Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Mark Sumner discusses the World Health Network's recognition that the damage from COVID-19 includes harm to people's immune systems which has made the effect of other diseases more severe. 

- Patrick Metzger examines how the climate crisis is accelerating faster than anticipated. And George Monbiot calls out the billionaires using their wealth and power to push for continued (and even increased) carbon pollution, while Kevin Anderson notes that any path to avoiding a climate breakdown requires an immediate and profound shift in productive capacity toward both cleaner energy and more equal allocation of resources. 

- Meanwhile, Bill McKibben points out how petrostates are using what's supposed to be a climate action conference to make deals to exacerbate our dependence on fossil fuels. And Graham Thomson discusses how Danielle Smith is using yet another set of laughable promises about carbon capture and storage (along with wilful blindness toward end-user emissions) to try to lock in decades of fossil fuel extraction

- Lisa Young calls out Smith and Scott Moe for pantomiming civil disobedience in their effort to serve their corporate masters. And David Fraser reports on the newly-revealed text messages showing that both Brad Wall and Saskatchewan Party MLA Hugh Nerlien were actively involved in advising and supporting the #FluTruxKlan. 

- Finally, Jeremy Simes reports that breast cancer screening is just the latest area where the Sask Party is choosing to funnel money to private Alberta operators rather than investing in a functional health care system in Saskatchewan. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Ivan Semeniuk reports on the response to the Omicron COVID variant both globally and in Canada. But Eric Topol writes that the U.S. is kidding itself in pretending that a wave hitting Europe won't affect it as well, while Lauren Pelley highlights how there's no prospect of anybody going back to a "normal" state until the virus is controlled around the globe. Alan Beattie reports that wealthy countries are still refusing to waive intellectual property monopolies over vaccines even as they come face to face with the worst-case scenario as to what happens when COVID is allowed to circulate in the name of profit. And David Shield reports on the massive amount of work to be done in responding to long COVID in Saskatchewan.

- Aaron Wherry discusses how the Cons' attempt to turn inflation into an excuse to crush people under the boot of austerity has no basis in fact, but might still do severe political damage.

- PressProgress reports that Brad Wall has been actively looking to exploit essential workers for higher rents in Saskatchewan and Alberta based on his recognition that neither province's conservative government will protect them. And Pratyush Dayal reports on the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission's study into the systematic barriers to housing facing vulnerable people.

- Paul Webster exposes how Doug Ford chose to leave a billion dollars in the hands of the private owner of a toll highway rather than pursuing it on behalf of the public. And Robert Benzie writes that Ford's catering to a few business cronies doesn't include the competence to actually provide services, as a botched registry is actually pushing corporations to refuse to register with the province. 

- Nick Lavers discusses new research showing the health dangers of microplastics which appear to be able to infiltrate the brain. And John Roy Porter highlights how a climate breakdown poses a serious threat to food supplies.

- Finally, Paul Brent rightly wonders what happened to the Libs' promise of national pharmacare.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Gary Mason writes that our leaders appear to have learned nothing as we face a third wave of COVID-19. Hasan Sheikh and Munir Sheikh point out how the insistence of right-wing governments in taking ineffective half-measures rather than action which could actually provide some hope to limit the spread of the virus reflects a complete misunderstanding of human behaviour. And Bruce Arthur discusses the consistent toggling back and forth between magical thinking and panic resulting from the initial failure to control the coronavirus.

- Erik Strikwerda discusses how the UCP's regressive, plagiarized and useless curriculum is turning Alberta into a laughingstock. And Francois Biber reports that Scott Moe's punishment for electric vehicle owners - incentivizing air pollution while requiring the owners of cleaner vehicles to pick up the tab for costs being rebated to gas guzzlers - figures to do the same for Saskatchewan. 

- The Winnipeg Free Press reports on Brad Wall's comically biased and misleading report to try to turn Manitobans against public power and open it up to be sold off. And Steve Buist, Noor Javed and Emma McIntosh expose how Doug Ford is trying to ram through the construction of a new highway to directly benefit his donors, despite the obvious lack of any public interest justification.

- Alex Ballingall discusses the Cons' attempt to use the language of the working class to induce people to vote for corporate interests. But Tom Parkin notes that while that plan has worked for Republicans in a two-party state, it only figures to boost the NDP in a political system where voters are already well aware of a true labour option.

