The buck stops elsewhere

Shorter every anonymous insider the Cons could scrounge up to talk to the press:

Let's not forget that the real victim of Helena Guergis' disastrous tenure in cabinet is the Prime Minister who promoted her then refused to admit she wasn't up to the job.

On weak explanations

One more item from James Wood's notes today deserves a post of its own, as the Sask Party's followup to its bizarre claim that Saskatchewan would produce a fifth of the world's natural resources doesn't make any more sense than its initial assertion:

"With more than 20 per cent of the world supply of natural resources coming directly from Saskatchewan, we know this increase will likely continue," the release quotes Draude as saying.

Alas, these newfound resources proved to be as ephemeral as last year's budget projections of potash revenue.

On Friday, the government issued a correction saying the minister was incorrectly quoted. (The notebook isn't quite sure how that happens in the government's own news release, but never mind.)

Saturday Afternoon Links

A bit of light reading for those staying inside to avoid being blown over...

- Not surprisingly, the numbers on the limited amount of stimulus money actually spent confirms the concern that the Cons' choice of photo-op-friendly infrastructure projects would lead to little money being distributed when it was most needed.

- Murray Dobbin notes that it isn't just banks who have responded to decades of getting everything they want on policy by failing to provide the public benefits claimed in return:

Governments since Brian Mulroney's have given Bay Street virtually everything they have asked for: the lowest corporate taxes in the developed world; twenty years of "labour flexibility" which has flat-lined wages since 1980; massive deregulation; a plethora of free trade agreements; huge cuts to EI -- the whole corporate wish-list.

None of it has made one iota of difference except that Canadian corporations have a tonne of cash sitting in their coffers, cash they were supposed to spend on innovation, technology, training and -- gawd forbid -- taking risks.

- Gerald Caplan reminds us that while Abousfian Abdelrazik has at least made it back to Canada despite the Cons' best efforts, he's still stuck in legal limbo due to the arbitary application of anti-terror rules despite a lack of evidence against him.

- Kevin Donovan continues to set the pace in reporting on Rahim Jaffer's efforts to peddle government influence, this time with a remarkable set of revelations about Jaffer's business partner.

- Finally, Susan Delacourt points out a couple of the key questions about Helena Guergis' dismissal from Cabinet and the Cons which Stephen Harper can't avoid no matter how desperately he tries to hide behind the RCMP.

On battle lines

James Wood offers up some more details about yesterday's nomination news in Saskatoon Sutherland. And the picture looks to be a positive one for the NDP on a couple of fronts.

First, there's a possible explanation as to what might have tipped the balance for Ryan Meili in seeking the NDP's nomination in Saskatoon Sutherland rather than Saskatoon Greystone - as one of his strong leadership supporters may be back for another run in the latter riding:

(F)ormer NDP cabinet minister Peter Prebble said Friday he has been approached by the Saskatoon Greystone nomination committee and isn't ruling out running again in his old seat -- although he strongly emphasized he has not made any decision.

"I haven't said yes to any proposition," he said Friday.

"It would be a big decision to re-enter."

Needless to say, Prebble's background in Greystone would figure to position him extremely well for the general election if he does decide to take the plunge. And it makes sense that Meili wouldn't want to pursue Greystone if the likely result would have been to rule out Prebble's return (or set up a nomination battle which would see one or the other removed from the party's slate of candidates).

Of course, the flip side is that the NDP surely won't want to wait too long to get its candidate in place to challenge for what looks to be an important seat. And hopefully we'll see Prebble or another candidate in place before long.

Meanwhile, Saskatoon Sutherland may also be looking like an even juicier target for the general election than I would have figured. While rookie MLA Joceline Schriemer isn't exactly a household name, the NDP's chances of retaking the seat should improve substantially if the Sask Party doesn't have an incumbency advantage - and apparently Schriemer is considering stepping down:

Like Norris, Joceline Schriemer was a rookie Sask. Party MLA in 2007 -- knocking off the NDP's Graham Addley in Saskatoon Sutherland.

