By Mario deSantis, February 10, 2000

Yesterday morning, I visited the Web Site of The Leader Post and I read the article "Province defended(1)." In reading this article, I was astonished to realize that the National Post ran a series of articles, last Monday's and Saturday's editions, on the economic conditions of Saskatchewan and that they came up with the same gloomy conclusions I synthesized in the article "Making money is not creating wealth Mr. Premier Romanow(2)." Janice MacKinnon, Minister of Economic Development, was particularly offended by the National Post's articles depicting Saskatchewan as the "Mississippi of the North." MacKinnon responded to the one-dimensional newspaper stories with her own stories. She said "How do you explain that Saskatchewan was chosen, using the UN criteria, as the best of all the provinces in Canada in which to live, in terms of quality of life?'

Janice MacKinnon doesn't understand yet that she must clean up our house first(3) before she references the opinion of an outside agency such as the UN. She showed her two-dimensional or flat expertise by adding that "...the stories overlooked the fact Saskatchewan had the country's highest rate of economic growth from 1992 to 1997 and was the only province to reduce its child poverty rate between 1989 and 1997..." Janice MacKinnon doesn't understand that the rate of growth of the GNP is not an evidence of the progressing welfare of our province. For instance, Esso Petroleum did business in Tisdale(4) and this economic activity provided a contribution to our GNP; however, the related cost of pollution caused by this same business is not included into our GNP. Another example, the building of the Synchrotron(5) will provide a monetary contribution to our GNP, but the corresponding loss of not being able to provide an adequate education to our children or students is not counted into the calculation of the GNP.

MacKinnon's claim that Saskatchewan was the only province to reduce its child poverty rate was possibly true and due to the grim reality that Saskatchewan has had the highest child poverty rate across Canada; in this respect, the Provincial Auditor has recently stated that 40% of our children live in such poor conditions that they are at risk of doing poorly in school(6).

Janice MacKinnon is not in touch with the people, and she is not in touch with reality; no wonder she is hiding in the Ivory Tower of the University of Saskatchewan(7).

Endnotes

1. Province defended, by Mark Wyatt, The Leader-Post, February 9, 2000, Regina, Saskatchewan http://207.195.66.66/cgi-bin/LiveIque.acgi$sch=frontpage?frontpage

2. Making money is not creating wealth Mr. Premier Romanow, by Mario deSantis, February 7, 2000

3. A governmental responsibility is to clean up our house first, by Mario deSantis, December 6, 1999

4. Valdez parked in Tisdale, FTLComm - Tisdale - December 19, 1999

5. Few Words on the Synchrotron, Politics and Education in Saskatchewan, by Mario deSantis, April 4, 1999

6. Report of the Provincial Auditor, 1999 Fall Report, Volume 2, Chapter 2-Education, page 123, Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Regina, Saskatchewan. http://www.auditor.sk.ca

7. Honourable Janice MacKinnon is the wife of Peter MacKinnon, President of the University of Saskatchewan. Refer to the article: University of Saskatchewan: A Vision Built on Privileged Education and on the Synchrotron, by Mario deSantis, October 25, 1999