{"id":82476,"date":"2016-10-28T06:11:55","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T10:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=82476"},"modified":"2016-10-28T06:11:55","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T10:11:55","slug":"ndp-calls-proposed-law-define-privatize-back-door-selling-crowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/10\/28\/ndp-calls-proposed-law-define-privatize-back-door-selling-crowns\/","title":{"rendered":"NDP calls proposed law to define \u2018privatize\u2019 a back door to selling Crowns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Saskatchewan<\/a>
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall (Photo: Wall’s official Facebook page)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

REGINA \u2013 Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is defending proposed legislation that defines the term \u201cprivatize,\u201d which the Opposition says is a back door to allow Crown corporations to be sold.<\/p>\n

The province tabled a bill Wednesday that it says clarifies what would be considered privatization and gives the government flexibility to restructure Crown corporations while maintaining ownership.<\/p>\n

The proposed law would allow the government to sell up to 49 per cent of a company without it being considered privatization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this definition ensures that we will not be privatizing the Crown corporations per that Act, that we will not see the control lost in Saskatchewan, but that we can have perhaps some equity investment in the Crowns or partners in the Crowns,\u201d Wall said Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat could see them healthier in terms of their balance sheets and maybe expanding and creating new jobs in Saskatchewan, while not losing those Crown corporations to the province.\u201d<\/p>\n

NDP Leader Trent Wotherspoon said Crown corporations deliver a huge economic and public benefit.<\/p>\n

Crown Investments Corp., the holding company for the province\u2019s commercial Crown corporations, provided a $297.2 million dividend to the government\u2019s general revenue fund in 2015-2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would be a massive erosion of control,\u201d said Wotherspoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a major betrayal and we\u2019ll fight it every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wotherspoon also said that Wall has repeatedly promised not to privatize Crowns and never mentioned selling equity in the corporations in the Saskatchewan election in April.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if the premier wanted to advance a privatization scheme, he should have been honest to Saskatchewan people,\u201d said Wotherspoon.<\/p>\n

The issue of privatization has been hotly debated in Saskatchewan for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

In the 2003 provincial election, the NDP repeatedly said the Saskatchewan Party would sell the Crowns.<\/p>\n

At the time, Saskatchewan Party leader Elwin Hermanson said that he had no plan to privatize Crowns, but would consider offers from the private sector. It was considered the party\u2019s downfall and the NDP won the election.<\/p>\n

The legislation does not mean that a sale of SaskTel, the provincially-owned telecommunications company, is completely off the table.<\/p>\n

But the premier said any offer for SaskTel would have to \u201ccheck off a whole bunch of boxes,\u201d including generate a significant amount of cash \u2013 preferably enough to eliminate the debt \u2013 create jobs and provide better phone service.<\/p>\n

Wall insists there\u2019s no offer right now.<\/p>\n

He said privatizing SaskTel or any Crown corporation would need to be approved by the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve now defined privatization and if we were to move on a privatization, which would be selling more than 50 per cent of a company to someone else, that\u2019s not our call because we\u2019ve campaigned against that,\u201d said Wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we would at least offer that to the people to decide in a referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REGINA \u2013 Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is defending proposed legislation that defines the term \u201cprivatize,\u201d which the Opposition says is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":61579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[12549,1167,1234],"class_list":["post-82476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-brad-wall","tag-ndp","tag-saskatchewan-premier-brad-wall","mauthors-jennifer-graham","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}