As Brad Wall settles into his new job as Premier someone needs to tell him that there are another 37 people around him who have put their names on the line as well.
I invite you all to read Randy Burton's column in the Star Phoenix, which is also posted below.
Sask. Party not so proactive
Imagine yourself to be a member of a brand new government, anxious to win friends and influence people.
As part of the government's Saskatoon caucus, you are a key part of the party's future. After all, no conservative party has taken five seats in the province's largest city since Grant Devine's historic sweep of 1982.
It's important to get off to a good start in order to demonstrate your government understands the concerns of urban families.
After all, did you not campaign on bringing a family-oriented focus to government, including a $150 tax credit for sports and music activities?
Sure you did. And it was the right thing to do, too.
How then, you might wonder, are you going to justify your decision to close the Blackstrap ski hill for the winter? The place is a great training ground for kids trying to learn a new sport, and even better, it's easily accessible via bus. Anything that gets the kids off of the couch and out the door to actually get some exercise would have to be seen as a good idea.
Why, your own leader Premier Brad Wall joined the call for action just two months ago in the midst of the provincial election campaign when he announced his Saskatchewan Families Benefit in the basement of a Silverwood area home.
On that day, he promised to extend an $18 million tax credit to families that could be applied to music lessons and sports equipment, like a snowboard or a set of skis, perhaps.
As proof of the wisdom of such a policy, Wall cited a study of the Saskatchewan health-care system that shows every one per cent increase in physical activity participation rates actually saves taxpayers $1.37 million in health-care costs annually.
At a time when national health-care experts are wringing their hands over childhood obesity, this decision lands like a failed back flip in the halfpipe. When you look at the Blackstrap situation in that context, the $465,000 operating costs for the hill begin to look more like a sound investment than an irretrievable cost.
Certainly Wall was enthusiastic about the value of physical activity to young people during the campaign. Active kids "perform better in school, are in better shape physically and are less likely to get involved in negative behaviour like smoking, drug use and crime," he said.
So now that he has three cabinet ministers in Saskatoon and two more MLAs waiting on the bench, what do they say? They say let's close the ski hill. And this is at a time when skiing conditions have rarely been better. Take a look out the window and what you see is wonderful snow cover and moderate temperatures.
It seems to me an enterprising MLA might like to point out a few things to the new premier. One is he has talked a great deal about reducing the "infrastructure deficit" in this province, and Blackstrap certainly fits the bill as part of the province's recreational infrastructure.
Something else a freshly minted cabinet minister might like to consider is how the previous government handled this issue. The same pattern of closures followed by periodic bursts of commitment have long characterized Blackstrap. Last year, the government spent $863,000 on new lifts and a groomer, but failed to open the hill until February. Then it was late launching the tender process to find an operator for this season and the process ground to a halt because of the provincial election.
Clearly, this is an opportunity to do better, but here we sit on the brink of another Christmas holiday with no Blackstrap.
Of course, the government can always argue it has more important things to do. For instance, it has to pass balanced budget legislation that is virtually identical to what we already have. Then it has to change the names of all those "departments" to "ministries" don't you know. That means new letterhead, envelopes, websites, etc. etc. Nobody knows what it will cost, but it's all part of the new government's very important "rebranding" exercise.
The centrepiece of that was to be the new provincial symbol. Like poor old Blackstrap, the government believes the 30-year-old stylized wheat sheaf just doesn't cut it any more. So it was all set to launch a search for a new symbol, which would have involved advertising companies, design firms and hefty bills.
Now it's flip-flopping on whether to change it or not. Since last week, the provincial government has expressed four different positions on the wheat sheaf, none of them conclusive. The latest is it won't change the wheatsheaf logo "at this time."
So here's an idea for a governing party that wants to make more friends in Saskatoon.
Take that money and run Blackstrap with it.
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