Time to 'just say NO' to a higher PST.

Timing is everything. So it is with Premier Lorne Calvert's talk about raising the PST. It's a month or so before the provincial budget - a good time to launch trial balloons. Is the Premier softening us up for a tax hike, or does he have something else in mind Is the talk of a PST hike a diversion so we don't mind getting dinged in another area

Timing is also important if circumstances provide political cover for a tax hike. It is not every day that the fire-breathing conservatives in Alberta provide an excuse to raise taxes in Saskatchewan. But that's exactly what happened with the Mazankowski healthcare report recommended higher health care premiums.

To quote our Premier: "If Alberta who have the richest economy in the country is looking at tax increases it means that we're all going to have to look at some pretty tough decisions in budgeting." Our NDP government, usually reluctant to follow the lead of our conservative neighbor, was uncommonly eager in this case.

Speaking of tough decisions, it's worth noting the Alberta government is not making them. The Alberta government spends more on programs, per person, than any other province in Canada - 21% higher than the Canadian provincial average, and 43% higher than Ontario. Alberta's spending habits are binge and purge. Binge when the oil money is coming in, and purge when the oil money is slowing down. Thanks to oil-fuelled binges of overspending, the Alberta government needs new taxes to avoid purging programs when the money slows down. Mazankowski's timing was superb.

But enough digs at Alberta. In Saskatchewan, where the money does not flow as freely, our government does not indulge in unplanned binges, rather it wastes tax dollars on the government policy of a centrally-planned, over-planned economy. The timing of the PST trial balloon came only days after the government "invested" $15 million in a meat packing plant, and a few months after putting $20 million in a hamburger plant and $27 million in a board plant. The tax warning comes only weeks after closing the books on Spudco, a $28 million fiasco that government ministers describe as a "success".

To give some perspective, these expenditures and losses add up to $80 million, which is close to what a 1% increase in the PST would add to the provincial budget.

In supporting these expenditures of public money on private business, the Premier recently said: "It is the role of the province in my view to involve itself in direct investment partnerships". With regard to health care, the Premier has said: "my view of health care is that it's the privilege of a civil society, a Canadian society." It is unfortunate that we can't tie the Premier's 'views' together, and convert Spudco's concrete potato barns into hospital facilities.

But all kidding aside, the point is that the Saskatchewan government is spending in a lot of non-priority areas that divert public money away from important areas like health care. So is it time to raise taxes, or is it time to get serious about priorities Most taxpayers would suggest the latter.

This is no time to be raising taxes for "health care" when we have money to spend on meat packing and other misadventures. It is not the time for new taxes. It is the time to just say NO.