麻豆传媒AV

Throne speeches are not budgets, but they can set the tone for budgets.

If the speech delivered by Lieutenant Governor Vaughn Solomon May 17 to open the first session of the 28th Legislature is an indication the budget scheduled for release June 1 will be one of austerity.

Greg Ottenbreit, the newly re-elected MLA for Yorkton, who ended the last session as minister of rural and remote health, confirmed belt-tightening is coming.

鈥淚 think the throne speech was pretty indicative of that,鈥� Ottenbreit said while flipping hot dogs at a cancer fundraising event Friday. 鈥淥ur [election] platform was pretty quiet, there wasn鈥檛 a whole lot of extra promises. What you will see is a lot of what we鈥檝e done, the investments we鈥檝e made up until this point, are still not completed, that鈥檚 why there鈥檚 not a whole lot of new spending.鈥�

To that end, he said, they will be continuing with highways and other infrastructure spending.

Specifically, the throne speech mentioned $2.7 billion in highways and transportation capital over the next four years. It also talked about $3.6 billion this year for schools, hospitals, long-term care facilities and the Regina Bypass.

Ottenbreit talked a lot about finding efficiencies, specifically in the areas of health care, education, social services and public safety. Speculation is the government intends to consolidate the province鈥檚 13 health regions into a smaller number, possibly a single one such as Alberta did in 2008. Ottenbreit would not commit to that, saying consultation is in order.

鈥淭here鈥檚 no definitive decision yet,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e looking at is getting some outside help to look at the options; what would make the most sense to deliver the best service, but also have the most efficient system.

鈥淲e will have to look at the other jurisdictions. For example, Alberta went to one region with a super-board and they ran into a whole lot of troubles. I think for the most part they鈥檝e worked through those, so we鈥檙e going to have to look at what other jurisdictions have done and learn from their mistakes and try and do something, not only learning from their mistakes, but actually doing something that鈥檚 good for Saskatchewan.鈥�

The other big news surrounding the throne speech was fear about selling off of Crown corporations. The speech did confirm the Saskatchewan Party intends to make good on its promise to remove the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority from the Crown Corporations Public Ownership Act, paving the way to convert 40 government stores to private ownership and creating 12 new ones.

The government claims this move is in the best interest of the province and consumers saying in the speech it will 鈥渃reate a level playing field for liquor retailers in order to provide more choice, more convenience and more competitive pricing for Saskatchewan consumers.鈥�

The Opposition NDP believes SLGA is only the beginning saying the Sask Party is ideologically bent on privatization. They point to the recently announced government plan to do a risk assessment on Sasktel in light of the recent sale of Manitoba鈥檚 telecommunications Crown, MTS, to Bell.

Ottenbreit said Sasktel is in no danger of privatization, at least not without a public mandate.

鈥淭he Crown Corporations [Public Ownership] Act is pretty definitive in that can鈥檛 happen,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think what鈥檚 raised a little bit of attention in the past week or so has been the sale of the Manitoba company, the telco, and the [Saskatchewan] premier is specific in wanting to get a risk assessment on what that means for Sasktel. It doesn鈥檛 mean we鈥檙e looking at selling it. We want to make sure we know what this means for Sasktel being the last government-owned and regional telephone company I think in all of North America.

鈥淲e made a pretty clear commitment if there鈥檚 going to be any change in that regard it is going to have to be through a public vote whether a plebiscite or a platform commitment through an [election] campaign.鈥