REGINA – It was another tumultuous week at the Legislature, which began with a tumultuous day on Monday with Bell’s AI Data Centre proposal up for discussion at the R.M. of Sherwood.
The R.M. did approve the Data Centre application, but not without a host of protests both at the RM office and at the Legislature itself, where protesters briefly interrupted the Assembly to voice their objections to the project.
Afterwards there was much chatter about the entire process used at the RM to approve the project. One point of contention for opponents is that the province appointed an interim Reeve and three councillors following several resignations at the RM earlier this spring.
On Thursday, Minister of Government Relations Eric Schmalz was asked about the concerns about the democratic process regarding the RM decision, and he defended the decision to appoint the replacement members of council.
“I believe that the members who resigned for council have released statements on their own on their reason for resignation,” said Schmalz.
“From time to time across the province municipalities lose quorum for any number of reasons. Those could be anything from health which I believe was indicated by one of the members who resigned to personal circumstances or maybe just conflict on the council themselves. Within the legislation it is prescribed that in the circumstances to ensure the continuity of the operations of those RMs or the municipalities, that the government does appoint individuals to those councils. It’s happened not only to council most recently, but it happened in 2017 and I have to stay under under the Opposition as well… when they were government in 2007, the NDP appointed members for that same council. So this is not something that’s new — that’s been long-standing practice to ensure that the citizens and their needs are met.”
Other issues this week
Throughout the week, there were other issues of importance at the legislature. The NDP continued their push on both removing the gas tax and addressing grocery pricing, pushing a new bill on restricting property controls for grocery stores and supermarkets.
The future of Information Services Corporation was also back in the news with the government bringing in amendments to the Act which provided more protections to the Golden Share and to the requirement to have the head office domiciled in Saskatchewan, but there were concerns raised by the Opposition that the removal of the 15 per cent cap on ownership could lead to eventual privatization.
Wildfires preparation
Wildfire preparation was also back in the news. On Thursday the NDP blasted the government, accusing them of not being prepared for the upcoming fire season.
“We have the minister basically admitting we have less resources, after an incredibly disasterous wildfire last year,” said Jordan McPhail, MLA for Cumberland, on Thursday.
The NDP claimed Minister of Community Safety Michael Weger admitted in estimates that two CL-215 turbine amphibious air tankers would be undergoing maintenance until July, and that an additional Q400 Air Tanker purchased by the government would not arrive until August. They also noted that last October, the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency website had changed the number of Convair 580A land-based air tankers from four to three.
The claim from the NDP was that the fleet was down four planes compared to last year, In speaking to reporters, Minister Weger explained what was happening with the SPSA fleet.
“So we currently have three 580s in our fleet still, we used to have four. One has been replaced by the Q400 that we received this delivery last year in August, and then we have another Q400 expected to be delivered in August of this year. As far as we know everything‘s on time and going as planned for the second Q400 delivery.”
As for the accusation that there might be fewer aircraft than last year, Weger replied “I don’t think so. Right now, our fleet will be available throughout the year. The information I have is there are two CL-215s that are going through maintenance, but it is expected when those are due to be rolled into the process that they will be available.”
Weber said they have brought in an extra third-party contractor to assist with some maintenance. He said it “involves thousands of hours” to remove the skin of the airplane to review it, and then later put it back together.
Weber also acknowledged some issues with the supply chain but added “it’s not that they wait until the wildfire season to start working on aircraft. They’ve been working on these aircraft throughout the winter." He said bringing a third party contractor on to assist is to make sure "we hit that deadline of having these two CL-215s ready when they are due to be rolled into the process."
Child care back as an issue
By the end of the week, child care was back as an issue following the announcement by Education Minister Everett Hindley of some changes coming up with $10 a day child care. Among the items was a focus on ECE Level 1 training to encourage entry into the workforce, additional child care space development to be strategically targeted to areas in need, and standard hours of child care service being defined as 10 hours of care per day.
An outraged NDP critic Joan Pratchler blasted the changes, accusing the government of only going to fund the ECEs level one “and they're not going to be funding the training for twos and threes, the next two levels. We're not going to be able to retain a workforce like that.” As for a provision allowing for alternate revenue sources, Pratchler said bake sales and hot dog sales “are not alternate revenue sources for a child care system.”
On Friday, Pratchler held a news conference in which she blasted the province over a declining birth rate. She pointed to 13,026 births last year, compared to a peak of 15,410 in 2015-16.
“We’re seeing record lows in hospital births in Saskatchewan and according to the Canadian Institute of Health Information, CIHI, births are down nearly 15 per cent since Scott Moe became Premier.”
In response, the Sask Party government ridiculed the NDP.
“This is why no one takes the NDP seriously. We know they try to blame the government for everything, but blaming Scott Moe for the number of babies being born is a new level of ridiculousness, even for the NDP,” their statement read.
They added “it’s not even accurate,” noting Saskatchewan “has the highest fertility rate among Canadian provinces according to Statistics Canada.”
