For most of us, it鈥檚 an easy and simply solution to ask Saskatchewan public servants to do their part to tackle the province鈥檚 billion-dollar deficit.
But for Premier Brad Wall, it鈥檚 also a problem if his own making.
Consider the wages at SaskPower.
According to the 2015-16 Crown Payee Disclosure 鈥� the detailed spending at our publicly own Crown corporations including wages 鈥� 1,797 of 3,777 SaskPower employees were earning more than $100,000 a year. Total payroll was $344.8 million in 2015-16, so the average wage was $91,289 a year.
Just a decade or so earlier in 2004, there were only 164 SaskPower employees earning six figures a year 鈥� an average of $73,509 per year.
So in about a decade, SaskPower payroll has nearly doubled and the average SaskPower wage has increased 24 per cent.
Of course, most of it occurred under the Wall鈥檚 watch.
And it can be argued that SaskPower employees haven鈥檛 done nearly as well as other public servants like Saskatchewan鈥檚 registered nurses.
Notwithstanding the Sask. Party鈥檚 introduction of its Essential Services legislation (later struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada) in 2008, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) were greeted by 36-plus-per-cent wage increase over the next four years from the newly elected Wall government. Nurses鈥� contracts since have been more in line with the two- or three-per-cent annual wage increases of SaskPower employees.
But you are getting the picture.
The last budget of the NDP government in 2006-07 had operating expenses of $7.7 billion 鈥� about $3.7 billion more than when the NDP took power 16 years earlier.
However, according to the mid-year update for the 2016-17 budget, government spending in a decade has doubled a $7-million increase in government spending to $14.7 million.
The political issue isn鈥檛 so much that employee wages make up 60 per cent of government spending, as Wall correctly observed in a series of year-end interviews with reporters.
The issue is that it was Wall鈥檚 government has been a fully responsible for wages and government spending increasing even more rapidly in the past nine years than they were increasing under the previous administration.
鈥淚 hope there鈥檚 goodwill and good faith on the part of provider unions and managers and people that work in the public service to realize that even what鈥檚 being paid right now might not be sustainable,鈥� Wall told The Canadian Press.
鈥淎t some point, I think we have to determine in the long-term interest of the province, do we engage in layoffs or rollbacks鈥�
鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 always happen in government. Maybe we need to have that conversation and see if we can avoid what might be dramatic layoffs.鈥�
This is likely true. But can Brad Wall make the argument 鈥� in good faith 鈥� when it was his government negotiating these huge wage increases in the past decade?
In the case of the 2008 36-plus-per-cent increase given to the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses, it was deemed an unnecessary move even at the time.
Moreover, Wall has been even more generous in the wage increases he has paid to individuals on his own staff in the past decade 鈥� many of who seen fantastic increases in pay for nothing more than a change in job title.
And then there is the little matter of Wall increasing the legislative assembly by three more MLAs.
Credit Wall for acknowledging that he knows this move will be unpopular.
鈥淚鈥檓 not prepared to sort of kick this can down the road like provinces used to do in the 鈥�80s or even like some are doing today,鈥� he said.
But if layoffs or wage cuts are now be necessary, they have been made necessary by the Wall own decisions.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
