August 20, 2014
WEDNESDAY
A6
Staff SERVING CANADA’S SUNSHINE CAPITAL
Brant Kersey Publisher
Cindy Beaulieu Sales Manager
Jordan Baker Co-Editor
Norm Park Co-Editor
Melanie Tribiger Production Manager Advertising Sales Representatives: Deanna Tarnes Kristen O'Handley Teresa Hrywkiw Candace Wheeler Editorial Staff: Josh Lewis Alex Coop
Production Staff: Trinda Jocelyn Riley Dyck Peggy Volmer Kaitlyn Pilloud Accounting: Kim Schoff Reception: Gayle Worsnop
Volume 112 Issue 16 Contact us: Phone: 634-2654 Fax: 634-3934 e-mail: editor@estevanmercury.ca 68 Souris Ave. N., Estevan By mail: Box 730, Estevan, Sask. S4A 2A6 Website: www.estevanmercury.ca Twitter: @Estevan_Mercury Facebook: facebook.com/EstevanMercury
Subscription Rates:
In Saskatchewan - $58.26 In Canada - $63.56
EDITORIAL
Progress being made Now that the second phase of the Highway 47 north repaving project is complete, Estevan’s senior administration, engineers, public works, urban planning and land development teams will be able to turn their attention to other items that are screaming for attention. It took more than two years to get the highway fix completed. It required three years to pave the leisure centre parking lot, but now it’s done, and although it takes on a bit of a maze-like appearance for the uninitiated driver, it’s a vast improvement over what had passed as a parking lot for 25 years. So progress, when spotted, must be acknowledged and celebrated. Slowly and surely, Estevan’s streets and underground infrastructures are being tended to. The pace is certainly not as crisp as we would like, but signs of improvement are heartening. Our humble suggestion is that our city’s servants would make a whole lot of new friends if some crews could now spend significant time tending to the 100 or so miniature gravel pits that exist among our broken pavement patches. The dust drift from vehicular traffic, mixed in with the railroad’s daily dusty journeys through the heart of the city, makes for a big challenge on our respiratory systems in a time of year when we are being urged to spend as much time outside as possible. Gravel piles where pavement is supposed to be, do not make for happy taxpayers, especially if they have been forced to endure the dust drift for two years or more, when they’ve
Prairie Perspective MURRAY MANDRYK Murray Mandryk is a political columnist with the Leader Post
Member Canadian Community Newspapers Association. Member Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association. Audited by Audit Bureau of Circulations. Published weekly by Prairie Newspaper Group Limited Partnership, 68 Souris Avenue N., Estevan, Saskatchewan. Postal address: Box 730 Estevan, Saskatchewan, S4A 2A6 The Estevan Mercury is owned and operated by Prairie Newspaper Group Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of Glacier Media Inc. Advertising rates are available upon request and are subject to change without notice. Conditions of editorial and advertising content: The Estevan Mercury attempts to be accurate in Editorial and Advertising content; however, no guarantee is given or implied. The Estevan Mercury reserves the right to revise or reject any or all editorial and advertising content as the newspaper’s principals see fit. The Estevan Mercury will not be responsible for more than one incorrect insertion of an advertisement, and is not responsible for errors in advertisements except for the space occupied by such errors. The Estevan Mercury will not be responsible for manuscripts, photographs, negatives and other related material that may be submitted for possible publication. All of the Estevan Mercury’s content is protected by Canadian Copyright laws. Reviews and similar mention of material in this newspaper is granted on the provision that The Estevan Mercury receives credit. Otherwise, any reproduction without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Advertisers purchase space and circulation only. Rights to any advertisement produced by The Estevan Mercury, including artwork, typography, photos, etc., remain the property of this newspaper. Advertisements or parts thereof may not be reproduced or assigned without the consent of the publisher.
We acknowledge financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canadian Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities.
Scandal looms over meters
What constitutes a political scandal is often in the eyes of the beholder. Certainly, it’s not always about the money. By government spending standards, former Alberta premier Alison Redford’s flights of fancy at taxpayer expense were hardly overwhelming. While extravagant and likely unnecessary, even Redford’s $45,000 trip to South Africa for Nelson Mandela’s funeral was not justification for her resignation. Moreover, all politicians gild the lily a bit when it comes to the necessity of their travel. This seemed to be the case with the Saskatchewan Party government’s justification for former social service minister June Draude’s trips last year to London and Ghana. To this day, Premier Brad Wall struggles to explain the value of the trip to Saskatchewan taxpayers. But Redford`s travel did become scandalous — and worthy of both her resignation as an MLA and an RCMP probe — when the elements of personal gain and deceit came into play. Maybe Alberta taxpayers would have forgiven her were this story simply about
been paying for pavement. Regular deployment of street sweepers helps ease the cause and the systematic trimming of our public parks and floral arrangements on our boulevards, makes for a more pleasant sight. The fact that many of these boulevards have been reduced to gravel yards (coloured mind you), rather than grass knolls, is a discussion and debate for another day. Crumbling sidewalks are being replaced and it appears as if new subdivisions are receiving the attention they deserve in terms of infrastructure needs. A few timely tree and shrub plantings and some strategic green spaces ready for development will go a long way toward making Estevan an even more exciting city in which to ply our trades, play our games, drive our vehicles, walk our dogs, raise our families and enjoy our retirements. It is understood our city is under a great deal of financial stress, having had to shoulder a serious debt load accumulated through unprecedented growth in the past 10 years. But, it appears as if it is now coming out on the other side, with or without the assistance of senior governments who have been reluctant to acknowledge growth in centres other than the major metropolises. If Estevan has had to pretty well go it alone these past few years, so be it. We’re getting it done and we have reason to celebrate … after we get rid of those mini gravel pits before the snow falls.
a political executive wrongly using a taxpayer-owned aircraft to taxi around her young daughter so that the two could be together. But the combination of the abuse and the deceit — falsifying passenger lists so that she could fly alone — was too much to bear. That said, personal gain for a politician is hardly the whole measure of scandal, either. No Saskatchewan NDP politician really benefitted from the $36-million failed foray into the potato business. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the public dollars lost, combined with the deceit involved in suggesting this was a public-private partnership when it really wasn’t, truly made Spudco a scandal. In fact, one might argue that Spudco was the scandal that cost the NDP government power, given that its defeat came at a time when the economy was starting to boom and Saskatchewan just surpassed the million-person barrier. However, as seems to have been the case with Redford and the Alberta Progressive Conservatives, an increasingly unpopular government suffered greatly by what has been termed a scandal. Of course, it would be wrong — or at least, premature — to suggest Wall and his Saskatchewan Party government have been scandalized by the $47-million cost of installing and uninstalling SaskPower smart meters after about nine caught on fire. There is certainly no evidence of anyone’s personal gain. And while there is ample reason to question the competency of this decision, it’s so far not clear that
any politician is to blame. In fact, credit Wall and SaskPower Minister Bill Boyd for the tough decision to pull out the new smart meters, a costly exercise but likely a prudent decision. Wall has even eagerly suggested that his government will try to recoup the cost from the manufacturer, although the manufacturer has quickly shot back that the problem isn`t with the product but its installation. But the old adage of “where there’s smoke there’s fire” has never been quite so appropriate in what could be better described as a looming scandal for the Wall government. Make no mistake, the $47-million price tag for this exercise is scandalous. And, like Spudco, it is the politicians who we are ultimately responsible for the choices and decisions their appointees have made here. Someone in SaskPower authorized the contract to have an American-based company — one that did not necessarily use certified electricians — for this project. All decisions would have been submitted to senior SaskPower officials hired by government. And all such expenditures would have had to be approved by the Crown utility’s board of directors who are all government appointees. So whether the installers or the manufacturers are the source of this now costly problem, it comes down to decisions made by those representing the government. Maybe we aren`t quite there yet, but this smart meter mess sure has scandal potential.