聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 Welcome to Saskatchewan: where we plan out our "surprise" privatization agendas very carefully.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 For anyone who even thinks the whole STC closure situation was a last-minute decision, I've got a stadium to sell you. Or how about a few brand new Mercedes Sprinters? Oh, wait, those have already been spoken for. Anyway, for anyone who thinks this situation is a done deal, or that any business is looking to be a knight in shining armour who came out of the woodworks to capitalize on the "sudden closure" of the Saskatchewan Transportation Company 鈥� I highly recommend that you think again.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Welcome to Carpe Diem, probably the most apropos play on words I've ever seen. And, if you didn't like English class in high school, and you don't know what those words mean, they are from the play Julius Caesar, and they literally mean "seize the day," to which Brad Wall and his ever-growing 鈥済ang of thieves鈥� most certainly have tried to do here.
As it turns out, Carpe Diem has actually applied to the Highway Traffic Board at least twice in the past, in March 2013 and December 2014. When confronted with this, it suggested that this is 鈥榮tandard practice鈥� for any limousine company, but that doesn鈥檛 explain why it only came up in recent years, and not in the decade before that they鈥檝e been operating.
It has been well advertised that STC is a 鈥渕oney losing鈥� operation. Some have used the term 鈥渂usiness,鈥� but that is just so very wrong, as it is a Crown corporation, which exists solely for the purpose where a private business could not make a profitable venture of it. It鈥檚 been said that it loses $17 million per year, which is a figure that many dispute. Regardless, if this were truly the case, what sound-minded business person would want to take over such a money losing operation?
It鈥檚 been suggested that it will save money by using smaller buses, which apparently was exactly what STC had planned to do anyway. But, are we really to believe they鈥檒l realize a $17 million savings by simply downsizing the buses? If that were the case, then I鈥檓 sure the folks in charge of STC would have done that long ago. No, there is much more to this situation than meets the eye. I have a hard time believing they are going to cater to cancer patients and seniors in need of a ride to the doctors, without a hefty price tag attached to it.
Further on the notion of more than meets the eye, as it has been proven time and time again, these people love to hide things in plain sight, and they have left their trail all over the Internet. If you go to Carpe Diem鈥檚 growing Facebook presence, you will notice the timeline of how long these plans have actually been in the works.
And, that executive air service that Brad Wall so generously axed in February? You will notice that Carpe Diem just happens to have recently acquired a corporate jet or two, which happens to look awfully familiar. Slowly, things start piecing together and you realize this isn鈥檛 something that just happened, and has actually been in the works for a long, long time.
We have seen deliberate abuse of tax dollars with the many shady land transactions involving the Regina Bypass, so unfortunately this is not a surprise to see this kind of thing happen here.
Thousands of Saskatchewan taxpayers are once again 小蓝视频 negatively and severely impacted for the private profit of a few Saskatchewan Party friends.
Chad A. Novak, CPMA
Saskatchewan Taxpayers Advocacy Group
Regina
