By Greg Nikkel
Union and labour representatives hosted a town hall meeting urging residents to show support for Crown corporations and public services, and keeping them under the ownership of the government.
The meeting was organized by the representatives of COPE (Canadian Office and Professional Employees), which represent workers for SGI, and was held on Wednesday evening at the Ramada Hotel, as part of a series of town halls around the province.
The meeting was in preparation for a provincial rally of support for the Crowns, to be held on Wednesday, March 8 in Regina, and a bus will be taking supporters up from Weyburn to take part. A march will be held from the Royal Saskatchewan Museum to the Legislature.
One of the speakers was Bob Bymoen, president of the Saskatchewan Government Employees Union (SGEU), who told the group that moves to privatize services by the provincial government “breaks my heart”, warning that liquor stores under Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming are next, with 39 stores already being privatized around the province.
“They’ve done a pretty good job of selling this move to the public,” said Bymoen, noting the biggest tragedy in this situation is that every liquor store has been profitable, with even the smallest ones supporting local jobs in small communities.
“They gave away the businesses. People applied for the franchises and were awarded it. Every one of these stores is lost revenue to the province,” said Bymoen, estimating a total of $25 million a year has been lost by selling these liquor outlets.
The Sobeys family was one of the beneficiaries of selling the liquor outlets, and as they live in Nova Scotia, “they’re not here helping to pay for our schools or to pave our roads, and we’re giving them tens of millions of dollars,” said Bymoen.
One audience member asked if, once the NDP are back in power, they could cancel the franchises and take them away from the Sobeys or whoever else bought the stores.
“The Sobeys aren’t going to just give the franchises back,” Bymoen commented, doubting this could ever happen.
A representative from the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, Kent Peterson, also spoke to the crowd about their “Own It” campaign in support of public ownership of the Crown corporations.
A major pillar of their campaign is explaining to the public what the benefits are to the province by maintaining ownership of the Crowns, mainly through the dividends that go back to general revenues, as well as the jobs that the Crowns provide throughout the province.
He noted the dividends help pay the costs of the province’s hospitals, schools and highways, and also “help keep taxes lower than they otherwise would be.”
In addition, there are benefits as utility rates for such Crowns as SaskTel, SaskPower and SaskEnergy are among the lowest in Canada, said Peterson.
One of the trends they have been tracking is the use of P3 schools, where government partners with major contractors to help build facilities, and the corporations have the ownership of the facilities and take care of them for the government. Peterson pointed out they had tried this in Alberta and ended up cancelling the program because in the long run it cost the government more, and the arrangement did not benefit the students.
An example of this sort of partnership can be seen by the ring road project in Regina, where a private company from France is in charge of constructing what is essentially a $2 billion private road. Once it’s built, he said, whenever a Highways plow is out clearing highways of snow, it will have to lift its blade once it’s on the “private” roadway of the ring road.
In health care, the province has spent $100 million on consultants to develop the Lean system “to time how long a nurse takes in the washroom,” said Peterson, not to mention private MRI clinics being allowed to start up here.
They presented the second-largest petition in the province’s history to Legislature in support of maintaining the Crowns and public services, and two days later the government announced the privatizing of the 39 liquor stores.
“We have new threats shaping up now, and is targetting larger things. We’re talking wholesale privatization,” he said, noting Bill 40 is being introduced that will change the definition of privatization.
“When a government thinks it can change the definition of words, perhaps they’ve been in power too long,” said Peterson.
Those present at the meeting were urged to go to the Labour Federation’s website, and there are forms there for letters than can be sent to the MLA and to local municipal councils.
Other speakers included Michelle Lang of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, an employee of Casino Regina, and Kim Wilson of COPE, the emcee for the meeting and representative of SGI employees.
The casinos in Regina and Moose Jaw brought in $65.4 million, of which $32.7 million went to general revenues, said Lang, and it would be a mistake to ever sell these two properties to private interests.
Wilson noted that there are a lot of long-term employees at SGI who are faithful and loyal to their employer, and provide the benefits of their experience which in turn is a benefit to residents who get their insurance through the insurance provider.
A major benefit to drivers in this province is having among the lowest rates in Canada for vehicle insurance, in addition to the benefits of returns to the province and the good-paying jobs. In addition, said Wilson, SGI has been ranked as one of the Top 100 employers in Canada, which speaks to the quality of employment provided by the insurance company.
“It’s important we keep the Crowns in the hands of the people of Saskatchewan,” said Wilson.
