RESPONSE TO THE BUDGET
SPEECH
Mr.
Wall: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a privilege to
enter the budget debate this afternoon. And, Mr. Speaker, I would
like to begin my remarks on the budget with a bit of a focus on
its impact on my constituency of Swift Current and speak to the
local impact of our community. Mr. Speaker, the major economic
players — the economic foundations of Swift Current — are
agriculture as well as oil and gas. And certainly in Swift Current
we’re fortunate in the city itself to have a bit of a
diversified economy. And so we also have some significant large
manufacturers that were able to locate there, for the most part in
the late 1970s and in the 1980s. And so these are the three
underpinnings, if you will, of the economy of Swift Current. And I
think it’s important if we’re going to do a . . . have a look
at the budget, we should do so in terms of its impact on those
sectors and of course on the most important factor of Swift
Current, the most important element of our community — the
people, the residents of the city of Swift Current and of the
surrounding area to the north and the south that make up the
constituents of Swift Current.
Well
firstly, Mr. Speaker, how does this budget impact on the
agriculture sector around Swift Current? And it’s a mixed sector
around the city of Swift Current, featuring of course both farming
and ranching to a very significant extent. And how does this
budget and the early weeks of this session and of the Throne
Speech, how do they impact on the agriculture sector of Swift
Current and area? Well negatively, Mr. Speaker, not to put too
fine a point on it. But in this budget there’s absolutely
nothing in the way of hope for producers — for farmers or for
those in the ranching industry. In fact, quite the contrary, Mr.
Speaker, quite the contrary. We have seen the government gut the
crop insurance program, one of the most fundamental programs that
farmers rely on, and it certainly is important to the ranching
industry as well. We have seen on every count, in terms of crop
insurance, we’ve seen this government gut the crop insurance
program. We know, and the critic for Agriculture raised concerns,
some specific cases in this legislature, of premiums increasing up
to 200 per cent for farmers. And certainly farmers in the Swift
Current area are going to be among those that face significant
increases. Certainly there are those in the Swift Current area who
raise forage crops, that will be completely perplexed by the
rainfall roulette crop insurance that the hon. members opposite
have introduced, Mr. Speaker. And they knew going into the budget
that the crop insurance program would be gutted by the NDP, so
I’m sure they were looking for some hope. I’m sure they were
looking for some indication from the government that it would
either fix what it had ruined in crop insurance or that it would
provide some other measure for agriculture producers in Swift
Current and area and across the province. And so they would have
looked through the pages of the budget, Mr. Speaker, for some sign
that the government cared about agriculture or that the government
understood about agriculture, about farming and about ranching.
But they would have been sadly disappointed because there is no
indication in the budget that the government has that
understanding and that the government understands it needs to be
there for Saskatchewan producers coming out of a drought year and
potentially — hopefully not — but potentially heading into
another one.
Well
what about the oil and gas industry, Mr. Speaker? That’s also an
important industry to our community, to the constituency of Swift
Current, and the many young friends who actually work directly in
the industry. It was a chance for the government to take some
decisive action to reward capital investment in that particular
sector of our economy, a sector so important to the city of Swift
Current. It was their chance to do that. And to be fair, Mr.
Speaker, they took a very small step in the right direction when
they raised the cap with respect to the capital tax, with respect
to the level of investment that corporations can invest in the
province before being subjected to the capital tax. They raised
it, I believe, from $10 million to $15 million in the budget. And
certainly it is a small step in the right direction. Because a
capital tax, Mr. Speaker, is among the most insidious kinds of
taxes. It really does prevent economic development. It’s one of
those barriers to venture capital that we’ve talked about, Mr.