But she said this week she's still weighing whether she will run again in 2011.

On leave from her duties as a city police officer, Schriemer said in an interview her first love is policing and noted it would be easier to return to that job after four years rather than the eight-year gap that would occur if she ran again and won a second term.

Now, I'd expect the Sask Party to want a decision one way or the other in relatively short order. After all, it has to be their worst-case scenario for a prominent opponent like Meili to have a year and a half working the riding while an unknown Sask Party candidate gets a late start due to indecision on Schriemer's part.

But it's hard to see any possible outcome for the Sask Party that doesn't represent a somewhat weaker position than having a motivated incumbent working to hold the seat from day one. While an early decision on Schriemer's part to step down would limit any disadvantage resulting from the NDP's early start, it would still result in a loss of the incumbency advantage. Conversely, if Schriemer now decides to run again, voters will surely have to wonder whether her stated preference for police work and uncertainty as to whether she really wants the job will affect their representation.

Of course, the Sask Party's hope seems to be that top-line voter preferences will work in their favour so as to minimize the impact of constituency-level considerations. But there's plenty of risk involved in banking on that possibility - and the NDP surely won't be disappointed to see the Sask Party gamble and lose.

Update: For those looking for extra reason for excitement about Saskatoon Sutherland, Jason's retrospective on the Meili leadership campaign is worth a read.

The reviews are in

The Star-Phoenix editorial board takes Stephen Harper to task for his refusal to tell Canadians why it is that the RCMP has been called in to investigate Helena Guergis:

In a country whose national police force is expected to be non-political, it's suspicious enough to have the prime minister order an investigation.

To then have him make the announcement without telling Canadians why he is stepping outside the traditional bounds of his office to call an investigation is unacceptable. Canadians have a right to know what is behind such a high-profile investigation.

The RCMP isn't Mr. Harper's police force, and it certainly isn't mandated to clean up the prime minister's political messes.

Mr. Harper should come clean, even if it's embarrassing.

Musical interlude

Tiesto feat. Kane - Rain Down On Me

On system failures

In a less easily-distracted society, this is the sort of revelation that would spark a thorough rethinking of what we expect of our banking system. In this one, I expect never to hear of it again.

And it's official

One of the worst-kept secrets in Saskatchewan politics was confirmed today as Ryan Meili announced his intention to seek the NDP's nomination in Saskatoon Sutherland. And I'll definitely be looking forward to seeing Ryan back in the political ring after his impressive leadership run last year.

But to make matters more interesting, the Star Phoenix notes that there are two more candidates in the mix as well beyond Meili and Scott Stelmaschuk:

Tax consultant Naveed Anwar and Saskatoon lawyer Rob Dobrohoczki, who works at the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, also will seek the Saskatoon-Sutherland nomination.

Needless to say, there shouldn't be any lack of activity in the riding with such a strong field of candidates pursuing the NDP's nomination - meaning that whoever emerges victorious should have a solid base to build from in the general election.

Unopposed

There's naturally been plenty of talk about the B.C. HST now that the petition drive to repeal it is officially underway. But perhaps more interesting than the expected fervor of the petition's supporters is the complete lack of anybody making an effort to oppose it:

(T)he truck loggers didn't sign up to oppose Bill Vander Zalm's repeal-the-tax petition that began this week. Not a single entity has, and that means supporters will be limited in what they can do to sell the HST for the next three months even if they chose to get into the act now. That’s because under the Recall and Initiative Act, advertising on the HST petition is strictly controlled during the petition period.

Jock Finlayson, chief economist of the B.C. Business Council, was the leading proponent of an HST in B.C. and the de facto head of the pro-HST coalition last fall.

The coalition hasn’t met since the fall and the contract with the PR firm hired to help it has lapsed.

Of course, the Globe and Mail notes that HST supporters are trying to argue that they don't need to bother doing anything in response to the petition based on the Campbell Libs' devotion to pushing ahead. But it's rather odd to count on the sitting government as one's lone ally in the face of a petition process designed to give a voice to citizens the chance to override the decisions of elected officials.

