SASKATOON - Opposition New Democrats had a host of issues with the release of the province's annual reports for the Crown corporations.
Among their issues was how the release was done. The province opted to release the reports for all the Crowns -- SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskTel, SGI, SaskWater and the Crown lnvestment Corporation -- all at once at a media event at TCU Place in Saskatoon. That departed from the usual practice of announcing the results over a number of days at separate news conferences at the Legislature.
On Monday the NDP made known their dismay with the process, saying that separate news releases allowed for proper public and media scrutiny. In a news release, the NDP's Erica Ritchie called it a "clear attempt to bury bad numbers."
When asked about those concerns, the minister responsible for the provincial Crowns, Jeremy Harrison, said he found it "very, very interesting that the NDP have not criticized anything in the actual reports."
"I think that says a whole lot right there. Because this is a very, very strong report that is showing very healthy crown corporations. They're doing incredibly good work and providing incredible benefit for the people of the province. The fact that the NDP are focusing on process and time frames, I think, says a whole bunch."
On transparency, Harrison noted the NDP had the reports since last Friday and that the media had access through embargoed briefings that morning.
As for doing the tabling of the reports all at once, Harrison said he thought it was "a great opportunity to actually get a broader picture of what's going on across the entire sector and having some context around that as well."
As for why the announcement was made in Saskatoon and not at the legislature in Regina, Harrison responded that "we do a lot of stuff in Regina, and we do a lot of stuff in the legislature in Saskatchewan. I think it's important, really, to highlight a lot of the good work that's being done outside of the city, though, by our Crown Corporations."
Harrison also suggested perhaps making Crowns annual reports announcements in other locations in the future. He suggested to reporters that next year they might do the announcement in his own home riding, Meadow Lake.
"We're going to be opening a brand-new $52 million community centre tomorrow, officially, which would be a great location for this event, I think, next year," said Harrison.
"And also, we'll have a chat with our partners at the Meadow Lake Tribal Council. I think it would be a great opportunity for folks who may be more regularly in Saskatoon or Regina to see parts of rural Saskatchewan and see, in a partnership with MLTC specifically, the new biomass facility, which is up and running now for about a year."
NDP predict rate hikes coming
At an Opposition news conference in Saskatoon soon after, NDP MLAs including Ritchie, Sally Housser, Hugh Gordon, and Aleana Young blasted the annual reports release.
According to the NDP's news release, Gordon pointed to the SGI Auto Fund recording a fourth consecutive year of losses in the Rate Stabilization Reserve, with nearly $200 million in losses. Housser pointed to SaskEnergy's net revenue increasing, while its dividend-to-government went up even more, increasing from $20.6 million to $31.8 million.
The NDP also pointed to SaskPower net income dropping by over $100 million last year while SaskTel profits dipped for a fourth year in a row. The NDP predicted phone rates and power rates would go up as a result.
"Yeah, inevitably, they're going to go up," Young told Sask Today.
"In every scenario that Sask Power has presented when it comes to their future supply mix planning, there are rate increases of at least two per cent a year. We have gone now three or four years without a rate increase.
"We know that it is coming. Again, in black and white in the annual report, it shows that Sask Power is operating at a net loss, if not for the OBPS Sask Party carbon tax dollars. They've paused the OBPS now, so it remains to be seen how they plan on operating Sask Power profitably without using their own carbon tax dollars to basically pad the bottom line. If they don't have that money, they will be looking to raise rates significantly."
