On inconvenient knowledge

Nancy Heppner offers up the Sask Party's excuse for making shortsighted cuts to Dutch Elm disease control:

"Obviously there were some tough decisions to make in this budget," Environment Minister Nancy Heppner said. "But we felt there was knowledge and capacity within the municipalities."

So what do those knowledgeable municipal officials have to say about the move?

"I would say within five years, left unchecked, I think we'll see an increase of Dutch elm disease in Regina," Ray Morgan, the (Regina manager) of forestry and pest control, told CBC News Wednesday.

That doesn't sound promising. But maybe Saskatoon officials have a different take?

(A) bigger concern is a lack of provincial support for monitoring, surveillance and removal of diseased trees in rural Saskatchewan, where the disease is already "prevalent and spreading like crazy," (Saskatoon's superintendent of urban forestry Geoff McLeod) said.

"We're going to see it moving faster and as a result that may end up with Dutch elm disease winding up in Saskatoon," said McLeod in an interview Wednesday.

"Collectively we're disappointed in the direction the province has chosen to go with this because I don't think they see the bigger picture implications."

Stay tuned to find out how quickly the line about knowledge at the municipal level gives way to an explanation that we shouldn't listen to a word some mere city employee has to say.

(Edit: fixed wording.)