- Finally, Nora Loreto writes about the white supremacism behind the anti-public health movement in Canada - along with the utter failure of most of the media to connect the two.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Lauren Krugel reports on a push by Alberta doctors to avoid the further lifting of public health restrictions which will increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Sarah Zhang notes that we're just now seeing a return to widespread recognition of the importance of ventilation in protecting against community spread - though of course more forward-thinking people have been pointing it out since last summer, particularly in trying to keep schools safe. And Jennifer Yang reports on research showing that vaccinations targeted by postal code as well as age can be far more effective in improving health outcomes.  But Robert Hiltz writes that conservatives have effectively given up on doing anything to stop the pandemic, choosing instead to focus on finger-pointing and false hopes that vaccines alone will restore us to normal.

- Robinson Meyer writes about the obvious planning failures which left Texas unprepared to cope with foreseeable changes in weather. And Molly McCracken responds to Brad Wall's attempt to push Manitoba toward the type of privatized and fragmented power system which led to that tragedy.

- Colin Gordon rightly questions the subsidies the U.S. hands out to agribusiness giants.

- Nicholas Kusnetz highlights how the UCP's anti-environmental inquiry mirrors the worst of the U.S.' climate denialists.

- Gary Mason writes that Alberta's claim to have some inherent fiscal advantage has been exposed as a lie. And Scott Schmidt points out that we shouldn't trust right-wing excuses to use deficits as a basis to slash needed services and supports.

- Finally, Amira Elbaghawy discusses how the reported data on hate crimes - worrisome as it is is - severely understates the real damage hate groups inflict on communities. And Osita Nwanevu warns that it's wrong to presume white supremacism and conspiracy theories are spreading only among lesser-educated populations.

On cultured ignorance

Evan Radford's report on the insufficient public response to soaring COVID-19 case loads in rural Saskatchewan surely reflects the polling (PDF) showing a higher proportion of social irresponsibility than in any other province. But it's worth noting how that in turn can be traced to years of anti-science propaganda from Scott Moe's Saskatchewan Party and its backers - which is in turn reflected in Moe's choices. 

It's no accident that the fault lines in public responses to COVID are similar to those dealing with climate change. There,  the same unscrupulous corporate actors who have invested massive disinformation campaigns around the world have long held sway over the Saskatchewan Party. And the result has been both rhetoric and policy which disavow any commitment to vital collective action, instead seeking to squeeze every dollar of corporate profit possible out of the province regardless of the harm to its citizens. 

That effort has gone beyond merely trying to cast doubt on climate science to a concerted effort to change the subject to artificial regional grievance. There too, the Saskatchewan Party has quite deliberately stoked the fires of baseless anger. Its former premier has been one of the main talking heads behind a separation project. And in addition to leading his own support to that effort in general, Moe has shown far more consistency and devotion to contrived fights against Justin Trudeau than to the social battle against COVID-19.

Even when it comes to COVID-19 itself, the chosen response of Moe's government has been to do as little as possible generally, and to portray the pandemic as an isolated or big-city problem which isn't actually real for rural areas.

Of course, the U.S.' experience has shown that a deep enough effort at manipulating public opinion can get people to disbelieve the existence of the very disease that's killing them. And we shouldn't be surprised if that phenomenon appears in Saskatchewan as well.

But if it's too late to change how the combination of Moe, his oil backers and the right-wing populist "movement" is endangering people in the fall wave of COVID, it's not a moment too soon to set out to the task of ensuring their message no longer serves as the foundation for public opinion and policymaking alike.

New column day

Here, on how the criticisms which were used to push Andrew Scheer out of the Cons' leadership role in fact reflect the fundamental problems with a party built around selfishness as the sole ideal to be pursued.

For further reading...
- David Akin reported on Scheer's prolific spending when he was running for the Cons' leadership.
- David Pugliese listed some of Peter MacKay's most prominent scandals, including his use of a military helicopter for a personal fishing trip. Global News reported on the donor-funded (and publicly-subsidized) top-ups paid to Christy Clark and Brad Wall. And Adam Hunter reported on Stephen Harper's current ride on the Saskatchewan Party's gravy train (with whistle stops to boost the local nativist demogogues along the way).
- And Kevin Drum looked at another application of the view of conservatism as the practice of promoting selfishness.

