My column in today's Leader Post

This is my column in today's paper. I do not particularly like the headline they have chosen, but that's not my choice. Following my column is another article by Kare Brownlee, also in today's paper:

Urban-rural divide grows

Christine Whitaker
Special to The Leader-Post


Monday, March 19, 2007


On March 9, Agriculture Minister Mark Wartman commented on new data from Statistics Canada. These indicate that Saskatchewan's unemployment rate dropped to four per cent in February and that 20,600 more people were employed than in the same month last year.

Beaming with satisfaction as he faced the television cameras, Wartman spoke in glowing terms of our vibrant economy and of the "Saskatchewan Advantage".

People are returning, he said, for our quality of life and because Saskatchewan is the best place to live and raise a family.

What he failed to mention is that this only applies to the major urban centres, and not to rural communities.

On the same day, the Leader Post carried three stories on the realities or rural life.

One reported that the wait times had declined for surgery and other procedures for patients in Regina and Saskatoon, but that in rural areas the number of people waiting for surgery has increased over the last year.

A second article outlined the facts about rural poverty presented to the Senate committee currently travelling around the province. They heard from farm families who expressed frustration at the lack of employment opportunities for their young people who wished to stay in the rural area, and with the financial struggles of trying to make a living on the land.

The third article concerned the problems of funding for rural schools. There are currently 52 schools in the province facing possible closure, 50 of which are rural, and it is rumoured that Saskatchewan Learning has a list of another 110 rural schools recommended for closure in the near future.

Sometimes it seems that every department of government considers rural people to be second-class citizens.

We have to drive, often for an hour or more, to access essential services, and yet our secondary highways have been allowed to crumble into dust.

Crown corporations charge us more for utilities. We pay more for basic telephone service than do city dwellers, plus a distance surcharge for every half-mile between our homes and the switching station; the basic monthly charge for electricity, before we ever turn on a light, is 67.5 per cent more than the charge to a city home; the difference for the natural gas service is 12.5 per cent.

During the summer months, when driving to the cottage or a park, politicians and bureaucrats should leave the major highways and take a few detours down rural roads.

They will see little churches standing alone in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by gravestones bearing the names of families who once lived in the community.

There are old one-roomed school houses, boarded up and forlorn, and there are still two- and three-storey farm houses, built to last and large enough for a family, now sadly abandoned.

There are villages and small towns with impressive town halls, theatres and even opera houses.

These are the remnants of the hopes and dreams of those who founded this province and built communities to be there for future generations.

But the dreams were shattered by depression and drought; by savage winters and poor grain prices. Rural decline has continued inexorably to the present with the disappearance of elevators, post offices and, more recently, medical facilities and schools.

On the official road map of 1963 are dozens of towns and villages that are not on today's map, such as Breeze, Farrerdale, Madrid, Tullis, Ratcliffe and many more. Most Saskatchewan people have never even heard of those places, much less know where they were.

If the current proposed round of school closures is allowed to proceed, there will very soon be dozens more towns and villages erased from the map.

Any family considering returning from Alberta should think twice. By the time they have the moving van packed, their hometown may have disappeared.

Is this the Saskatchewan Advantage of which our government is so proud, and which will bring people back home?

- Christine Whitaker is an Edgeley freelance writer.


Provincial funding rewards bussing students

Karen Brownlee
Leader-Post


Sunday, March 18, 2007


School boards will be financially rewarded by the provincial government if they close facilities they are reviewing and bus those students, says a Moose Jaw father fighting the possibility his children’s school may be closed by Prairie South School Board.

Chad Novak used his skills as a certified management accountant to review the budget of Prairie South School Division after he began questioning the legitimacy of his children’s school, cole Ross, being reviewed for closure. He held a meeting on Saturday at A.E. Peacock Collegiate to explain what he has found.

One item was that for each student who is bussed, a school division receives $185 dollars plus an additional $185 per kilometre per child from the provincial government.

For Prairie South School Division, Novak said that would mean an extra $2.8 million from the provincial government should the board close all six schools its reviewing.

A moratorium on school closures is needed, said Novak, so funding and spending issues can be dealt with appropriately.

“A review of the funding formula, that’s the most important part,” said Novak who also wants board spending reviewed by an independent source to keep them accountable.

“We can hold them accountable at election times, but I know from my respect, realistically I’ve just been electing them because of who they are,” said Novak.

“We really haven’t sat back and said ‘Are these guys doing the best they could in managing our money?’

“The next time we have a chance to say that is in 2009 and that’s too long. By then, schools may be closed.”

Prairie South School Board Chair Gord Stewart has said that Novak’s call for an independent review of board spending is unnecessary because division budgets are audited. He also points out that school reviews are not just about money, but to also consider the quality of the education being delivered.

About 50 people from Novak’s area as well as some from South East Cornerstone and Prairie Valley school divisions attended the meeting. Novak hoped for more, but said it’s a beginning.

“A lot of people are feeling hopeless now. They don’t know where they can go,” said Novak.

One of his next steps is to attend a rally being held outside the Legislature on March 27. Save Our Schools, a group of concerned citizens in the 52 communities whose schools are being reviewed for closure, have organized the event.