That leaves the possibility that the HST supporters are instead counting on the petition drive to fail on its own terms - and the statutory requirements are definitely onerous for the initiative's supporters. But the more HST proponents send the implicit message that they can afford to ignore or belittle the public's outrage, the more likely it may be that the HST petition drive will be the first to reach the standards to get passed.

The reviews are in

The Star-Phoenix editorial board slams the Wall government for its short-sighted cuts to Dutch elm disease control:

The Saskatchewan Party government's decision to slash a provincial program to control the spread of Dutch elm disease is another example that it didn't make the hard decisions in trimming its budget.

It made short-sighted decisions that ultimately could prove very costly. The elm program that cost the treasury some $500,000 a year was seen as critical in controlling a disease that could cost millions if allowed to spread out of control.

Saskatchewan has taken a co-ordinated approach over past quarter-century to quickly identify and destroy infected elms before the bark beetle that carries the disease can breed and multiply. It was a strategy deemed much more cost effective than allowing the unchecked loss of trees, as happened in much of the U.S.
...
(T)o nickel and dime programs such as the one to control Dutch elm disease or such proven enterprises as Quint or the Health Quality Council, shows neither foresight nor courage.

On interprovincial policy

Erin's latest deserves some followup on a couple of points. But before dealing with the specific topic of royalties, it's worth asking more generally how much Saskatchewan should focus on trying to coordinate policy of any kind with with other provinces.

It's easy enough to say that to the extent a policy is worth implementing in Saskatchewan, it's equally worth coordinating with other provinces to make sure the benefits are more widely applied. And that may be a particularly compelling point when it comes to setting matching tax or royalty rates in order to avoid a race to the bottom.

But there are a couple of concerns that I've dealt with mostly in the context of the TILMA which are worth pointing out based on their broader application.

The most basic is that the essence of interprovincial agreements in their current form is to limit each province's ability to make future decisions for itself based on the direction of voters. And while I'm particularly concerned about that limitation when it comes to the ability to formulate social policy, it seems to me to be no less problematic based on which choices are being restricted.

Mind you, this concern can be minimized if a province merely sets an internal policy of matching policies with the provinces around it, rather than seeking binding agreements. But that in turn eliminates any ability to hold other provinces to any standards.

The second main question I'd have with the concept of interprovincial coordination is that of the development of provincial niches. While I'm obviously not a fan of the decades-long race to the bottom when it comes to corporate responsibility, I'm not sure that one size fits all is necessarily the right outcome either. And indeed I'd figure that a mix of provinces including different types of regulatory, tax and royalty models (while working to limit any truly frivolous variations) could well lead to a broader base of economic development than a system where the factors affecting business decisions are increasingly uniform across the country.

So without getting into the nuts and bolts of tax policy for now, I'll offer up the question for discussion: should we be primarily looking to develop an economic model to be implemented across provincial boundaries in the near future, or working on developing a distinctive niche for Saskatchewan?

Oh dear

Apparently the Wall government's hack-and-slash budget is based on the modest assumption that Saskatchewan will be home to "more than 20 per cent of the world supply of natural resources". No word yet what proportion of that estimate consists of projected exports of magic beans and unicorn meat.

On costly fees

We're still waiting on a strong national response to the Charest government's plan to impose health user fees. But Thomas Walkom offers a reminder as to why there's a need for one:

Quebec Premier Jean Charest says he plans to make patients pay a $25 user fee each time they see a doctor. Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says that sounds fine by him. If this is the so-called adult conversation the country is planning to have on health care, we're in bad shape.

The reason? We've had this hoary, old conversation before – over and over and over again. Mike Harris suggested user fees for medicare when he won the Ontario Tory leadership in 1990. Former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien mused about them in 2001, as did Ralph Klein, then Alberta's Conservative premier, a year later.

