Saskatchewan Has No Idea What Harper's Omnibus Crime Bill Will Cost
Saskatchewan's Justice Minister, Don Morgan told the Legislature that he has absolutely no idea what the cost to the province will be to implement Ottawa's Bill C10 - The Omnibus Crime Bill.
I find it amazing that Saskatchewan's Justice and Finance departments have been sitting on their hands over the last year as this federal legislation was bantered around in Ottawa.
We simply can't believe Don Morgan.
I suspect that, in fact, Saskatchewan does have an estimate of the costs. The problem for Saskatchewan taxpayers is that Brad Wall and his Sask Party government are long time apologists and boosters of Stephen Harper. I suspect that they do, in fact, have a good idea of the costs. The cost will be high.
Brad Wall has hinted that some big program cuts are coming in the next budget. By connecting the dots, it is not a big leap to guess that Wall is scrambling around to find the millions that are going to be needed to implement C-10. If that's what's looming, then Mr. Wall may believe it's politically unwise to disclose the cost estimates at this time.
We will have to wait until the 'omnibus costs' turn up in the Public Accounts of the province, a long way down the road.
Don Morgan needs to do better. What's the estimate?
Thanks for pointing this out.
Note that Don Morgan and the Sask Party also pushed for bill c-25, the so-called Truth in Sentencing Act, back in Feb of 2010:
Link.
This was estimated to download significant costs to the provinces:
Link.
I don't think Morgan ever established--at a time when Yogi was admitting he was losing arguments at the cabinet table for increased funds to the Corrections Budget--that he and his government had done any analysis of the cost of the federal changes they were applauding.
Posted by
Stephen |
3:07 pm, March 13, 2012
Funny, because we here in "dysfunctional" Quebec have figured out the costs. According to our government it will cost us 750 million to build new prisons and 80 million a year to apply the new rules. We figured it out I am sure you could take those numbers and run with it.
Posted by
Vahan |
7:13 pm, March 13, 2012
Thanks Vahan. Armed with those numbers we could extrapolate a Saskatchewan 'estimate'.
Posted by
leftdog |
8:30 pm, March 13, 2012
Sask has 1/8th the population of Quebec ... so approximate numbers for Saskatchewan is ... $103 Million.
No wonder Wall is warning of program slashing in the upcoming provincial budget.
Posted by
leftdog |
10:57 pm, March 13, 2012