On rejected applications

Let's see what Scott Moe is demanding from the federal government now...

On the immigration file, one goal is to “assert provincial control over the [Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program] (SINP).”

Interesting. Now, there's certainly reason to question Moe's governance in a lot of areas. But surely he wouldn't be so foolish as to push for additional power over the exact program where his government is currently embroiled in a scandal...

Zhang said her consultant told her she wouldn't even have to live in Saskatchewan or personally run the business. She said a representative of the GTEC developer, Brightenview International, promised the same thing.

However, an arrangement like that is against the rules. The entrepreneurial category of the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) requires applicants to actively run their own business and live in the province.

...

In an email to CBC, Saskatoon lawyer Clara Bitzer, who has worked on several GTEC-related immigration files including Zhang's, said the project was "wholeheartedly endorsed by the government of Saskatchewan which went out of its way to encourage these applications."
...

(S)ince GTEC was launched, SINP has written letters of support for one hundred applicants. Sixty of those have been approved by Ottawa to start their business at GTEC. He said that so far the province has nominated one of those applicants for permanent residency.

MacFadden said he doesn't know the status of the forty that have not been approved by Ottawa. Brightenview acknowledges that some of them, like Zhang, have received denial letters from the federal government.

In other words, Scott Moe is loudly standing up for Saskatchewan scams, demanding that the federal government step aside from its jurisdiction over immigration to make sure nobody discovers his government's incompetence or the fraud it enables.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Joseph Stiglitz discusses how decades of laissez-faire economics and deference to the rich have undermined any effective democratic decision-making. Bruce Boghosian observes that structural change is needed to avoid a tendency toward the concentration of wealth and concurrent rise of inequality. And Owen Jones comments on the need to break up the billionaires' club rather than catering to it.

- Dale Marshall writes that contrary to the constant spin emanating from the same sources as historic climate change denial, Canada's oil industry is doing more environmental damage than ever. And Alex Lubben points out that the harm done by the recent Keystone spill will be virtually impossible to remediate.

- Geoff Leo reports on the shady immigration scheme associated linking the Saskatchewan Party government, the Global Transportation Hub and Brightenview - then follows up by reporting that it's only the latest public exposure that's forced Scott Moe to stop rubber-stamping questionable "investor" nominees.

- Meanwhile, the Brandon Sun highlights why Manitoba has every reason to question Brad Wall's judgment as he's been handed a political appointment to attack public power distribution.

- Finally, Nathaniel Dove reports on the deaths being caused by overcrowding in Saskatchewan's overburdened emergency rooms. And Murray Mandryk contrasts the Sask Party's obsession with megaprojects against the NDP's recognition that people need to come first.

On selloffs and sellouts

So far, there hasn't been much follow-up since the revelation that the Saskatchewan Party set up (PDF) a committee, and arranged for sensitive operational details to be handed over to bidders in the process. But while there's plenty left to be investigated about how both the secret committee and the Crowns themselves tried to sell off public resources behind closed doors, we can already identify some glaring dishonesty from the Saskatchewan Party government.

Here's what was revealed as a result of SaskTel's submissions to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner about information never before revealed to the public. See para. 97:

In its submission, SaskTel indicated the following:

• the Cabinet Committee on Crown Structure had been set up to oversee the potential sale of up to 50% of crown corporations. It was created by the Premier at the March 1, 2017 Cabinet meeting.
• the Vice-Chairperson of the Cabinet Committee on Crown Structure (Vice-Chairperson), who was also the Minister Responsible for SaskTel and SaskTel Holding Corporation (SaskTel Minister), verbally asked SaskTel’s President and CEO to prepare the slide decks (records 10 and 11).
• SaskTel’s President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) prepared the slide deck to allow the Vice-Chairperson/SaskTel Minister to review the progress that had been made and to ultimately make decisions and determine next steps, if any, to achieve a partial sale of SaskTel.
• SaskTel’s President and CEO was advised that the slide deck would be shared with the Cabinet Committee on Crown Structure where further decisions would be made.
• The content of records 10 and 11 would clearly be so important that Cabinet and its committees would had to have been involved in a decision.