Speaker, because it tax a company based for the most part on how
much they have invested in a jurisdiction. That’s why
progressive jurisdictions have done away with things like the
corporate capital tax completely. Those jurisdictions that are
interested in fostering a private sector and a tax base to be able
to support publicly funded health care and social services and
excellent education systems — those jurisdictions have
eliminated that capital tax or they have significantly reduced the
rate. Now the NDP have taken . . . have listened to the
Saskatchewan Party and they’ve taken a very small step in the
right direction by raising the cap. But the corporate capital tax
rate that companies will pay in the province of Saskatchewan still
remains among the highest — I think the second highest and maybe
the highest now — but certainly it was the second highest only
to Quebec in all of Canada. And so when corporations are looking
to make large-scale investments in some jurisdiction in Canada,
given the fact that we offer them either the second highest or the
highest capital tax rate or tax on investment, it’s not hard to
see where they’re going to choose. So they certainly could have
sent a stronger signal, as the Saskatchewan Party has, to the oil
and gas industry and to the service sector around Swift Current.
They didn’t do that. And it’s much the same for large
manufacturing, Mr. Speaker. Certainly there was nothing
substantive in the way of good news for the larger manufacturers
in the city of Swift Current.
There
is one other very, very important issue in Swift Current that
people were asking about in the wake of the budget. In fact, I
think it was the Deputy Premier who came to . . . he came to the
city of Swift Current the day after the budget and he had a bit of
a luncheon, and he went through a presentation on the budget and
then he opened the floor up to questions. And the predominant
question being asked of the Deputy Premier was what about our
hospital — what about the Swift Current Regional Hospital? The
situation in Swift Current with our hospital is this: it was built
in, I believe, the late 1940s, and it has . . . it saw its last
capital improvement in 1971 when I was six years old. That is the
last significant capital improvement that was made to the Swift
Current Hospital — 1971. And so last session, Mr. Speaker,
you’ll know well, and in the session before that, I’ve been
trying to raise that concern, raise the concerns that we have in
Swift Current over our hospital. I’ve tried to give the issue as
much profile as I could from this side of the Assembly to let the
government know that a new hospital for our city, and for the
entire region, for Swift Current and area, it isn’t simply a
want, Mr. Speaker — it’s a need. We need a new regional
facility, a new regional hospital in Swift Current. The community
will not stop working to that end, and certainly, Mr. Speaker, I
intend to do my level best, and very best, to continue to press
that issue with this government. And so we looked to this budget
to find some good news — some indication that the hospital was a
potential for the city of Swift Current, because there’s one
issue standing in the way.
You
know, the city of Swift Current, the people there and the people
in the area and the region, they have no problem, they have no
qualms about raising their share to put towards a new hospital in
Swift Current. They have a concern, however, that this
government’s funding formula is unfair. They have a concern that
this government’s funding formula which is 65 per cent/35 per
cent — 65 per cent of the capital funding coming from the
provincial government and 35 per cent coming from the locality —
they have a belief that that is not fair. And the Saskatchewan
Party agrees with them. In 1999, we campaigned on a funding
formula of 85/15. And, Mr. Speaker, that is why the city of Swift
Current, that is why different . . . I think the health care
foundation there and the health district have made a focused and
concerted presentation to the government that says look, if you
just change the funding formula, we will be able to build that new
hospital in Swift Current. We don’t mind paying our share, but
the NDP have to pay theirs; we’ll put up our money, but the NDP
have to put up theirs. That is the position of the city, of the
community of Swift Current and area, and certainly that is the
message that I have tried to deliver about our hospital in Swift
Current.
And
there is rationale for the argument, you see, because the NDP
themselves have reorganized health care in the province. They’ve
set up these new regions and Swift Current is to be the regional
centre for its particular region. Swift Current is to provide the
regional hospital for its particular region. Well you know what,
Mr. Speaker? In order for Swift Current to provide that regional
hospital it needs to have a regional hospital. It needs to have a
new health care facility, one that warrants the title of regional
hospital, one that would provide the sorts of services that not
just Swift Current, but the entire region of southwest
Saskatchewan need. And so we’ll continue to make the case. The
community of Swift Current and area have said look, since it’s
serving the entire region, since this new hospital, if we ever get
it, is serving the entire region, it’s fair that the
government’s funding formula recognizes the fact that it’s
playing a role in the provincial system. The government recognizes
that fact when it’s looking at its tertiary facility, tertiary
capital funding in Regina and Saskatoon. This government pays for
100 per cent of those capital facilities in Regina and Saskatoon.
