I have always expressed my concerns of the public policy to use gambling as an economic leverage to advance the social conditions of the aboriginal population, and we already knew that contrary to our demented social researchers our population is not necessarily aging; our population is suffering while our elitist leaders are laughing.

Our active and young workers are leaving the province, and now we have our elitist leadership, aboriginal and non-aboriginal, wanting to keep our young aboriginal people at home by having more jobs in the gambling industry. I want to make one thing very clear, our aboriginal people are being abused by both our elitist political leadership and by their own elitist aboriginal leaders. And our elitist political leadership is trapping our aboriginal people in a subtle way, by encouraging gambling through native casinos, and then deflecting the related social consequences to the corrupted ineptitude of aboriginal leaders and to the same aboriginal people at large.

Our provincial auditor has identified the corruption taking place with the Saskatchewan Indian Game Authority (SIGA) and we have already reported how our own Justice Minister Chris Axworthy blamed the aboriginal community for Saskatchewan's highest crime rate.

Economist David Korten writes:

"Generally the best indicators of the health of human societies center on the condition of the most vulnerable among us... Since children are the most vulnerable members, their status is an especially sensitive indicator. Know the rates of infant mortality, childhood malnutrition, teenage crime, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies and you have a remarkably clear picture of a society's state of health."

Saskatchewan has the highest infant mortality rate, many of our young school children are at risk of having an education because they are too poor, we have the highest crime rate, we have the highest number of teen prostitutes walking the streets of Regina and Saskatoon, and we can't keep up with the recording of out-of-wedlock pregnancies. And what is the social economic policy of our elitist leaders? More casinos!

Some references

Relevant social and economic articles published by Ensign

Crime statistics 2000, Statistics Canada, http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/010719/d010719b.htm

The Post-Corporate World, by David Korten, 2000, Section: 'Use Life as the Measure,' page 156 http://iisd.ca/pcdf/post-corporate.htm

Saskatchewan 2000 Fall Report Volume: Audit finds improper use of gaming money. Provincial Auditor Saskatchewan, http://www.auditor.sk.ca/provwebnew.nsf/html/2000flvol2sknews.html