The Sask Party and NDP once again went back and forth at each other Tuesday, this time over appointments to Crown boards.
The NDP had raised the issue of Crown appointments last year in the Legislature prior to the provincial election. They were back at it at a media event in Saskatoon.
There, NDP critic for the Crown Investments Corporation Erika Ritchie and critic for SaskPower Aleana Young accused the government of stacking Crown corporation boards with Sask. Party operatives, donors, and supporters.
According to an NDP news release, several appointees to Crown boards had been Saskatchewan Party donors, with board members having “collectively given a total of $170,001.61 to Sask. Party coffers.”
“This is pay-to-play politics, plain and simple,” said Ritchie in a statement. “Sask. Party insiders donate to Scott Moe’s election fund and Scott Moe turns around and gives them high-powered positions on the boards running our precious Crowns. This has to stop. The future of our province shouldn’t hang on who hands over the biggest cheque to the Sask. Party. We are calling on them to immediately cancel these appointments.”
Included in the Board appointments were several big names including former MP, radio host and lawyer John Gormley to the SaskPower Board; Shannon Andrews who was former Chief of Staff to Scott Moe, and former Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski to the SaskEnergy board; and former Conservative MP Gary Vidal as chairperson on the SGI board.
Young characterized the appointees as people looking to sell off the Crowns.
“We can’t trust the Sask. Party to protect our Crowns,” said Young in a statement. “This is a government that will sell off our province piece by piece to the highest bidders. It’s everyday Saskatchewan people that will pay the price — literally — if this happens.“
In a statement Tuesday, Minister of Crown Investments Corporation Jeremy Harrison fired back at the NDP over their attacks on Crown board members.
“Today, the NDP are attacking earnest, hardworking and community-minded Saskatchewan people in an effort to score cheap political points. The members recently appointed to the boards of directors of our province’s Crown corporations are eminently qualified and bring a wide array of valuable experience to the governance of these companies.”
Harrison said the new appointees included First Nations leaders, small business owners, current and former municipal leaders, philanthropists, and community volunteers, and he thanked them for their willingness to serve.
He further blasted the NDP by using a tag line the government has introduced in several of their recent communications, characterizing the Opposition as “lost and reckless.”
“For the past 18 years, the lost and reckless NDP have falsely claimed that our government is going to privatize Saskatchewan’s utility Crowns. In fact, the NDP have campaigned on these false claims in each of the last five elections and lost. These claims have been false for the past 18 years and they are false today.”
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