So how forthcoming was the Saskatchewan Party about its having taken the time which could have been spent consulting on tragic budget decisions to work on handing over equity stakes in the Crowns? For the answer, let's go to the March 6, 2017 Hansard (PDF) - in the first question period after Brad Wall secretly set up his selloff committee:

Mr. McCall: — Mr. Speaker, it’s cold comfort to the 40,000 Saskatchewan people that are out of work on this government’s watch. The Sask Party’s callous cuts are putting thousands of jobs at risk, more jobs, Mr. Speaker. And their plan to sell off up to 49 per cent of our Crowns without a referendum puts even more jobs at risk along with hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends that help to pay for health care and education.

The Sask Party’s plan to sell our Crowns to pay for their mismanagement was given a resounding no in the Meewasin by-election, Mr. Speaker, and the Sask Party should listen to that message. Will the Premier honour his promise from the last election? Will he stop the attempted sell-off? Will he scrap Bill 40 today?

Hon. Mr. Wall: With respect to the Crown corporations, Mr. Speaker, let me say this: what we said in the wake of the MTS [Manitoba Telephone System] takeover, Mr. Speaker, is that were we, as the representatives of the shareholder, to get an offer with respect to SaskTel to buy SaskTel in its entirety, were we to get an offer that checked off a number of boxes including better coverage and jobs here in Regina and across the province and a good price, that we would take that deal to the people in a referendum.

What has become abundantly clear to members on this side of the House, what has become abundantly clear to me — yes, and including what we heard in the Meewasin by-election but not limited to that — is that the people of the province aren’t interested in it. They’re not interested in a referendum. They oppose the sale of SaskTel, Mr. Speaker. That is what we campaigned on.

So, Mr. Speaker, I will just confirm for members of the House that notwithstanding if there ever is an offer to purchase SaskTel, we’re not going to take it forward. It’s not for sale.

Of course, it took two and a half years and a change in the Premier's office for the public to find out that only five days before providing his assurance - in a forum where it constitutes contempt to make misleading statements - that SaskTel was "not for sale", Wall had himself put a process in motion to sell it. And the OIPC's report confirms that the process continued long after the above answer.

So when Moe - who was of course in Cabinet at the time - now tries to claim there's no reason to doubt any assurances about the future of the Crowns even as SaskTel explicitly argues that it's leaving the door open for future takeovers, he needs to be met with some sharp questioning as to when he'll disavow his predecessor for misleading the province. And if Moe actually expects voters to trust him no matter how often his government lies and gaslights about its intentions, then the only reasonable response is to prove him wrong.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Nick Hanauer discusses the futility of "educationism" which treats schools as the only factor in social outcomes without recognizing the importance of inequality and precarity in restricting opportunities for far too many children. And PressProgress points out that Brian Pallister's Manitoba PCs - in keeping with right-wing dogma - are determined to make matters worse for people already getting by with low incomes.

- Michael Spratt writes that Doug Ford's cuts to Legal Aid will end up costing more than they save (in addition to undermining outcomes in Ontario's justice system). Cory Coleman reports on the long-term damage being done by the Saskatchewan Party's failure to maintain the province's health facilities.

- David Climenhaga highlights how Canada's right has decided to pattern itself after Donald Trump in full, including by exhibiting an utter aversion to facts and proclivity for gaslighting. And PressProgress calls out Brad Wall (among other prominent Cons) for eagerly pushing climate denialism.

- Robert Reich argues that Elizabeth Warren's plan to revive the concept of industrial policy in the public interest offers a needed alternative to the corporatist view that the economy exists solely to serve the already-rich:

Smartness and openness go together. An open, explicit industrial policy becomes a national competitive strategy. A hidden industrial policy becomes a haven for political payoffs – a form of corporate welfare.

Which may be why big business in America killed off industrial policy in the 1980s. Such talk threatened to expose how much public money big business was raking in without doing anything in return.
...
Warren proposes enlarging federal research and development, and targeting it on leading technologies. These R&D investments would be “spread across every region of the country, not focused on only a few coastal cities”. The products that emerge would be built by American workers.