And so, if you’re a regional centre and you’re providing a
regional hospital for an entire part of the provincial network, I
think it’s fair for them to say look, I think the government
share on those particular projects has to be a little bigger than
65 per cent. The NDP have to be there to a greater extent than 65
per cent for the hospital in Swift Current. That’s the case
we’re going to continue to make — the case that Swift Current
deserves a new regional hospital and that we need one. And so the
budget is silent on the funding formula, and we can only hope that
in the days and in the weeks ahead that the minister will . . .
the Minister of Health will come forward and indicate that indeed
there is an interest on the part of this government to do the
right thing with respect to that regional capital funding formula.
There’s no indication that that’s the case as of yet.
And
so we are left then to look at another very important segment of
Swift Current to try to evaluate this budget, and that very, very
important segment is a group of people, Mr. Speaker, that built
the community of Swift Current. That very, very important segment
is a group of people that really are the foundation for everything
that we treasure in our community of Swift Current, and those are
our senior citizens, our pioneers, Mr. Speaker. And if we’re
going to look at the situation of how our seniors in Swift Current
feel about the provincial budget, you only need to know this, Mr.
Speaker, that they’re already calling our office because
seniors, of course, follow public affairs very closely, and they
probably even endured most of the Minister of Finance’s budget
speech. And they probably understood sooner than anyone else,
sooner than anyone else what the NDP had set out to do to seniors;
what they had set out to do in this budget to those people that
built our communities, those people that founded places like Swift
Current. Through two different measures — not one, Mr. Speaker,
not one attack on seniors — but through two different measures,
the NDP attacked seniors on the front of long-term care fees where
they increased exponentially, and on some fundamental changes,
some fundamental changes to the drug plan, Mr. Speaker. And . . .
Mr.
Wall: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was talking a little
about the impact of this budget on seniors in Swift Current, and
it’s coincidental because at about the same time, my colleague
and friend, the member for Rosthern, was trying to assist perhaps
a little bit with a speech. And that’s a little bit ironic
because I was talking about seniors in the city of Swift Current,
and as it turns out, Mr. Speaker, the member for Rosthern spent a
good deal of time in our community — in Swift Current, where he
taught. And so I can understand why he would want to intervene in
my speech about seniors in the city of Swift Current. And should
he ever come back to our community, I’m sure those that remember
him will also want to discuss that. Mr. Speaker, it is a very
serious matter though, what the government has done to long-term
care fees in our community and to the seniors that rely on the
care that they receive in those long-term facilities . . .
long-term care facilities. You know the change is really quite
shocking. The old fee structure worked out such that the first . .
. on the minimum fee side of things, Mr. Speaker, they looked at
about an $828 per month fee plus 50 per cent of their income over
$994. And under the new system — shockingly so — under the
regime, the new regime introduced by the NDP, those seniors in
Swift Current are now looking at $828, plus 90 per cent of their
income over $994. You know, Mr. Speaker, I know there will be
many, many seniors in my community who feel let down by this
government. They have already begun to phone our office concerned
about this change, the change to long-term care fees, and
concerned as well about the significant changes to the
Saskatchewan prescription drug plan. You see, Mr. Speaker, the
same seniors who are hurt by the increase in long-term care fees
all too often rely on the drug plan; all too often have heavy
bills in terms of the prescription medicines that they need to
ensure their quality of life. And this government has attacked
them on both fronts in this budget. And so the seniors in the city
of Swift Current and area I think are going to be very
disappointed with the budget of this NDP government. You know, Mr.
Speaker, I have a number of other concerns with respect to the
impact of this budget on the city of Swift Current and the
surrounding area, the constituency of Swift Current, as well as
some general comments on how this government has changed its
budgeting processes. But what I would want to do now, Mr. Speaker,
is to adjourn debate.
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