Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Sunny in Saskatoon

I do believe that our new mascot Sunny absolutely personifies our happy, jolly Mayor. I didn't know council was expecting the newborn Sunny, and I don't know what it cost, but envisioning Atch and the councillors taking turns wearing the costume to various civic functions will be worth it for the entertainment value alone. (This assumes they will not be putting the mascot on the payroll.)

It did bring a much needed chuckle this morning after reading Pat Atkinson's comments on the proposed plan to cut educational assistants in school divisions (SP Feb. 24/10). She said government is trying to dodge responsibility for the proposed changes by passing the buck to school divisions. It is the height of hypocrisy for a former Minister of Education and a representative of a former government that did nothing but pass the buck for funding to local school boards. Every taxation year every school division board in this province screamed foul as they were forced to increase property taxes to pay for salary increases and programs imposed on them by the NDP government without sufficient provincial funding to cover the cost.

There is controversy within the education community itself as to whether or not this position has flourished beyond need or that EAs are being used effectively. It is one of those 'six of one, or a half dozen of another' debates. I will leave it the professionals to come up with the solution.

Today, I will just let the sunshine in . . .

4 comments:

  1. Do people still pay any attention to what Atkinson says anymore, personally I put as much credence into her words as I do to the weird people at the bus terminal. The whole issues surrounding the old Barry Hotel site destroyed what little credibility she has left.

    As for Sunny, what a great idea. Haha this city can use a funny little mascot to distract us from the soaring taxes, high crime rate and irresponsible council. The lesson to be learned....

    ...if Sunny can be happy with the current state of affairs, why can't the rest of us? :)

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  2. I think anonymous is referring to Pat Lorje, the city councillor when he refers to the Barry Hotel.

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  3. You're probably right anon@1:04, but misstating and misrepresenting basic facts for the sake of ill-conceived rhetoric is par for the course on this blog.

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  4. I thought we were blaming the Barry hotel on the supposedly hidden deficits of Blakeney?

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