Her Green Manufacturing Plan proposes allocating $150bn annually for the next decade to renewable, green, American-made energy products, along with a dramatic expansion of worker training to ensure Americans have the skills for the anticipated new jobs.

It’s a national investment in our future. “Over the next decade, the expected market for clean energy technology in emerging economies alone is $23tn,” she explains.

It would also be good for the world. She calls for a Green Marshall plan, “dedicated to selling American-made clean, renewable, and emission-free energy technology abroad and a $100bn commitment to assisting countries to purchase and deploy this technology.”

As Trump erects tariff walls and rolls back federal efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Elizabeth Warren is promoting a positive economic nationalism designed both to advance America’s workers and respond to one of the most profound crises confronting the world.

- Finally, Jim Bronskill reports on a directive allowing Canada's military to collect and use information about Canadians with minimal controls or oversight.

On crisis acting

Shorter Brad Wall, Distinguished Statesman:

Never mind the facts about my trumped-up grievances, I demand that we break up the country in order to burn down the world!

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Riley Yesno rightly calls out the Libs for telling Canadians they have no choice but to settle for a slight variation in tone from Andrew Scheer:

When we become comfortable with the idea that the best we can hope for is a government that is even marginally better than what we believe is the worst option, we allow ourselves to become complacent in the face of that party’s shortcomings and acts of injustice. We cede our ability to hold the government accountable beyond the most basic principles of decency and good governance. We give permission to those in power to fail in ways that are entirely unacceptable, out of fear that a different power will behave in ways that are also unacceptable — just different.
...

We must demand better. Demand champions rather than lesser of evils. Demand an electoral system that is truly multi-party where your vote can reflect your beliefs rather than a strategy or act of harm-reduction. Remember that as long as you let even a small act of injustice stand, then injustice has already won.
...
Holding the government accountable for its shortcomings is not an attack on the country. In fact, I believe it may be one of the most loving things one can do for the people living within it.

- Christo Aivalis offers responses to three of the Libs' most frequent and dishonest talking points:



- And Lana Payne recognizes that the Libs' broken promise on electoral reform is one of the reasons why we're stuck with politics rooted in anger rather than positive goals.

- Finally, Gregory Beatty examines the Buffalo Project as Canada's first major PAC - and as a means to try to reinforce existing disparities in wealth and power in Western Canada. Scott Sinclair writes about the importance of standing up to big pharma (among other corporate interests) rather than allowing their profits to take precedence over people's lives. And Robin Sears highlights the exploitation of lax tax rules by tech giants who are able to amass large profits in Canada without contributing anything.

On obvious motives

Murray Mandryk is absolutely right in his point as to why Scott Moe and his government shouldn't be using the trappings of power to intervene in Alberta's election campaign. But in claiming there's no explanation, he unfortunately misses Moe's obvious and problematic motive for doing so.

After all, it's been no secret for quite some time that the ironically-named Saskatchewan Party's fund-raising strategy includes regular appeals to - and massive donations from - corporate Alberta. And both his predecessor and Moe himself have clung stubbornly to a model which allows outside donors to swamp Saskatchewan's sources of party revenue whenever they see fit.

Given the Saskatchewan Party's choice to retain a system in which out-of-province donors form a major part of its fund-raising constituency, there can't be any doubt as to why Moe sees an incentive to stick his nose into Alberta politics to build his profile with those extraprovincial sources of funds. And the choice to serve Calgary corporations rather than Saskatchewan voters is an even more important and urgent problem than any loss of decorum.

New column day

Here, on how the needless use of the notwithstanding clause is just one more of the ways in which Scott Moe's Saskatchewan Party is dangerously similar to Doug Ford's PC government.

For further reading...
- CBC News reported on the Saskatchewan Party's own use of the notwithstanding clause to avoid a court decision it didn't like - and without waiting for the appeal process to play out first. And as a reminder, Brad Wall also mused about using the notwithstanding clause to suppress labour rights.
- Meanwhile, Ford's use of the notwithstanding clause has of course received far more attention - with Trish Hennessy, David Climenhaga, Steve Burgess, Paul Wells and John Lorinc among those weighing in. And Alex Ballingall offers a reminder as to how the notwithstanding clause came to be.
- Hilary Beaumont has documented the rapidly-growing list of legal challenges arising out of Ford's chaotic stay in office. And Robert Benzie reported on Ford's plan for a physical manifestation of the tired "open for business" talking point.
- Finally, Jayda Noyes reported on Moe's open adoption of Ford's anti-immigrant attack lines.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- David Callahan writes about the U.S.' billionaire-dominated political system - and why nobody should be satisfied merely with having an ideologically-agreeable set of tycoons buying elections:

