The landscape of Saskatchewan may be about to fundamentally change as the current government moves ever closer to chipping away at the publically-owned Crown Corporations.
For the Saskatchewan Party, and their generally right-leaning supporters, the end of Crowns is a near fundamental desire.
The Brad Wall-led government has generally avoided going down that road since first taking power, but that seems about to change.
Recently, Saskatchewan Minister of Energy and Resources Dustin Duncan said that while SaskTel 鈥渨ill always exist鈥� there are ongoing talks about potential partnerships with other firms looking to take a stake in the company, according to a story in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
Duncan told reporters recently high level discussions have taken place about a potential partial sale of the publicly owned telecomm.
Wall has said the province is having meetings about the potential partial sale of SGI.
And of course there was the dismantling of STC in the most recent budget, a decision still causing ripples across the province.
In the case of STC at least it was losing money. It might be argued in a province of just more than one million spread over such a huge area the loss was reasonable in terms of maintaining connectivity, but that is a philosophical discussion. The loss in real dollars was real, and that could be equally reasoned as a reason to drop the Crown.
The financial status of SGI and SaskTel is decidedly more positive.
SGI had a successful year in 2015-16 for both sides of its operations. SGI CANADA had a profitable year and the Saskatchewan Auto Fund also saw strong results, noted a release from the government.
鈥淪GI CANADA is the competitive arm of SGI, selling property and casualty insurance in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and British Columbia. The corporation posted positive results for 2015-16, realizing a profit of $84.5 million despite significant storm losses across the prairies and forest fire claims in Northern Saskatchewan,鈥� it noted.
The SaskTel website tells a similar story.
鈥淪askTel today reported 2015/16 net income of $126.7 million and operating revenues of $1,574.4 million. Net income increased due to a 2.2 per cent growth in revenue, a 0.6 per cent decline in operating expenses, and an additional three operating months as a result of a change in SaskTel鈥檚 year end from December 31 to March 31. Revenues grew $26.7 million (2.2 per cent) mainly due to increases in maxTV鈩�, Internet and data revenues; increased equipment sales, and continued wireless growth,鈥� it detailed.
There are seemingly two root reasons for the Wall government looking to sell off Crown assets which appear financially healthy and producing profits for the entire province.
No doubt a government in power of a decade is thinking, at least behind closed doors, their run will not last indefinitely, and so moving on philosophical policies become more important.
And from a government that has struggled to hit its budgets and stay away from deficit the lure of a cash injection from a Crown sale, even chunks of one, has to be fiscally appealing.
But whether either reason is a good one in terms of changing a very deep-held aspect of the province, the shared benefits of provincially held Crowns, seems a question that might best be asked in an election before any sale is made.
