By GREG NIKKEL, of the Weyburn Review
Members of the Weyburn Chamber of Commerce and guests learned there is a large benefit to the area from the Crown corporations, but the minister in charge of Crown Investments Corporation, Deputy Premier Dwain Lingenfelter, was told there was more the Crowns could be doing here, on both business and charitable levels.
Lingenfelter put on a presentation on Wednesday evening in the Elks Hall to detail the economic impacts and benefits of the Crown corporations, and asked for input as to what the government could do to improve the corporations' role in the province. The session was hosted by the Chamber and by the South East Regional Economic Development Authority.
The audience of around 40 people was divided into groups of 10 to work on a number of questions, including what the Crowns could do to promote economic development in Weyburn, and what improvements the corporations need to make here. The issue of how corporations support events and charities in Weyburn and area was also raised, and attracted a number of responses.
On the issue of economic development, Lingenfelter was told a concern is centralization of the corporations' employees.
"A few jobs will have much more impact here than in a major urban centre. We usually lose out while Regina and Saskatoon gain," said one group, with another adding that Crown corporations could be filling some of the vacant office and retail space available in Weyburn.
Many respondents felt the quality of service offered by the Crowns is pretty good, but they must keep up with emerging technology to continue to offer the best service to area residents at a reasonable price.
Lingenfelter said the biggest technological issue right now is dealing with Y2K, or ensuring all of the Crown corporations are compliant with the year 2000.
"The boards are working extremely hard on it. I'm confident we'll have all the i's dotted and t's crossed, but still, until the calendar turns over, it's a challenge to know if we're ready for that, especially in communications," said the deputy premier.
On the issue of supporting events and charities, Lingenfelter was told that any such dollars from the corporations should go to local needs, determined by local residents, instead of having managers in Regina deciding if an event is big enough to warrant support or not.
An example was the national senior men's baseball championships hosted by Weyburn last summer. Don Kraft, one of the organizers of this event, said it was very tough getting any support from the Crowns, because they wanted to know how many people were going to attend it; SaskEnergy ended up being a contributor, but not until extensive discussions were held with Regina-based managers.
Lingenfelter responded that the policy for supporting such events isn't the same in each corporation, and said he would review the policies so they are more responsive to local needs.
Gail Mehler, the executive director of the South Central Health District Foundation, suggested to Lingenfelter that giving should be more proportional to recognize the needs that exist in smaller health districts.
Noting that $1 million was given to the Regina Health District, Mehler said, "Proportionally we can't compete on a local level with what they can offer, but we can give them just as significant recognition as anybody. I would suggest sometimes more is better. Yes, I understand people want more bang for their buck. You also could provide some kind local education about what is expected back."
Lingenfelter said the $1 million donation to Regina Health District was debated at length, but in the end it was directed specifically for purchasing another MRI machine.
Detailing the benefits accrued to Weyburn and area from the Crown corporations, the deputy premier said there are 216 direct jobs from the four major Crowns, with $8.3 million in employee earnings each year. The Crowns spent $3.1 million in capital expenditures in 1998, with another $812,000 spent by SaskPower for municipal surcharges and grants-in-lieu of taxes, and $2.4 million was spent in local purchases in 1998.
Breaking down the capital spending last year, $1.6 million was expended by SaskPower for new customer connects and system improvements, $1.5 million by SaskEnergy to extend natural gas service to White Bear Reserve and Resort and to Weyburn's new public works shop and fire hall on 16 St., and SaskTel spent $64,000 for digital switching and cellular transmission equipment, and for copper installations.
Province-wide, the Crowns have $7.5 billion in assets and $2.8 billion in combined annual revenues. They produced 17 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in Saskatchewan at $4.2 billion, and have nine per cent of the province's employment with 43,500 jobs.
"Some people flippantly say we should sell the Crowns. We should look at what it would mean if we didn't have the Crowns. Everyone should realize there would be drastic change in how the economy of the province operates," said Lingenfelter, adding that polling shows 65 per cent of the province's residents support the government keeping the Crowns.
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