With the elimination of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company, the Sask. Party sent a clear message that it does not care about the Saskatchewan people who rely on the busses to get them and their packages around and they care even less about the 224 workers who are now without a job.
“Across the province, Saskatchewan people woke up Wednesday morning to find out they had to change their travel plans and scramble to arrange transportation - including for medical appointments and business needs - because the bus service they depend on was callously cut out of the blue. Meanwhile, 224 STC workers learned that their jobs were cut,” said NDP STC Critic Doyle Vermette. “The Premier and his cabinet seem to have forgotten that STC and the crowns belong to the people of the province and that Saskatchewan families should never be forced to pay the price for Sask. Party’s mismanagement, scandal and waste.”
Vermette said he was disappointed to see STC on the chopping block in the budget, especially when, in July, the then Minister said it was safe from privatization. He added that it does not make any sense to cut a service on which so many depend while also giving tax giveaways to large corporations and the province’s most wealthy.
In addition to scrapping the STC through this budget bill, the Sask. Party is also pushing a change in the law through the legislature to let them sell 49 per cent of all Crown Corporations, including SaskTel, without a mandate from the people of the province.
“The province’s crowns - from STC to SaskTel - deliver dependable and valued services to people all over the province,” said Vermette. “This plan by the Sask. Party is deceitful, it’s wrong, and it will hurt the people from all four corners of our province. Whether you’re from a rural, Northern, or urban community, the Sask. Party’s plans to scrap our Crowns will hurt us all.”
Public transit is not a discretionary choice, but a necessity, even without the added impetus of #ClimateChange.