You won't be seeing Saskatchewan Liberal Leader Ryan Bater singing "Kumbaya" with Premier Brad Wall and opposition leader Dwain Lingenfelter anytime soon on BHP Billiton's takeover attempt of PotashCorp.
Bater broke ranks with both the SaskParty and NDP leaders last week by calling for the provincial government to stop interfering in BHP Billiton's takeover bid. He further took all the political parties in the legislature to task for their unanimous opposition to the proposed deal, which is being opposed by the PotashCorp board of directors.
"The SaskParty just demonstrated to the entire province why we have to have Liberals in the legislature," Bater said in a News-Optimist interview after the legislature unanimously passed a motion calling for the federal government to block BHP Billiton's proposed takeover of PotashCorp Thursday.
"Without us, all you have is unanimous decisions," said Bater, who was at the legislature earlier this week to witness the opening of the fall session. The Liberals currently hold no seats in the legislature.
He described the SaskParty as having become "NDP-lite" and dismissed all the current members of the legislature from both parties for uniting against the takeover bid.
"There are 58 members of the legislature, and they're all social democrats now," Bater said.
The Liberal leader called Premier Wall's move to get involved in stopping the takeover a surprising development as both Wall and the man he once worked for, former premier Grant Devine, both previously declared Saskatchewan open for business when they became premier.
Wall's latest pronouncements, Bater said, sent a signal to everyone outside of the province "that we are not open for business, when we should be sending the opposite signal."
Bater sees the premier's action as a "decision to interfere in what is essentially a private deal between two foreign-based companies, each of whom are traded on the public stock exchange".
Bater said this is far more than a free enterprise versus socialism debate, however, and said what is missing is information.
He accused the Wall government of spinning and playing on people's emotions.
"What they're spinning is that we are in danger of losing control of our resource to a foreign company. That is absolutely not true. It is a false statement to make," said Bater.
Bater said potash, like oil, natural gas, uranium and other resources, is owned by the people of Saskatchewan and it is the responsibility of government to derive the maximum amount of benefit for that resource through the levers at the provincial government's disposal, including royalty rates.
He described BHP Billiton and the other potash companies as Saskatchewan's customers.
"They don't get to own the potash - we still own it," said Bater, who said he wanted to see a greater focus by the province on its resource policy, which he described as a "mess."
"What we should be focused on is the way they pay us and how much," said Bater of the potash companies.
Bater says the province should be happy to have companies such as BHP Billiton, PotashCorp and others investing in projects in the province, and believes the province should encourage more of their involvement instead of "discouraging" it through interfering in their businesses.
"To start interfering with the private ownership of our customers," said Bater, basically tells any other company around the world that if you're thinking about doing business in Saskatchewan "you had better think twice, because this premier is not above interfering in your private affairs."
Bater also dismissed recent opinion polls in Saskatchewan that have shown opposition to the deal, and chalked it up to people not getting adequate information from their own government about what is really going on. The Liberal leader said the province ought to be educating the people about how natural resources are extracted and how royalty rates work.
"They are not doing that. They are playing on people's emotions," Bater said.
He said the premier's decision came down to opinion polls and "this was a populist decision."
Bater also noted the same polls were showing misconceptions from many people about who owns PotashCorp, noting that many still view the company as a Saskatchewan-based Crown corporation.
"The fact is it's based in Chicago," Bater said. "It's majority-owned by foreigners, just like BHP is."
Bater said he has challenged the premier to a debate on the issue because "he isn't getting one from Dwain Lingenfelter," he said.
The reason Premier Wall isn't getting one from the NDP leader is "because he stole Lingenfelter's position," Bater said.
"This should be the biggest debate this generation has seen in the province," the Liberal leader said, "and they're not getting it."
The premier has yet to take up Bater's offer of a debate.
