Saskatchewan legislative columnist Murray Mandryk in a recent column said that, while rural Saskatchewan may not have elected many government MLAs in the last provincial election, it will get attention from the NDP as it seeks a leader to replace Roy Romanow.
It seems to me that, even without the leadership race, rural Saskatchewan is getting a lot of attention from government.
Last week, we got the last segment of the Garcea report on amalgamation telling us little new. This report will likely sit on a shelf somewhere.
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Then there’s ACRE – the new Action Committee on the Rural Economy.
ACRE was a super idea. Put together representatives from the farm organizations that went to Ottawa with the premier last October and let them come up with a blueprint from rural Saskatchewan.
It’s still a good idea if only it works. The committee met in Regina last week to set out a “blueprint for its work over the next two to four years.”
One can only hope that much of rural Saskatchewan will still be here by then.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and apparently rural Saskatchewan won’t be either.
The group has named eight subcommittees with ACRE members on each one. Well and good.
What concerned me when I read over papers detailing this structure is the number of people over and above the committee members who are involved.
Each committee has an appointed head. Obviously the members cannot be trusted to name their own chairs.
The committee chairs are good people, but with more agendas to be thrown into the mix. These people form a steering committee with a few other assorted people such as agriculture minister Clay Serby and past president of Canadian Western Agribition Audrey Horkoff, who are the ACRE co-chairs.
Enough you say? Should be, but it’s not.
We then have an ACRE steering committee made up largely of government people who are also the resource teams for the ACRE subcommittees. If you’re not confused, you should be.
What this all adds up to, I’m afraid, is too much bureaucracy in a committee that was supposed to be made up of rural people looking at the future of rural Saskatchewan.
I’m not being negative. It’s just that I’ve been there, done that with the Consensus Saskatchewan traveling road show of a few years ago.
I want to see ACRE work. I just hope the committee members – the people from rural Saskatchewan – can prevail over the bureaucracy.
