August 25, 1987 Hansard
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LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF SASKATCHEWAN August 25, 1987 The Assembly met at 2 p.m. Mr. Speaker: — Order, please. Order, please. Order, please. I’m assuming that the member’s question is a supplementary, Prayers because he didn’t indicate. And making that assumption, I must indicate to him that the preamble is getting somewhat long and ROUTINE PROCEEDINGS to put his question, please. ORAL QUESTIONS Mr. Mitchell: — You’re right, Mr. Speaker. I’ll come to the question. Do you not feel, in light of what I have said, Mr. Salaries of Crown Corporation Executives Deputy Premier, an obligation this year to tell the Saskatchewan people what the salary position of senior Crowns is as Mr. Mitchell: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question was to compared to what it was last year; to show the public that the be to the Premier, but in his absence I will address it to the government is fully participating in its own restraint program? Acting Premier, or Deputy Premier, and it has to do with the government’s restraint program. And in the course of the last Some Hon. Members: Hear, hear! several months now you’ve been trying to persuade Saskatchewan people that Saskatchewan can’t afford an Hon. Mr. Berntson: — Mr. Speaker, I think a fair comparison adequate prescription drug plan, and that it can’t afford a can be made. If you compare the aggregate sum of the executive school-based dental plan, and that it can’t afford the salaries of group of each Crown last year as compared to this year, I think hundreds of civil servants who have been fired from the that comparison can be made quite easily. And I know that the government payroll. And I want to know how that restraint hon. member knows that, and is quite capable of making that program has been extended to some of the highest paid people calculation. in the public service, namely the executives of the various Crown corporations? Mr. Mitchell: — Supplementary, Mr. Speaker. Are you saying, Mr. Deputy Premier, that you refuse to provide specific I wrote the Premier nearly three months ago asking for salary information about the salary and fringe benefits of each of the and fringe benefit information, and he wrote back to me, in Crown corporation executives? It’s not enough just to give us a effect, declining to give me the information. My question to the lump sum and say, there, that is restraint. Everybody should be Acting Premier is: — will you agree to release information participating in this program. And therefore I ask you whether, about the salary and fringe benefits of the Crown corporations in view of this whole situation, you won’t release that so that the Saskatchewan public may know whether these information to show that these people’s salary and fringe people are also participating in restraint, or are you afraid to do benefits are also being cut, along with everything else in this so? province. Some Hon. Members: Hear, hear! Some Hon. Members: Hear, hear! Hon. Mr. Berntson: — Mr. Speaker, in the normal course of Hone. Mr. Berntson: — Mr. Speaker, I think I’ve answered events, the answers to those particular questions are given in the question. The question has been raised in the past in Crown Crown Corporations Committee. The Crown Corporations Corporations Committee. The answers, as I’ve explained, have Committee, unfortunately, hasn’t been able to sit this session been given in the way that I’ve explained in the Crown because there has been, it would appear, a bit of an impasse as it Corporation Committee. relates to quorums and committees, and so the committees have never been struck. I understand that recently there has been an And I can only speak for those Crowns that I’m responsible for, understanding reached between the members on the rules Mr. Speaker. And I personally would continue with the committee relative to the quorum question. And it is my long-standing practice of providing the aggregate sum of the intention later today to file notice of motion to deal with the executive group, providing that information, Mr. Speaker. And question of quorum so that we can get those committees in I’m sure that the hon. member is quite capable of making his place. own comparisons and doing what he will with the information that he gets from making that comparison. I might also add, Mr. Speaker, that the long-standing practice as it relates to executive remuneration in the Crowns is that the Salaries of President and Chairman of PCS executive group and the total, if you like, the aggregate sum of the salaries of the executive group, has been provided in Crown Mr. Tchorzewski: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a Corporations Committee. And that has been the long standing question also for the Acting Premier. My question will be more practice, and I haven’t yet heard any compelling argument to specific and deal with some comparisons, and I want to ask a change that, Mr. Speaker. question about the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, which in 1986 lost $103 million. Mr. Mitchell: — Well I want to give you a compelling argument, Mr. Deputy Premier, because people in Now, Mr. Minister, can you confirm that the new president of Saskatchewan are being asked to swallow a pill that they’ve PCS, Mr. Chuck Childers of Chicago, has signed a contract never had to swallow before in the name of restraint. They’re with salary and fringe benefits and other being asked not only to pay higher taxes but to accept a much lower level of public service. So the situation in 1987 . 2043 August 25, 1987 special provisions which total more that $200,000 a year? And Mr. Tchorzewski: — Now, Mr. Minister, my new question if so, can you tell us how you can justify the size of deals with another senior executive of the Potash Corporation of compensation of that package when you’re telling everyone else Saskatchewan. in Saskatchewan as a taxpayer, that they have to practice restraint? Mr. Speaker: — Order, please. Order. I’ll allow the member Hon. Mr. Berntson: — I’m not familiar with the contract that Mr. Tchorzewski: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would want the member is presumably waving over there, but I think that a the minister to be able to hear my question. My question deals fair comparison would still bring Chuck Childers in at a lesser with the former cabinet minister, Mr. Paul Schoenhals, that this rate than David Dombowsky. And so, Mr. Speaker, I invite the government, soon after his defeat in the 1986 election, hon. member to raise that very question in Crown Corporations appointed him as the first time ever full time chairman of the when the officials are there, when the minister is there, where Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan at a salary and benefits he might have that information at his fingertips and where the which are well over probably $100,000 a year. Now at that fair comparison may properly be made. I don’t have the time, Mr. Minister, you justified this expense with the claim . information here, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker: — Order. Order, please. I’m afraid the hon. Mr. Tchorzewski: — Mr. Minister, don’t you agree . member’s preamble is getting a little long. I realize it’s a new question. That doesn’t allow anybody to have a two-minute Mr. Speaker: — Order, please. Order. Is it a supplementary preamble. Now I would just remind the hon. member of that you ask? and ask him to shorten his preamble. And also I’d like to ask the hon. members to my right to please allow him to put his Mr. Tchorzewski: — Yes, it’s a supplementary question, Mr. question. Speaker. Mr. Tchorzewski: — Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was about to Mr. Minister, don’t you agree that at a time when you’re get to my question, and my question is: Mr. Minister, in light of expecting and you’re forcing people to pay several hundred the fact that you justified this expensive appointment in saying dollars a month in prescription drug fees, that you should be that you needed desperately a full-time chairman of PCS obligated to tell the people of Saskatchewan whether you’re (Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan), how do you justify now requiring people like Mr. Childers to equally exercise the same the announcement carried in the newspapers that Mr. kind of restraint as you’re asking senior citizens and people Schoenhals has been appointed to the advisory board of a major with families whose children are not going to get dental care insurance brokerage company from Ontario? And if he is a any more because of the cuts that you have made to the dental full-time chairman of PCS, why does he have time to take on care program? yet another such responsibility, or are you just developing a way in which to just make another patronage payment to one of Some Hon. Members: Hear, hear! your friends? Hon. Mr. Berntson: — Mr. Speaker, we expect from the Some Hon. Members: Hear, hear! opposition this particular line because we know that they don’t understand how important it is to have the best possible people Hon. Mr. Berntson: — Mr. Speaker, I think Dr. Lloyd Barber that we can get into, particularly the Potash Corporation of is the full-time president of the University of Regina, and I Saskatchewan, which did lose several millions, I think, what, know that Dr.