and so the dismantling continues....

News Release
January 30, 2008

SASK PARTY SCRAPS SASKATCHEWAN COUNCIL ON DISABILITY ISSUES

The NDP is demanding to know what has happened to the Saskatchewan Council on Disability Issues. Several reliable sources have confirmed that the Sask Party has disbanded the council.

The council, established in 1999 by the NDP government, has improved the lives of hundred’s of people with disabilities.

“In a news release last month, Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer said one of the responsibilities of her ministry is to co-ordinate, develop, promote and implement social, economic and other policies and programs for the benefit of persons with disabilities in Saskatchewan.” NDP Disability Issues Critic David Forbes said. “One month later, we find the Sask Party is scrapping the council, without so much as a news release explaining why.”

Until recently, the 12-member council provided advice and input to the government on issues affecting people with disabilities. It also had a significant impact in the development of a government-wide Disability Action Plan and the recently announced Disability Inclusion Policy Framework, now in jeopardy. All members of the council had direct experience with disabilities.

“I must say that this action without any public notice, when coupled with the absolute lack of any reference to disability issues in the recent Throne Speech sends a very clear and troubling signal that persons with disabilities are not a priority at all for the new government. This is simply unacceptable,” Forbes said.

Forbes has outlined his concerns in a letter to Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer.

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For further information, please contact Jay Branch at the NDP Caucus Office - (306) 787-7388.

CWB - Harper and Wall's next target

Make no bones about it, Harper and Brad Wall are connected at the hip and couldn't care less about the CWB or anyone else in Saskatchewan. I mean what will it take for people to see the true story behind the "pretty new governments"?

The federal Agriculture Minister will introduce legislation as early as next month to end the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on prairie barley sales.

But because it's a minority government, turning Minister Gerry Ritz's legislation into law will require the support of the opposition, something neither the NDP nor the Liberals plan to provide.

Ritz delivered the news Tuesday after a controversial meeting with the wheat board and barley industry representatives. Ritz acknowledged he stacked the room with people who oppose anything short of full, open marketing choice for barley producers.

To add insult to injury, our own Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud ,is headed to Ottawa to show his support for the federal government's attempts to remove the Canadian Wheat Board's monopoly on barley marketing.

How many times does the Sask Party and the Conservatives have to attack the people of Saskatchewan before we wake up and see the real truth.

Either Stevie or Brad better pucker up fast, cause after they destroy the Labour laws, create massive manufacturing layoffs and destroy the CWB they need to find me. When I am getting screwed I like to be at least kissed!!!!

Manufacturing Job Losses...the real story

It was with complete and utter shock that as I watched the House of Commons yesterday (I do have a life its a job thingy), Industry Minister Jim Prentice stood up and stated that the Conservative government says the disappearance of tens of thousands of good paying manufacturing and forestry jobs in Ontario and elsewhere is nothing more than "structural adjustments."

Who the hell do they think they are kidding!!!!!!!

Almost 250,000 workers lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector in the last four years. Many factories, mills and fish plants have closed down for good. According to the Conservative this is a "structural adjustment"?

Hundreds of thousands of people across the country who used to be living the Canadian dream, enjoying a middle-class level of prosperity, have had their realities come crashing down. More than just a little "structural adjustment" Mr. Prentice.

The unprecedented surge in the Canadian dollar from 85 cents US in early 2007 to as high as $1.10 in early November is deeply disturbing in terms of its implications for the health of the economy and the job market. Very rapid exchange rate appreciation is bad news for most enterprises exporting abroad, or competing with US and Asian exporters in the Canadian market. The especially vulnerable manufacturing sector has already lost another 82,000 jobs this year, and is widely expected to cut more jobs and close more operations in 2008. But not to worry Mr. Prentice...its just a freakin "structural adjustment"

Stephen Harper and his team of Federal do-no-gooders had better get a grip on what is happening to working class families across this country. This includes the useless "dirty dozen" MP's here in Saskatchewan where we are down 23% of the jobs we had here in 2003.

