Will the Real Free Enterprise Party Please Stand Up?

As liberals we believe in economic freedom and free enterprise. Last summer, while other parties were arguing over how to spend Saskatchewan’s $3.1 billion surplus, we were warning that the most responsible move was to dedicate all of these surplus funds to debt elimination. Our vision in the long term is to create a sovereign wealth fund, so that we could reduce our dependency on international market forces and become masters of our own destiny.

To liberals, there is no freedom in dependency. Rather than making a responsible decision with the surplus, the government decided to dedicate the resources to an income tax cut, infrastructure, and debt reduction. Not enough, we said. An income tax cut requires ongoing funding and is an irresponsible way to spend one-time money. We should have taken this one- time opportunity to finally eliminate the debt- a debt that we have held since the 1980s that was caused by reckless spending- and finally get our fiscal house in order in order to free our province of the interests of outside creditors and lenders.

The great thing about prairie skies is that we can see a storm coming from far away. During a time of global economic uncertainty, a time when we should batten down the hatches and prepare for the coming storm, our government is firing up the barbeque. Saskatchewan’s people continue to be dependent on international market forces that we cannot control and our government is introducing new record spending based on one- time revenue. This is a dangerous combination that threatens the personal and economic freedom of everyone living in our great province.

It remains to be seen whether we will be impacted as badly as other jurisdictions by this global crisis. However, there is little doubt that we are going to feel the global economic crisis to some degree in Saskatchewan. And now, even our government is conceding that perhaps next year won’t be as rosy as this one was. Most alarming is the suggestion that we may need to use our fiscal stabilization fund to ‘balance’ the books. Isn’t that exactly what our new government criticized the socialists of doing when they were governing? Are they not spending money even more recklessly that the socialists did? When the Premier made his irresponsible announcement about how our surplus was to be spent the reaction from Opposition Leader Lorne Calvert was nothing but praise. That reaction speaks for itself.

This is a time for strong leadership, vision, and courage. Unfortunately, all we are seeing is short sighted political decisions. After an entire year of governing, the Saskatchewan Party has proven only one thing: they might be an anti- NDP Party, but they are not a free enterprise party.