The reviews are in

Bruce Johnstone:

If you believe Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer, Saskatchewan just had the fastest recession in history.

Asked by Saskatoon StarPhoenix legislative reporter James Wood earlier this week whether Saskatchewan was in a recession, Gantefoer responded: "No. Well, the country's in a recession, North America is probably in a recession ... While our positive growth is pretty minuscule, it's still positive. So technically we're not."

By Tuesday, Gantefoer was in full retreat: "By the end of the year, we will be in a recession," he told reporters.

By Thursday, Gantefoer had done a complete about-face and was back on the offensive. "Saskatchewan is not going into a recession, we're coming out of one," Gantefoer said in question period.

Let me get this straight.

In the space of a week, Saskatchewan went from being technically not in a recession, to being in a recession by year-end, to coming out of a recession.
...
For Gantefoer to claim that Saskatchewan was "technically not in recession'' as late as this week is disingenuous, at best, and misleading, at worst.
...
I'm sympathetic to Gantefoer's plight as the guy who's left holding the bag when the promised flood of potash revenues turns to a trickle.

But I have little or no sympathy for a finance minister who tries to keep the public in the dark about the true state of the province's economy -- and its fiscal health -- for months at a time.