Depending on your politics, you may either cheer or fear the influence spending of specific top donors. In truth, we should be troubled about all such spending. Thanks to several factors, economic inequality seems to be translating into civic disparities at a faster pace and in ways that touch more parts of US society.
...
The new money flowing from wealthy left-of-center donors, especially in response to Trump’s rise, may look like a sign that American pluralism is alive and well in this second Gilded Age. Yes, public life in increasingly drenched in cash, but aren’t many viewpoints getting heard as a more ideologically diverse upper class supports various causes and candidates?

Sometimes this is the case. On climate change, for example, progressive donors have helped counter the longstading might of the fossil fuel industry. Economic issues have been another story, though. Polls show that the wealthy are more conservative on such issues, which explains why very little money even from left-of-center donors goes to support work that strongly challenges inequality. Bloomberg’s big give for Democrats this year is a case in point: he’s made it clear that he wants to support moderate candidates, not populists from the Bernie Sanders wing of the party.
...
Ultimately, the best solution to the new civic inequality lies in stronger social movements that convert Americans from spectators to activists. And one of the most reassuring trends of recent years is we’ve seen a lot of such people power, including the Tea Party, Occupy, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo.

Now we need more of the same, extending to more issues and more places – especially the core challenge of economic inequality. Otherwise, it’s hard to see how the United States can escape from a new era of plutocracy.

- Lindsay Wiginton and Sara Hastings-Simon point out what Ontario stands to lose if Doug Ford guts its climate change policies. And Jessica Corbett discusses Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' ambitious environmentalism as reflecting what's needed to ensure both a strong economy and a healthy planet.  

- The New York Times' editorial board writes that consumers will end up paying far more in interest on mounting credit card debt to fund the Trump giveaway to the wealthy.

- The Saskatchewan Herald highlights the billions in health infrastructure deficits left behind by Brad Wall even as he blew through the products of a boom and increased the provincial debt. And Canadian Glen interviews Joel French about the costs of Alberta's choice not to collect readily-available revenue including through a sales tax.

- Finally, Tom Parkin notes that Justin Trudeau's broken progressive promises figure to leave ample room for the federal NDP to win over swing voters in 2019.

New column day

Here, on how Scott Moe's equalization bluster ultimately shows only that he's more interested in political posturing than responsible governance.

For further reading...
- Gregory Beatty reviews how Saskatchewan's effort to remove renewable resource revenue from the equalization formula was abandoned when Brad Wall decided it was inconvenient to remind the public of Stephen Harper's broken promises, while Murray Mandryk also traced the history in connection with the Saskatchewan Party's leadership campaign. And Tim Cook reported on Lorne Calvert's plan for a constitutional challenge when it was raised.
- The Star-Phoenix' editorial board calls for an adult conversation about equalization. And Daniel Beland, Gregory Marchildon, Andre Lecours and Rose Olfert rightly argue that Moe's attempt to undermine the concept of equalization itself falls far short of the mark.
- Finally, the column's reference to the expected returns from a carbon price are based on this policy brief (PDF) from Dale Eisler, Margot Hurlbert, Jim Marshall and Jeremy Rayner.

New column day

Here, on how Scott Moe's first budget is just more of the same in leaving Saskatchewan's low-income residents behind in the face of rising costs of living.

For further reading...
- D.C. Fraser's general report on the budget is here.
- The inflation data cited in the column is here, while basic information on the Saskatchewan Assistance Program is here. And for an example of the Saskatchewan Party touting the indexing of the tax system even as the province's finances crumbled, see here.
- Finally, Bridget Yard has reported on the plight of people living with low incomes in the face of inflation. And Arthur White-Crummey reports on the effects of eliminating the provincial housing supplement.

