Having returned to the province in 1979, I’ve had more than one opportunity to experience some emotional “highs” and “lows” created by my emotionally responding to political actions undertaken at the federal, provincial and municipal levels of government.
While these events may seem trivial to some, I find myself increasingly triggered by something Premier Scott Moe might have recently said or done of late, a sentiment unfortunately fine-tuned by his predecessor’s contempt for Indigenous relations in general, and giving short shrift to their circumstance and severity.
Instead of listening to a broad perspective of opinion on a matter, the premier seems to prefer restricting his attention to those individuals whose personal actions border on the extreme of right-wing of political belief, such as Allan Kerpan, whose traitorous support for Saskatchewan separation appears to inject little opposition to the Premier Moe seeking his advice. Equally annoying is the prevailing attitude of some male members of Cabinet, particularly Meadow Lake MLA Jeremy Harrison, whose support of “open carry” and similar radical gun legislation while tormenting former House Speaker Randy Weekes should have resulted in his being tossed from caucus.
At a policy level, however, Premier Moe’s legislative choices are not only limited by their extremeness, but regularly plagiarize the political legislation of Canada’s Queen Bee of the political right, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Here, our “Saskatchewan First” legislation merely mimics that province’s “sovereignty” stance, and both would likely be declared unconstitutional were either one be challenged in court. As for her having cut off incentive funding for so-called “green energy” research, the Moe government has made it a point to insist that it is contributing to Canada’s need to cut back on carbon gas emissions (with Canada now being the highest “per capita” contributor to this problem as a result of last year’s forest fires burning unchecked) by experimenting with technology limiting such emissions from its coal-fired power generating stations.
Still, Prime Minister Carney needs every premier to be a member of Team Canada as it attempts to deal with Christian nationalist “deity” Donald Trump threatening both our international trading options and sovereignty, and included the Premier in the entourage that travelled to both China and then India to resolve trade impasses principally involving our province.
While these negotiations resulted in two international trade agreements that seriously benefited our agricultural community, at times the premier reacted to Carney’s forceful manner in which he summarized these dealings.
As for the overall approach that Carney is attempting to have his Team Canada cohorts initiate in the field, especially as it could apply in dealing with the housing crisis or environmental constraints, Premier Moe’s response to such implementation follows the curve of what most of the leaders in the team (with the exception of Manitoba premier Wab Kinew) in waiting for the PM to tell them what to do, instead of taking any initiative on their own.
When it comes to dealing with the need to boost housing construction, there are far too many issues in which municipalities could “incentivize” independent builders and developers to increase their own performance levels. For instance, by modifying local building codes to allow construction to include green energy options (solar panelling, wind turbines on roofs, storage batteries, etc.) included in such building, then immediately tied into SaskPower’s energy grid, this would emphasize the obvious requirement that providing energy to our province should also include ways of CONSERVING such needs; however, our municipal governments, including here in Prince Albert, seem to feel that they are either powerless to implement such bylaw changes, or must first seek permission to modify building practice, When we have had our cities regularly modifying building code bylaws to favour local business interests (e.g.: Saskatoon’s 50 year regulations that result in wooden framed basements costing far more to construct than concrete foundations, thus favouring Warman-based concrete suppliers), such a response is not only laughable, but embarrassing as Hell.
Equally perturbed by the foot-dragging tactics of developers and independent contractors, prefabricated home construction operators cannot understand why people aren’t taking advantage of increasingly attractive modular home designs that are easily modified to incorporate energy saving technology being able to attain move-in status in four to six weeks, as opposed to the four to six month regimen now standard in the industry. One would assume that a client’s satisfaction at the prospect of their finally attaining their dream homes would outweigh and improve the profit margins of real estate agents and builders alike, but apparently these components of the industry lack leadership in moving their client’s dreams forward.
Just why our government seems loathe to address the continuing annoyance of a public increasingly angry at the cost of living and price of energy adding to its fiscal woes defies any sense of budgetary reality or leadership within our energy sector. For instance, this week residents in the rural municipality of Sherwood, fully aware as to the energy needs of AI-orientated businesses, pushed back hard at councillors who unanimously decided to approve the construction of a $1.7 billion facility being proposed by Bell Canada, resulting in four of the seven members of government resigned in embarrassment. Equally embarrassing to the community, Minister of Government Relations Eric Schmalz simply indicated that his department will “appoint” one or more individuals to these positions so that municipal functions can continue without delay, an obvious attempt to avoid having Bell Canada officials take their proposal to another venue or province.
By the province avoiding offending this “inner circle” of Canadian and U.S. corporations considering investing in Saskatchewan, the government risks the potential for these industries attempting to push their luck and try to receive greater concessions in paying taxes, lowering environmental safety regulation, or addressing their cost effects upon the communities in which they choose to build. As well, municipalities must also start to take into consideration costs associated with population buildups placing stress upon waste disposal sites, not to mention reviving areas of tourist visitation and vacationing that have been recently destroyed by our province’s failure to control our wildfires, and to provide still more food even as agricultural sites in the United States in particular are being destroyed as a result of global warming.
It is these latter concerns that I hope to address in next week’s column.
Ken McDougall is a retired teacher and former election candidate for the federal NDP.
