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Premier's round table meeting in Tisdale |
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| FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, February 13, 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| With the election only a few months behind him Saskatchewan's
premier has set about starting off his term with a solid base of understanding about
the problems facing Saskatchewan communities. He began a process of community meetings,
the first was in Swift Current and this one in Tisdale is the second such meeting. This concept of a round table goes back to the legendary days of King Arthur who in an effort to achieve peace and solidarity among the various knights and nobleman
Premier Calvert has come into his role as a person who wants to achieve something and the best way to do that is get people to come together on common goals and objectives. The make up of today's round table is listed below.
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After working through the morning meeting and breaking for lunch it was time for the press to have a chance to talk with the Premier of the province. CTV was on hand with a camera and two reports, CBC radio covered the event as did CJVR and other print media. It is extremely important to tap into what the Premier has to say after a meeting like this one as it gives the provincial community a sense of how things are going. He explained that he felt very positive about the sharing of concerns and issues that had been introduced at the morning meeting. The budget is deep into the finalisation stage and priorities have to be set for the legislative assembly. Though some issues like BSE and soft wood lumber are well understood there is a need to continously assess the issues that concern people, business and the society as a whole in Saskatchewan. The news of the day was part of the questions posed by the reports as Tisdale was not named this morning in the announcement that federal money would be available to assist the development of methanol plants at Weyburn and Llyodminister. The premier explained that no one could have predicted the BSE crisis which followed on the heels of the worst drought in Saskatchewan history and profoundly disrupted the province's plans to see the development of a series of plants in a variety of Saskatchewan locations. However, he said that today's announcement was not the end of the other projects as the government is committed to furthering this important agricultural diversification innitiative. He was asked about the Klassen settlement and explained that negotiations are going on with the representatives of the various parties in an attempt to get a reasonable and fair settlement. He went to some lengths to explain the underlying concerns the government has about the judgement in the case. He like all people in Saskatchewan are profoundly moved by the sad consequences for those wrongly accused but the position of the government must not only be to look at this individual incident but to be extremely concerned about what a judgement like this does to perhaps endanger the need for prosecutors in the future to do their best to make this a safe society and prosecute without fear of being themselves prosecuted for their efforts. He was asked about the possible Saskatchewan implications of the scandal facing Ottawa as such an event reduces confidence in the political system all across the country and he responded by saying that he is very disturbed by the undermining of the public's trust in government. Events like this one are so important to assure the public that governments everywhere take their role seriously and feel the weight of responsiblity for handling public money with absolute trust. Mayor Rolly Zimmer was very pleased with the meeting and pointed out that Tisdale had been chosen for this meeting because of its demonstrated awareness of community cooperation between, government, business, industry, education and the society at large. Tisdale is one of the few communities in the province that is showing steady growth and it seems only reasonable to consult with such a community as the needs of the whole province must focus much more on a sense of shared goals and achievements. |
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| The premier was accompanied by only a couple of aids and had been at a meeting last night and early this morning and from Tisdale would make the three hour drive back to Regina this afternoon. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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