This still boggles my mind. Saskatoon should request an exemption to a large-scale free-trade agreement being negotiated between Canada and Europe, a city committee agreed. City councillors, sitting as an executive committee, voted 5-4 Monday to seek a permanent exemption to the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, a free trade [...]
politics
The State of the Debate on Housing Right Now in Saskatchewan
This comes from a December 14, 2011 Question Period in the Legislature. Direct from Hansard Ms. Chartier Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Social Services has been housing many people in hotels like the Coachman, the Sunrise and the Quality Inn in Regina. There’s been one man who’s had to call the Coachman home for [...]
No Social Services Checks before Christmas
From Joe Couture of The StarPhoenix A Saskatchewan Party government decision to change the date January social assistance cheques are released to after Christmas from before has come under fire from the NDP Opposition. As of 2011, Social Services changed the date cheques were issued and direct deposits paid to Dec. 29 from Dec. 23. [...]
Warren Kinsella on Attawapiskat
Warren Kinsella has a great column on Attawapiskat. Over the years, I have advised many native bands. I have worked in communities almost as bad as Attawapiskat found in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I have advised successive governments — Jean Chretien’s, Paul Martin’s and Stephen Harper’s — about dealing with problems which are quite similar to [...]
Big Yellow Taxi
Why Peter McKay’s “taxi” ride in a search & rescue helicopter strikes a nerve in Newfoundland. For centuries, families in Newfoundland and Labrador have grieved for those who went to sea and didn’t come home. The risk continues. Fishing is among the most deadly jobs in the country, and the dangers inherent in travelling to [...]
Should we revisit the legacy of John Turner
From iPolitics on a new biography of John Turner. It sounds strange now, but Turner actually had collegial relationships with members of other parties. In fact, as Paul Litt notes, Turner once saved John Diefenbaker from drowning while on holiday in Barbados. With the current PM on the beach, and an opposition leader floundering in [...]
The race to the bottom
The Blackberry Roundtable with Kady O’Malley and Scott Reid has some interesting thoughts on the Conservative Party push polling the Irwin Cotler’s riding with the suggestion he had resigned. AP: When Montreal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler heard that someone was making phone calls to his constituents suggesting that Cotler had resigned and that there would [...]
Column: Turbine Project Handled Poorly
My column in today’s The StarPhoenix The city announced a couple of years ago that it was exploring the idea of a tall wind turbine in Saskatoon. I loved the idea when it came out and have followed its progress off and on. The city evaluated sites near the university, Diefenbaker Park and the landfill. [...]
