Every so often elected governments commit egregious offences against democracy and the very people who elect them. The 2004 Saskatchewan budget is one of those times.

Times like these precisely illustrate the need for recall legislation. We must have the right to fire our politicians for gross mismanagement of public funds and for lying to voters.

As it stands, we don't have that right.

There is no debate here. The NDP expressed repeatedly in their election platform their commitment to ongoing tax reduction. They promised throughout the campaign that school taxes would be addressed through the recommendations of the Boughen Commission. The Boughen Commission has come and gone, and nothing is being done to address the issue.

Our government looked us squarely in the eye and lied to us.

We should have the right to fire these people. Not just every four years, but whenever they break their promises or foist upon the electorate policies that run counter to the bill of goods we bought on election day.

Recall legislation provides voters with an opportunity to hold their politicians accountable more than for five seconds every four years as we put a checkmark on a ballot. If voters are dissatisfied with the performance or behaviour of their politicians, they can seek to trigger a recall by launching a petition drive. If enough signatures are collected, the MLA is formally fired and a bi-election is called. The recalled MLA can run to get his or her seat back.

The trick with recall is setting threshold for the number of signatures required. We need to strike a balance between putting the trigger at a percentage that can be accomplished by the electorate in a reasonable amount of time, while at the same time preventing frivolous recalls. In British Columbia, 40 per cent of the registered voters in the previous election will trigger the recall - which translates to around 70 per cent of votes cast. Clearly, the BC legislation was designed so that very few, if any, politicians would ever be recalled.

The CTF has recommended that a threshold of 50% plus 1 of votes cast in the previous election be sufficient to recall an MLA and trigger a bi-election.

Recall legislation is a much-needed democratic reform in Saskatchewan. The people are the owners of government. We hire politicians to work for us in the legislature. Why should a politician be hired and then be able to do the exact opposite of what we hired him to do Democracy is more than being a participant every four or five years and a spectator the rest of the time.

Voters deserve the opportunity to participate in our democratic system in a constructive way.

Things might look a little different right now if we had an effective recall law in our province. Eldon Lautermilch, the architect of the $28 million dollar loss on Spudco, would be an excellent recall candidate. Premier Calvert would be a great candidate after the most recent provincial budget and his deceptive re-election campaign. Opposition MLAs wouldn't be safe from recall either. It would give pause for thought to MLAs considering crossing the floor or otherwise changing allegiances.

Budget 2004 provides ample justification for recall legislation, but don't expect our politicians to push for it. Democratic reform comes when the people demand it.