Maybe Harper and Prentice aren't aware that Canada has lost 288,300 manufacturing jobs since November 2003. Or that, one in eight of the manufacturing jobs that existed in November 2002 has since disappeared.

Maybe the Conservatives don't care that while these losses were initially concentrated in Ontario and Quebec, they have now spread across Canada.

New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton said Prentice should try to tell that to Canadians who have lost their full-time jobs, only to have them replaced by one, two or more part-time jobs making minimum wage.

"This is a structural adjustment where the structure is going to collapse. These are foundations jobs," Layton told reporters later.

"The impact of this is enormous and for the government to simply wave their hand and suggest this is normal and nothing to worry about, I think, is a grave strategic error that I think is going to leave the fundamentals of the Canadian economy significantly weakened," he said

With irresponsible, uninformed statements like Mr. Prentice's, maybe the need for a Federal Election is more important than anyone understood.

The "structural adjustment" required would be to rid ourselves of a Harper led Government and replace them with a Government that actually understood what was happening to Canada!!

10 easy Steps to Political Omnipotence

Step 1:
Get Elected anyway you can. Make sure you do not actually make it clear what you are running on.

Step 2:
Set a fixed election date so that you know when to begin to buy the required votes to retain power, immediately begin to put into place, a plan to screw as many people as fast as you can. Don't worry they will forget all about it by the time you start to buy votes for the next election.

Step 3:
Target any groups, such as Unions and Organized Labour, who would be able to mobilize against you. Make sure you do it in such a way that they cannot increase their size or have the ability to use their Chartered rights to oppose your vision.

Step 4:
Create a "arms length" board where you can both control who sits on it as well as control what they do. Make certain that you, yourself, stay away from it. This way, if things get real tough, you have someone you can point the finger at for making recommendations. You can also pick and choose the ones you like and want to enact. Make sure you give any opposing groups only one seat so they cannot say you pushed them out but they won't have any real voice in the new Board. Also recommended that this group be comprised of "non-elected" people so that you can ultimately claim you were "listening to the voices of the People". What ever you do, do not be seen snickering for pulling the wool over their eyes.

Step 5:
Make a totally ridiculous announcement as soon as possible. Make sure it is one that would get the voters to respond against it, then announce that you heard them loud and clear and retract it. What ever you do, publicly say you will follow their wishes but continue on with the plan quietly and discreetly. This will result in two things. First it will fool them into thinking you actually care and listen (remember not to smirk) and second it will show you if they are actually watching what you do behind the scenes.

Step 6:
Align yourself with your Federal Counterpart. Be careful not pick a fight or open any old wounds but be passively aggressive with him. Although you should strive to be his "boy toy", do not let your voters see you doing it. Remain firm but do what he tells you. Is recommended that you get some type of promise that would bring money into your Province but make sure that it will come with no strings and that you can use it where ever you want.

Step 7:
Systematically and methodically, go through your Civil Service and eliminate anyone who does not or will not do everything you want, when you want it. Make sure you erase anyone who could or would question one of your policies. Remember, you are the boss, even the smallest chance of someone not obeying you, should be dealt with. Do not worry about collective agreements or severance pay, by the time they file the grievances, your labour laws would of been changed anyways and the cost of severance would be offset by the funds you got from your federal daddy.

Step 8:
Immediately upon starting Step 7, replace one of the top Board members with someone who will obey your every wish. The perfect candidate would be someone who was strongly connected to the previous administration but has left their ranks. The person should not only be someone who has left the political realm to advance his/her own agenda but someone who would allow you to pull the strings and tell them what to do. The perfect person would also be someone who is married to someone in a position, like a University President, who can not only help finance your Party but someone who can use his/her position to help bolster your agenda.

Step 9:
Invite a past Premier from a neighbouring Province who has been coaching you on how to become omnipotent, to come and address a group of young impressionable students. Make sure he insults anyone who might protest his visit and have him drop the notion of selling off some of your most value viewed assets. Then have one of your own puppets state that you would never do that. With the completion of Step 8, you will be able to repeat the results seen in Step 5 and the voters will be none the wiser. When ready, don't sell them but just shut them down. That way you can fall back on the line "as I had stated earlier...I wont sell them and I didn't".

