for it? Our boom/bust economy is still so fragile, that Wall admits a $10/tonne #carbontax might cripple it, even though that’s the equivalent to a 2.4 cent/L gasoline price increase by reasonable calculations.

People who live in Regina may remember the last mayor refusing to raise property taxes. Not so hard when property values were stagnant, but then 2006/7 came around, and prices doubled or tripled here. Without the benefit of incremental changes, many were caught with their pants down.

Now the same has happened with the Liberals back in Ottawa, and with 10 years of Conservative stagnation on incremental environmental pollution controls, we’re going to experience a little sticker shock when we have to buy the next generation of technology to get by in the changing world.

There will be a lot of fear and ignorance on display, but what else could we expect after the Conservatives paid (using our tax money) to deliver black and white propaganda to our mailboxes, proclaiming that a “tax on everything” was coming with Dion and Goodale.