There is no doubt that the people of Saskatchewan need, deserve, and are demanding real tax reform and meaningful tax relief. But they need it now, not years from now. The tax reform and tax relief offered by the government in the last budget point our province in the right direction but the tax cuts are proceeding at a snail's pace, are insufficient, and are off-set by other tax increases.

Bold action is needed now to reverse the decline of the economy and to deal with the most important issue facing Saskatchewan's future: the migration of jobs and people out of the province.

Those who actively promote high taxes represent a thin sliver of Saskatchewan society that depends on the status quo, and to hell with everyone else. They include a cadre of professional union leaders, bureaucrats, socialist politicians, and intellectuals. Promotion of the status quo by this cadre could be considered an understandable, yet selfish, position if the status quo was sustainable. But the status quo is not sustainable, the status quo is living on borrowed time.

Year after year, Saskatchewan has been everyone else's farm team - educating and training people for the 21st century, at the expense of Saskatchewan's taxpayers, and then sending them off to build the economies of other provinces.

And when our young people leave because of lower taxes and greater opportunities elsewhere, who will pay for the rising costs of our important social programs Who will pay to fill the potholes in our highways How will our children make a living in a province with no new jobs, no prospects, and a stagnating tax base

Yet, there are still some people who believe that the brain drain and out-migration are fictional. But the evidence of brain drain is all around us. How many people do you know who have left our province or are planning to leave

Out migration is not in dispute among sensible people. It is surreal to listen to those who have been attacking tax relief and tax reform, and who say that the brain drain is exaggerated or doesn't exist at all. But these factual revisionists deny the evidence of their own eyes and experience. They themselves may be victims of brain drain, for their mouths are obviously not connected to any intelligent organ.

There is no question that Saskatchewan has one of the harshest tax regimes in Canada. And there is no doubt that our high taxes are one of the main reasons that people continue to leave our province in droves in search of greater opportunities elsewhere. But another reason people leave is lack of jobs. And a big reason we don't have enough good jobs is because of those very same high taxes.

Saskatchewan has to stop looking in the rearview mirror. We must shake the defeatist attitude that living in Saskatchewan automatically means high taxes. Tax reform and tax relief are needed now to turn the tide toward success, and turn the exodus of Saskatchewan people into a great return of people, businesses, and investment.