Dear Editor:
Selling off one of our province's Crown Corporations and ensuring that all new liquor stores are run by private business tells us that the provincial government has lost sight of the people it is supposed to represent.
Why else would a government that is elected to represent all its citizens take a profitable Crown and a profitable liquor retailing system and begin to hand it over to a selected few people who are already wealthy enough to be able to buy these assets.
The government is selling 60 per cent of Information Services (ISC). This Crown has earned $93 million for Saskatchewan people in the past five years. That's money that is returned to our families and communities.
It helps to fund Medicare, STARS, schools, highways and long-term care homes. When it is sold that profit will go to line the pockets of private investors and shareholders, people who may not live in our province or even know where to find it on the map.
The government is also going to let private businesses open new liquor stores in the province, undermining the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) stores. That will also mean less money for Saskatchewan people. Public Liquor stores made $218 million net profit last year.
That money came back to Saskatchewan people. Once these stores are private, the profits will be siphoned off to a handful of wealthy business operators.
Privatizing profitable Crowns and profitable liquor stores is good news for a few, but what about the rest of us?
We should all be asking our government MLAs, "Whose side are you on-the one per cent or the 99 per cent?"
Sid Wonitowy
Yorkton