Step 10:
Continue to move your agenda forward. Whenever possible publicly trash the previous administration and blame them for causing you to have to change things, after all, it was supposedly time for a change. No one ever said a change to what. Be very cautious not to admit that they played a lead role in both a booming economy, a population increase and new job records.

Although these 10 Steps are not set in stone for your transition to omnipotence, by both following them, consulting both your federal daddy and communicating to the other leaders who have the same goal of extreme power, you should be able not only eliminate anyone who dares to doubt you, you will be able to fool each and every citizen into thinking that it was time for a change and that you are indeed GOD!!!!

My way or the highway..."YOUR FIRED"!!!

So our illustrious Premier has struck out again.

The Star Phoenix reports that "As many as 70 Saskatchewan civil servants have been dismissed -- including some who had political ties to the former NDP government and others who were longtime civil servants without any party affiliation."

For a Government that wants people to come and stay in this Province, and a Government that denies any need for fear, they sure are not living up to their ideals.

Civil Servants are dedicated employees who put their heart and souls into this Province and they help build this Province daily.

Sure we all bitch and complain about them but when you see the workload they carry and the dedication they have to both their jobs and the people of Saskatchewan, it completely disgraceful that Brad Wall would go in and fire "without" cause 70 people.

Deputy premier Ken Krawetz says "There are definitely people who have very close (political) association with the former government," he said. "That had some bearing."

This has got to be the biggest crock of crap ever!!!!

Yes some of our Civil Servants are NDPers, just like some of them are Sask Party supporters, some are Liberal supporters, Green supporters, Communist supporters and so on. Last I checked, we lived in a Democratic society where people have the right to vote and support any Political Party they so choose. Every day I read and hear the news where our Brothers and Sisters are giving their lives fighting for those same rights in other countries.

One political scientist, Ken Rasmussen, is calling it a purge that flies in the face of Wall's election night proclamation that the Nov. 7 vote was a case of hope triumphing over fear;

"This government hasn't done anything yet. How would you know what kind of advice they're getting from the public service?" asked Ken Rasmussen, director of the Johnson-Shoyama graduate school of public policy at the University of Regina.

"Somebody at some point needs to say this is not good. It's destructive for the professional civil service. It's not helpful for the people of Saskatchewan and it's not acceptable."

What is next? Will anyone who has ever voted or participated in an election, or who has not voted for the Sask Party or Conservatives be routed out and dismissed? How many of our Civil Servants now have to live in fear that if they speak up at a meeting or question a policy will be dismissed?

So far our new government has shown that if you are unionized or have supported a political party other than theirs, you need to be wary of them coming after you.

Gee, kind of scary, what if I support gay marriage, or volunteer at Big Brothers or give blood? Do I need to worry that by exercising my rights I may be fired? Who knows if Wall and his puppets like those organizations?

Get a grip Mr. Premier, why don't you just concentrate on running the Province. There are a lot more issues here: Poverty, Housing, Highways , Equalization, PA Pulp Mill for a few, that are more pressing than the fact that Mr Smith and Mrs. Jones have an NDP membership or a small newspaper company that offers its paper free in your stores.

You deny that you want to make Saskatchewan an Alberta Lite yet you are following Ralph Klein and Gordon Campbell's "How to make a province mine" manual page by page!!!!

Maybe we need to pay more attention to exactly what you are doing behind the scenes! With Klein in Saskatoon preaching the "winding down of Crowns" do we need to start to fear that as well?

We have already seen that you will not follow the wishes of the citizens of Saskatchewan.

We have clearly stated that we want the Wheat Sheaf to remain and yet as you publicly say you heard our wishes, you are still removing it from all the Government websites, advertising and letterhead.

You won the damn election already, your safe for 4 years, now would you mind stop hounding out the people who may think different and concentrate on the entire Province. Get to the real issues.