Each one eventually dropped the idea. First, monkeying with medicare is political dynamite in Canada. But second and more important, user fees don't work.

That's the conclusion of study after study. Earlier in this decade, a Senate committee looked into medicare user fees and, indeed, was initially keen on the idea.

But in the end, it concluded that a low user fee would cost more to collect than it would raise in revenue. And a high user fee would deter the sick from seeking necessary medical help early, contributing to higher costs later on.
...
(O)ff-loading medicare costs onto the sick might make governments look better in the short run. But in the end, we all end up paying as much or more.

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.)

If you haven't seen it yet...

Without a doubt, Kevin Donovan's story on Rahim Jaffer is today's must-read, offering at least a possible explanation for Jaffer's sweetheart plea bargain as well as a couple of essential lines for a future Twelve Days of Harper carol. But while "three busty hookers" may make for the sexiest possible lede, perhaps the most damning part of the story is the nature of Jaffer's business partners and the promises they've apparently made about access to the PMO:

“As most of you may have heard, we had a rather earth moving experience last night at dinner with Rahim Jaffer and Dr. Chen. Mr. Jaffer has opened up the Prime Ministers’ office to us and as a result of that dinner – he today advised me that is just as excited as we are and joining our team seems to be the next logical step,” Gillani wrote to a dozen close associates. (Tory insiders say Jaffer has no such access).
...
York Regional Police detectives charged Gillani, Mihelic and several others in November with fraud in connection with a deal Gillani allegedly orchestrated. A former senior employee of Rona was coerced into using his computer and finance knowledge to wire $1.5 million of Rona money to a dummy account in Hong Kong. Jasmine, the Cachet Ladies escort, was with Gillani in his bedroom when detectives arrived to make the arrest. Sobbing, she pleaded with them not to take her boyfriend away.

Two of those accused have said they will plead guilty in return for providing evidence against Gillani.

Deep thought

I'm sure the Cons will start living up to their assurance that they'll even out the obvious partisan imbalance in stimulus spending any day now.

On charity cases

The Wall government's move to make personal health information available for fund-raising purposes has been duly panned as a matter of privacy. But there's an even more worrisome message being sent about the Sask Party's preferred funding model for health care.

After all, there wouldn't seem to be much reason to change provincial regulations to facilitate begging patients for money if that step wasn't combined with an expectation that health foundations will make use of the opening to fund more of the province's health care through that system. And particularly in the wake of the Sask Party's broken promises in funding a children's hospital and other plans to restrict public spending on health care, that has to raise questions about the Wall government's apparent preference for treating health care as a matter of private charity rather than public responsibility.

On legacies

Shorter Harper Cons:

What better way to preserve one of Canada's richest ecological areas in the Arctic than to cover it in a thick layer of nourishing crude oil?

The reviews are in

Murray Mandryk on how the Harper Cons are hurting Saskatchewan by taking its voters for granted:

To listen to Regina-Qu'Appelle MP Andrew Scheer smugly tell us that the federal Conservatives are just being prudent in not supporting things such as a new stadium in Regina even as they are pouring billions into Ontario and Quebec is a little too much to take.

The reality is that we have a prime minister who places little value in any promise or commitment that doesn't yield the additional seats he needs for a majority government.

And he's already got about as many Conservative seats out of Saskatchewan as he will get.

The other truth is that we've elected a bunch of Conservative MPs who put their party's interests -- and perhaps their own cabinet aspirations -- ahead of standing up for Saskatchewan and the people who elected them.

So when the Conservatives come knocking on your door with their list of what they've supposedly done for you, you might want to remind them of what they haven't done.

A lost perspective

If anybody wasn't already saddened by the announcement that the Sasquatch's March/April issue will be its last, there's reason to be all the more so in noting the last response in Shayna Stock's interview with NDP leader Jack Layton:

Keep up the good work. I mean, how many times have I sat down with people who’ve said, “What we need is our own press!” You know, a press that will bring a critical perspective to our work too, which I can tell that you’re willing to do, and I think that’s vital.