City, Province Out of Touch

Good evening Regina!

What does the Sask Party and the City of Regina have in common? Aside from identical political views, they both favour developers heavily! So much so, in fact, that apparently the provincial government would rather side with a developer over tenants in a much needed, and much anticipated, social housing development in Hawkstone. See the story here: http://www.leaderpost.com/business/Mandryk+Government+favours+developer+over+tenants/10189940/story.html

What is most disheartening about this story is the statement by Donna Harpauer, the current Social Services Minister. She is either out of touch with reality, or not very well versed when it comes to interviewing with the media. She is quoted with saying "you're assuming there are desperate homeless people". This statement is just mind blowing. Even if you don't live in Saskatchewan, you're probably well aware of the housing crisis, and moreso the AFFORDABLE housing crisis. She had the gaul to claim that because her waiting lists have gone down, it can't be that bad. Thankfully, there are organizations like Carmichael Outreach that deal with people in these situations daily, and they set the record straight. The sad fact of the matter is, if the waiting lists have actually gone down, it's most likely because of people getting frustrated and not even bothering putting their name on it.

Then you have the City of Regina. Amazingly, the CBC has been doing an amazing job at uncovering a couple of stories recently, most notably the flawed recycling program. Apparently, Emterra, the multi-national corporate giant that came in and stamped on Crown Shred in a very unfair RFP process, hasn't been doing what they've been contracted to do. Glass has been going straight to the dump, and NOT being recycled as per their contract, and as they are being PAID to do. The story is here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/city-of-regina-hasn-t-been-recycling-glass-food-containers-1.2761004 . What's even more disheartening is the fact that the City of Regina claims they weren't aware that Emterra wasn't doing this, after falsely claiming there were contracts in place. Thank GOD the CBC dug deeper on this story, because they pushed and pushed until the real truth came out. And, then, as if the City wasn't digging themselves deep enough, they put out a Press Release claiming that CBC's story was false. CBC followed up on this, and in fact, confirmed that the facts they presented were true.

What is the end result of all this? Well, it means that the Governments need to start enforcing their contracts better, and start being held truly accountable for things they are falling very short on. Will the Province take Deveraux to court? Of course not, becaue they wouldn't dare "stomp" on them while they're down. But, apparently it's okay to "stomp" on taxpayers because they don't matter? And, will the City of Regina take Emterra to court for not abiding by their contract? Of course not. They wouldn't dare threaten the relationship they've developed with a Chinese company, or dare expose the fact that they've known all along that Emterra wasn't actually doing their job, and they turned a blind eye until the media started digging around.

Oh, and now the City of Regina is claiming that they need to raise taxes ANOTHER 5% just to fix residential roads. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/city-of-regina-looking-at-another-5-tax-hike-for-residential-roads-1.2761742 It's just too bad we don't have any other way to pay for those kinds of projects. Oh, wait, that is EXACTLY what they are supposed to be using their DEBT for. Not building unnecessary projects, like Mosaic 2.0 and the WWTP. Oh well, by the time the next election rolls around, who knows where we'll be and if it'll be too late to turn back the hands of time.