Martensville Messenger November 3, 2016 | Page 14

Page 14 - nOvemBer 3 , 2016 - martensville messenger

Provincial Politics with Murray Mandryk

no Debate Over Carbon tax

Whether the Saskatchewan legislature was ever a great place for debates is … well … debatable . We love to talk about the good ol ’ days when those we elected were all brilliant orators and when every word uttered was meritorious of our undivided attention . My recollection may not go quite back to hay-day of the Tommy Douglas- Ross Thatcher Mossbank debate on Crown ownership .
I do , however , recall some great barnburners from the likes Grant Devine and Roy Romanow and Allan Blakeney on public-versus-private ownership . Also , it ’ s easy to recall any number of brilliant speeches from Saskatchewan Party Premier Brad Wall , whose speaking skills are considered a throwback to those bygone days . But they were few and far between . Most are time-wasting nonsense that produces a lot of heat , but very little light .
Even on critical issues like the privatization of the Saskatchewan Potash Corporation when the rules of the day allowed long-winded filibusters . So whether speeches are any better or worse today than they used to be may largely be a matter of debate . Less debatable is the fact that rule changes limiting hours of debate do cause more succinct conversations .
As such , one might have thought last week ’ s debate motion calling for the legislature to support Wall ’ s

mla report From nancy Heppner

saskatchewan Party government stands United against Justin trudeau ’ s Carbon tax
Climate Change White Paper and that oppose the federal government ’ s national carbon tax might have been an issue where our politicians of today really rose to the occasion .
Sadly , they didn ’ t . But that might have less to do with the lack of orator skills among today ’ s MLAs than it had to do with the fact that legislature has always been filled with debates ; less about passion or solution and more about the politics of the place .
This is not to say that Wall is not sincerely passionate about this issue - or even that his arguments against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ' s $ 10- to $ 50-a -tonne ( by 2022 ) is not valid . A per-tonne tax on oil , gas , mining and agriculture has the potential to severely hurt those primary industries .
Wall is likely right that Trudeau simply has not done his homework on how the tax may impact Saskatchewan ... or , really , how whether it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions . But that happens to be one area where Wall ’ s Saskatchewan Party , the NDP and everyone in the province agree . And given Wall ’ s motion in the legislature stated “ this assembly opposes the Federal Government ’ s plan to impose a national carbon tax ”, there seems precious little for politicians to debate .
What also seems of less debate is that something has to be done to address GHG emissions . This may not be something all that easily accepted on coffee row , but even the Wall government ’ s Climate Change White Paper is rather unequivocal in its position that the global is experiencing its warmest days in the past 11,000 years due to GHG emissions . But if you look at what Wall and Sask . Party have been proposing on the environment for the past decade now , this should come as no surprise .
Our government sent a clear message to Ottawa this week by voting unanimously to oppose Justin Trudeau ’ s unilaterally imposed federal carbon tax . We asked the NDP to stand up and join the government in fighting for Saskatchewan ’ s interests but they wouldn ’ t do it .
The Prime Minister ’ s carbon tax will unfairly hurt Saskatchewan families , farmers and vital economic sectors . Yet somehow the Saskatchewan NDP put their party ’ s interests ahead of the province ’ s by joining with the NDP in Alberta and Ottawa in calling for carbon taxes .
During debate it was noted that Ralph Goodale , Saskatchewan ’ s lone federal Liberal Minister , continues to make the faulty argument that the carbon tax they ’ ve proposed is revenue neutral . The problem is the fact this new tax of theirs is not ‘ sector neutral ’ or ‘ jobs neutral ’.
This forced federal carbon tax would harm those making a living in industries that are disproportionately affected – agriculture , energy and mining . As Canada ’ s greatest per capita exporter , a carbon tax will drive costs up , competitiveness down and lead to completely avoidable job loss .
Mr . Goodale has suggested his “ revenue neutral ” tax could be used to eliminate provincial income tax in Saskatchewan – but what good is that if people are out of a job ?”
Our government recently released the province ’ s White Paper on Climate Change which calls for investments in workable solutions to carbon dioxide emissions like Saskatchewan ’ s own world-leading Carbon Capture / Sequestration at Boundary Dam which is reducing emissions in the province to the equivalent of about 250,000 cars off the road every year .
Rather than simply hit families and industries with another tax – especially at a time when these important sectors are reeling from low prices globally – our plan is shown to be working to reduce real emissions . A national carbon tax is the wrong approach and would do the most harm to the Saskatchewan economy while having the least impact on emissions .
innovation Brings Better Choices , Better Outcomes and lower Costs
In just 6 months , private MRIs have saved Saskatchewan taxpayers $ 835,000 and helped reduce the public waitlist by more than 10 per cent . Saskatchewan patients now have the freedom to choose to get their private scans here in Saskatchewan instead of having to travel to Alberta or North Dakota .
Our government continues to invest in the public system to provide timely and high quality medical imaging services while private-pay MRI services are growing . Building on this success , we are now working on giving Saskatchewan people the choice to purchase CT scans in the province as well .
more Homegrown and internationally trained Doctors Practising in saskatchewan
Thanks to increased investments by our government in both homegrown and internationally trained doctors , we now have nearly 650 more physicians practicing today than we did nine years ago .
Saskatchewan continues to make progress in keeping more locally-trained family medicine graduates in the province . The overall retention rate of local family medicine grads has jumped by 17 per cent over the past three years from 58 per cent to 75 per cent .
In addition , more international medical graduates are practicing in Saskatchewan thanks to the Saskatchewan International Physician Practice Assessment program that was introduced by our government . More than 190 new family physicians have completed the assessment and are currently practicing in the province .
As noted by the NDP during the legislative debate , the Sask . Party ’ s 2007 election platform promised to “ stabilize greenhouse gas emissions by 2010 ; reduce GHG emissions by 32 per cent by 2020 and reduce GHG gases by 80 per cent by 2050 .”
The NDP also noted Wall ' s 2010 Management and Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Act that former environment Minister Nancy Heppner described as a " carbon compliance price ."
That these issues weren ’ t noted in Wall ’ s white paper was more than passing strange . It demonstrates how what gets debated in the legislature isn ’ t the best ideas - either new ones or ideas that have already been proposed . What we instead see at the legislature is a lot of bluster , but very little exploration of facts .
But if it ’ s any consolation , it ’ s mostly always been that way .
Gasoline Carbon Tax is noose around consumer ' s neck

Letter to the Editor

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