By Mario deSantis, February 16, 2000

Marie-Josse Kravis, a journalist with the National Post, has recently referred to the $1 billion jobs programs scandal at the Human Resources Department Canada and to the unbelievable reality that nobody is taking responsibility for it. Cynical and disappointed, Ms. Kravis has asked the question "How can we trust a government that is not responsible?" She is obviously talking about the federal government, but this question can apply as well to our province.

In Saskatchewan, our government is smarter than the federal government, in fact not only it doesn't take any responsibility for all our economic and social shortcomings, but it shifts the blame to Ottawa. Premier Romanow has downsized the most important resource, our children and our people, but he was able to balance the books. My questions are "What do you do with the balanced books, do you eat them? Do you create wealth with them?" Certainly not, but the consequences of balancing the books with numbers have caused the bankruptcy of the province.

The books are balanced, and at the same time we have businesses and people leaving the province, we have a crisis in agriculture, we have a crisis in healthcare, we have a crisis in school education, we have a crisis in university education, our highways are breaking down, our environment is polluted, our children are so poor that they are doing poorly in school, juveniles are incarcerated, teen prostitution is widespread in Saskatoon and Regina.

Mr. Premier, you have balanced the books, you have bankrupted the people and the GNP shows that our wealth has been steadily increasing. This is another magic of yours Premier Romanow, covering up our bankruptcies with another number, the GNP.

References

General reference: Articles by Mario deSantis published by North Central Internet News

Honourable Janice MacKinnon: debating the economic underdevelopment of Saskatchewan, by Mario deSantis, February 9, 2000

The questions of the HRDC scandal. How can we trust a government that is not responsible? By Marie-Josee Kravis, National Post, February 11, 2000 http://www.nationalpost.com

12,400 NEW JOBS CREATED IN SASKATCHEWAN, Economic and Co-operative Development - 43, February 4, 2000 Government of Saskatchewan http://www.gov.sk.ca/newsrel/2000/02/04-43.html

Don't trust statistics, don't trust Honourable MacKinnon, trust yourself, by Mario deSantis, February 10, 2000

Sask. Population dips, by Mark Wyatt, The StarPhoenix, February 12, 2000, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan