I read PCS CEO Bill Doyle's epistle last week on potash royalties/taxes and then United Steelworkers union economist Erin Weir's response today (SP Nov. 1/11.) I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle.
My understanding of the royalty structure is that a previous NDP government negotiated the existing agreement with the potash companies so that they would expand operations and create new jobs - and that the agreement for this activity has a fixed time. It is apparently working when you hear of the money currently being invested in this sector.
My further understanding is that potash is a commodity that has fluctuating prices and thus, depending on the global market, the royalties are up and down from year-to-year.
But anyway you cut it, even if the royalties doubled, Lingfelter could not stretch that extra nickel to cover off the election promises being made. The result would have to be increased taxes or broken promises.
Perhaps we should change our election laws to state that any politician that makes promises and doesn't keep them in the time frame specified, must resign from office and is barred from running from public office.
Right now the biggest growth in this province is voter cynicism.
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Would be nice if that was the case as most of the Saskatchewan party would be barred from running this time around. Hard to take the government which brought in the biggest budget deficit and consecutive deficit budgets as being fiscally conservative.
ReplyDeleteWhich makes voting Sask Party all the more difficult Anon 9:06. However, it's either Sask Party or the party that caters to organized labour and unions above anything else.
ReplyDeleteIf there was a third option I think the voters would rejoice. But the Greens seemed to have smoked a little too much green before drafting their platform, the Liberals locally are a joke and Conservatives not far behind.
It truly is a sad state of affairs, but I guess like many around the province I'll eb casting a vote to keep the NDP out and not put the Sask Party in (at least how I will justify it)
Anon 9:29
ReplyDeleteI think you are 100% correct, voters on both sides seem to concentrate on holding their collective noses and voting against something rather tahn proudly for anything.
I just can't fathom the NDP and the big unions getting power back again in this province.
ReplyDeleteThe public sector unions have become too strong, and having their political lacky's in office for even a term would be enough to set back all the gains done in this province.
Why can't the unions see what the general population thinks about them these days.
Anon 9:29
ReplyDelete"If there was a third option I think the voters would rejoice."
Who are these so called people you speak of. Is it those sitting on their ass at occupie Saskatoon and Regina?? Or those that just choose to stay away from the polls no matter who is running.
There is a very clear line in the sand between the two parties as I see it. One doesn't pick a party that is 100% in line with their ideology or you would never be voting. You need to look at who best represents the majority of your ideals. For me that is the party that doesn't pick winners and losers or try to control how I live my life. The NDP's tie to unions and the concept of take from the rich and give to the poor has stifled this province for years. Sure the SaskParty has spent more but they have also reduced my taxes and given many more an opportunity to make a living on their own. The sooner we learn not to depend on the government for a hand-out the better we all will be.
The Billions of money spent on Potash in this Province will out pace any thing the NDP is promising.
Just for interest sake, Anon. 2:02, I'd love to have you outline what Sask Party policies have given "many more an opportunity to make a living on their own."
ReplyDeleteI'd love to get an overview of what policies that have been implemented that have made a significant difference.
Here's some for Anon 2:27
ReplyDeleteEvery policy that reduces my personal income tax.
Reductions in my Education Property Taxes.
Providing Tax breaks for students staying in this province. Much of which a parent can access.
Not wasting my money on hiring more government workers just for the sake of getting a vote from them.
Being open for business without driving them away with poor policies. I've had ten job offers in the last year considering in my industry I never once had someone try and hire me away in 30yrs.
So lets see what the NDP offer. Everything under the sun (wow that's realistic) with these some fictitious Potash royalty increase.
Remember Anon 2:27 I didn't say everything they did was great but it is a far cry from the stifling socialist attitude of the NDP. And today the NDP come out with their cost calculator to somehow make it look like they can give away billions without it costing the taxpayer a cent. We all got caught up in that during the Devine era. At least we know Brad Wall understands we can't go back there unlike Link who seems hell bent on putting this Province back 20 years.
Yes, those "stifling socialist attitude"s certainly were bad when they dug the province out of a huge moneypit in the 90s, balanced budgets in the 00's, nutured the mining industry, made us a "have" province, and pushed the population back over the million mark....
ReplyDeleterevisionist history can be fun, but let's not go overboard.
What a crock Balanced Budgets!! Talk about revisionist history. The credit card hadn't been so overloaded. How about Spudco, Yates and his gang of incompetent prison guards. Murdouch Carrier, or even Martensville. Ya your right the NDP ran such a tight ship. All I am saying is Dwain Link and his policies will kill everything we have today. You can't be serious to think that the SaskParty had put us backwards. Link will be gone after this election then the NDP can try and find a leader that is relevant in today's world. Not someone stuck in the 60's.
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:50,
ReplyDeleteYou are aware that government employees in pure numbers (not percentages) went up more than the provincial population during the Calvert years?
Think about that, in addition to increasing their wages, we hired more people as a province than people came to the province. Why? because the NDP and their union buddies set it up as so. The NDP are puppets for the unions in Saskatchewan.
The second they get in it is nothing but paying back organized labour.
Did you know that Saskatchewan was the only jurisdiction that didn't require a secret ballot vote of 50%+1 in order to enact a union at a workplace? Every other jurisdiction in NA required a vote to unionize except in Saskatchewan. The SP change that to make a vote mandatory like rest of world and unions are screaming how unfair it is. Now NDP promise to change it back to how the union wants it if they get back in power. Sask also has some of the most liberal laws in terms of unions rights when trying to organize. Our labour scheme will take a decade to straighten out and get to rationale spot.
Also Anon 2:50, it's funny you mentioned that the NDP nurtured the mining industry, because they are now basically saying they did the wrong thing and that everything should be torn up and we deserve 100% more taxes than they are already being taxed. So according to you they nurtured it, according to them the nurturing was the wrong plan.
Anon 3:28,
ReplyDeleteYou forgot about Channel Lake in there.