“Van Mulligen (Finance Minister) Admits Talk of Tax Hike Avoided During Campaign”

Regina Leader-Post (Jan. 14, 2004)

Those of you who are regular readers of my reports will know that I will commend the government when I feel it has done the right thing.  Because I feel it is important to have a common sense approach and to offer constructive criticism, I intend to continue the practice of acknowledging the NDP government’s positive achievements in the future….however there is nothing of the sort to report this month.  What we have seen from this NDP government in the last number of weeks is reprehensible.

NDP Admit They Hid Their Budget/Tax Hike Agenda During Election

Harry Van Mulligen, the new Finance Minister, recently made the outrageous statement that the NDP knew how poor a state the provinces finances were in during the election, but avoided talking about tax hikes because it would be politically unpopular during an election campaign.

The reality is that they hid the truth of their plans, and for that taxpayers are justifiably outraged.  It was Premier Lorne Calvert who inherited a half-billion dollar surplus from former Premier Roy Romanow, but after two successive deficits ($654 million in 2002-2003 and $483 million in 2001-2002 according to the provincial auditor) has added over $1 billion to the provincial debt! 

Like a wayward son, Premier Calvert has squandered all he inherited from Mr. Romanow.  Rather than talk of tightening his own belt, Mr. Calvert wants to come back to “mom and dad”, the taxpayers of Saskatchewan, to fix his financial problem.  This is unacceptable on principal and perhaps even more importantly will make Saskatchewan even less competitive with our neighbors in terms of attracting investment, jobs and people to our economy.

Boughen Report on Property Taxes

Commissioner Ray Boughen’s recent report to the government on the issue of K-12 education funding had it half right.  We certainly applaud his commission’s recognition that we must take the pressure off property owners as the major source or education funding in Saskatchewan.  Because of constant downloading by the provincial government to local boards, property owners’ share of the costs of education in Saskatchewan have become the highest in the country.

The answer however is not to increase another tax such as the PST to accomplish some relief.  The answer is a government that has its priorities straight.  Instead of throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at risky out-of-province investments that almost always lose money, our government needs to utilize its resources for things like education.  A PST increase will make our province even less competitive and would be particularly hard on those of us on the west side of Saskatchewan.

NDP Government Refuses to Apologize to Klassen Family

Many of us were dumbfounded when we heard the new NDP Justice Minister, Frank Quennell, say the government would not even so much as apologize after a judge recently determined police and justice officials had maliciously prosecuted the Klassen family over false allegations of child abuse.  The judge’s ruling on the matter was detailed and clear.  He found in favour of the Klassens.  What is the reaction of this NDP government?  They appeal the decision of judge and launch a suit against the Klassens!  The Official Opposition Saskatchewan Party has demanded that the government apologize, stop their suit against the Klassens and arrive at a fair and reasonable settlement with the Klassen family.  It is hard to believe that only weeks after receiving a new election mandate the NDP government is so out of touch with Saskatchewan people.

My email address is bradwall@sasktel.net  Our website is www.bradwall.com