Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Hanwen Zhang highlights yet another rise in COVID cases - albeit paired with obviously-unwarranted minimizing of the risks involved. 

- Jessica Wildfire pushes back against the establishment demand that people somehow evolve to become cacti in order to survive a climate breakdown, which Michael Mall similarly challenges the claim that adaptation is a substitute for averting catastrophe. And Nicholas Frew reports that the damage caused by carbon pollution-driven extreme weather events are turning SGI into a burden rather than a boon. 

- Meanwhile, in case anybody was under the illusion that climate calamity was the only readily-avoidable consequence of allowing fossil fuel operators to run rampant, Daisy Brickhill warns that new drilling licenses in the North Sea are threatening sensitive wildlife habitats. And Sharon Lerner reports on the Trump EPA's choice to green-light a Chevron boat fuel ingredient which is virtually certain to cause cancer in anybody exposed to it over a lifetime. 

- Emily Leedham reports on the Globe and Mail's belated and begrudging changes to its much-trumpeted "Canada's Top 100 Employers" advertorial based on their repeatedly providing free publicity to corporations responsible for workers' deaths. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow discusses how AI is being used by for-profit health care providers to deny needed treatment. 

On distributive options

Both the Saskatchewan NDP and Saskatchewan Party have released their election platforms. And for all of the electioneering around what might be anticipated outside of those, we can already tell plenty from how each party has framed its flagship promises.

Take, for example, how the parallel Crown rebate promises from each party actually work.

 The NDP's plan involves using SGI's existing surplus to provide lowered rates and rebates:

Lower SGI rates by roughly $85 per vehicle and provide an immediate $100 rebate to all policy-holder...

Those benefits would then reach 800,000 licensed drivers: see SGI's latest annual report (PDF). The total cost is projected at $120 million (see the fiscal tables here) (PDF).

The Saskatchewan Party, meanwhile, is offering a 10% rebate on SaskPower bills:

A re-elected Saskatchewan Party government will introduce a one-year 10% rebate on electricity charges on power bills for all SaskPower customers...

The 10% rebate on the electrical charge on customer’s SaskPower bills will come into effect on customer’s December 2020 bills. Customers will receive monthly savings on their bills for 12 months starting in December 2020.

But while that has been framed in terms of its effect on residential and farm customers, the vast majority of the effect - and cost - involves incentivizing the use of power in the commercial and industrial sectors.

According to SaskPower's latest annual report, the province's $2.6 billion in electricity sales include $792 million to 130 power utilities (e.g. Saskatoon and Swift Current's local utilities); $571 million to just under 399,394 residential accounts; $521 million to 63,757 commercial accounts; $451 million to 19,466 oilfield accounts; and $190 million to 57,978 farm accounts.

The average benefit of $260 million in rebates would then be: $142.97 per residential customer (not the $215 specified in the platform); $327.71 per farm customer (not the $845 stated in the platform); $817.17 per commercial customer (unmentioned in the platform); and $2,316.86 per oilfield customer (unmentioned in the platform). And in the latter cases, it's not hard to anticipate that the availability of the rebate would actually incentivize the use of less-efficient power use options for as long as the price of power is being artificially held down.

The end result is that the Sask Party's plan costs twice as much as the NDP's to reach just over half as many people directly, with a built-in bias toward commercial interests generally (and the oilpatch in particular). Needless to say, it's not hard to see which of those options is better targeted at making life more affordable for people. 

Now, I'd think it's fair to question whether either of these planks should be considered a top priority given all of the other areas in desperate need of public investment. 

But it's certainly worth noting that the Saskatchewan Party is looking to spend far more Crown money to smuggle giveaways to the oilpatch and the corporate sector. And both the province's balance sheet and those of its families will be far better off with the NDP's choices.

New column day

Here, on what the Wall government means when it talks about entering into "partnerships" with the corporate sector - and why Saskatchewan's citizens shouldn't stand to be cut out of the Crown assets now owned for public benefit.

For further reading...
- Others have also noted the "partnership" phrasing used by the Saskatchewan Party in identifying the future beneficiaries of its largesse. 
- Bil 40 is found here. And its effect on existing Crowns has been identified as both SGI and SaskTel have been looking to cede operations to private businesses.
- The "partnership" phrasing for SLGA is found among other places in its past annual plans (PDF).  And the latest job cuts - which are being spun as having been expected all along - were nowhere to be found when the Saskatchewan Party was announcing (PDF) and implementing its wholesaling changes.
- Finally, Adam Hunter reports on the Balgonie bypass fiasco. And in case there was any doubt that planning for a roundabout was supposed to include consideration of the needs of farm equipment, here's the information page from SaskBuilds' proudly-proclaimed partner.