On personal responsibility

Since the Saskatchewan Party's leadership campaign didn't do much to test Scott Moe's track record, it will fall to the rest of us to point out the reasons why his actions need to come under careful scrutiny. And one such reason comes from Moe's actions in threatening the provincial auditor's funding after he was first elected as an MLA - together with his excuse afterward:

Scott Moe, one of the Sask. Party MLAs on the committee, said after the meeting members were acting on their own.

"The questions that I saw in there were more around the scope of the auditor's office and what exactly the office does and questions you might expect from fairly newly elected members in there."

Now, the purpose of Moe's answer was presumably to distance Brad Wall from what quickly turned into a significant public issue. But there are a couple of implications of Moe's message which are of obvious concern now that he's in power.

It's obviously a problem if Moe continues to think it's in any way appropriate to threaten the funding of any organization charged with holding his government to account.

And it's even more worrisome if a new premier thinks it's any excuse for elected officials to barge ahead with actions based on a lack of knowledge after assuming a higher office, rather than taking even basic steps to understand their jobs.

We'll see if those issues surface again now that Moe is both in a new position himself, and responsible for the actions of the people acting at his direction. But his track record gives ample reason to worry.

New column day

Here, on how Carillion's collapse points out one of the most important failings of Brad Wall's tenure in office.

For further reading...
- Plenty of others have also weighed in on the Carillion story and the dangers of putting corporate interests in charge of public services, including Simon Jenkins, Will Hutton, Jonathan Freedland and  John Crace. 
- CBC reported on the direct connection between Carillion and North Battleford's new hospital, while SaskBuilds' list of P3 projects offers a preview of the other public infrastructure at risk.
- And again, David Climenhaga points out the connection between Carillion and Alberta, while Jonathan Gatehouse discussed the wider Canadian implications of Carillion's liquidation.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Axel von Schubert notes that the effect of Donald Trump's giveaway to his billionaire buddies will be to turn the U.S. into a tax haven itself. And Michelle Chen discusses how the growth in inequality has been the result of political choices at the behest of the people who already had the most:

Wherever you live in the world, here’s a newsflash: You’ve been robbed. Not by a hidden bandit, but a global kleptocracy: the super-rich who’ve managed to rob the poor blind in every corner of the globe for the past seven decades. And a research team led by pioneering economist Thomas Piketty, the World Inequality Lab, has mapped out how that theft has played out on a global scale.

Not surprisingly, America was near the top of the list in terms of how unequal our country is, in addition to being far richer as a whole than any other nation. Still, while inequality is universal—polarizing countries and dividing individual nations internally—some countries are, surprisingly, more unequal than others.
...
The wealth gap is epidemic but not inevitable. Policy choices still make a difference. In the United States, deeply ingrained antipathy for the welfare state and regulation has pushed a harsh neoliberal agenda since the late 1970s—a pattern that is now being reproduced across the Global South as poor countries attempt to capitalize on global trade but in the process are becoming more exposed to extreme market volatility and devastating poverty and social strife.
...
We can mitigate the worst effects of capitalist overproduction through mobilizing what’s left of our democratic institutions at the local and state levels, where social spending and education investment are often concentrated. Mobilizing grassroots campaigns to boost the minimum wage, expand union representation, institute universal health care, or guarantee retirement security obviously can’t overturn the global trend in wealth accumulation, but will at least move struggling communities toward a fairer social contract.
...
To ensure that future generations are better prepared to stop and reverse wealth polarization, developing a socially conscious, educated citizenry is key. On the other hand, given the number of college graduates working low-wage jobs and facing debt, Chancel emphasized, “education can’t do everything against inequality. This is where minimum wage policies, support to trade unions, work regulation policies, [and] laws to ensure that workers are represented in corporate governance institutions can play an important role” in balancing out structural inequality. 

- Meanwhile, Tracy Sherlock points out the increase in inequality in British Columbia over the past decade, with poor workers being paid less while the wealthy see their income soar.

- Ben Casselman writes that a turn toward full employment is offering a real opportunity for people who previously faced barriers to work.

- Finally, Mariana Mazzucato discusses the importance of creating wealth in multiple forms, particularly public ones. And Murray Mandryk comments on the Saskatchewan Party's reflexive refusal to allow the public to share in any new economic development, as epitomized by its choice to release a half-baked plan for corporate distribution rather than using existing retail infrastructure for marijuana sales.