On rejected opportunities

Despite receiving relatively little public attention, a new initiative called Save Our Saskatchewan Crowns has been piling up supporters over the last little while. And now we've received an obvious reminder of why that effort is needed, as the Sask Party's anti-Crown ideology is resulting in its telling the Saskatchewan Transportation Company not to even look at taking up profitable bus routes which may be abandoned by Greyhound:

With Greyhound Canada planning to cut service in Manitoba and northern Ontario and reviewing operations in Saskatchewan and Alberta, the NDP’s Ron Harper sees a chance for the provincially-owned bus company to cash in.

“The real issue here is an opportunity for STC to expand its services to pick up those routes that are abandoned by Greyhound that are very lucrative,” said Harper, mentioning as examples the Winnipeg-to-Edmonton or Winnipeg-to-Calgary routes and not the unprofitable rural routes that are at the root of Greyhound’s plans.

The revenue from such operations between large centres could be enough to potentially eliminate the government’s annual operating subsidy for STC, which hit $7.8 million this year, said Harper.

But Jim Reiter, appointed in May as the Saskatchewan Party government’s minister responsible for STC, slammed the brakes on the idea.

He said the notion was “hypothetical” and that even if Greyhound goes through with its threat to cut services, other private companies may step in to fill the void.
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The NDP said the government is being blinded by ideology and at the least has a responsibility to examine the potential of STC expansion before dismissing it out of hand.

Now, it would seem obvious to me that anybody who wanted STC to be operated as a viable business would be looking to ask questions along the lines of, what routes is Greyhound abandoning? Who else might take them up? Is STC in the best position to do so? Can STC make a profit for itself by doing so?

Of course, one could reasonably argue that it's worth being fairly risk-averse in reaching the answers. But it would seem to reflect nothing short of wilful blindness to refuse to even ask the questions.

Predictably, though, the Sask Party isn't the least bit interested in any cost-benefit analysis as to how STC can run its business better by taking on out-of-province routes - meaning that both travellers who might benefit from STC's offering a choice and Saskatchewan citizens who would stand to benefit from any STC profits will end up missing out on that opportunity. And while that might be a great result for a private operator who might be able to make more money off the routes than it could if STC was allowed to act as a functioning business, it's hard to see how the Sask Party's ideology is doing anything but placing Saskatchewan's interests last behind those of businesses outside the province.