Hopefully by the time you read this, somebody in Ottawa will have started to pay serious attention to what's been going on in Saskatchewan this spring.
Hopefully, Yorkton or Maple Creek or Raymore or any of the communities struck by tornados and flooding will soon get a visit from the Prime Minister Stephen Harper. As of the writing of this, there were plenty of rumours afoot around the Saskatchewan legislature that Harper might be considering a tour of flood-ravaged Yorkton. The hush-hush nature of the PMO makes confirming such a state secret a difficult task. Heaven knows, Harper and entourage certainly wouldn't want an unpleasant encounter with farmers wondering exactly what Ottawa intended to do to help them.
But more important than a photo opportunity for the PMO would be some sort of serious financial commitment from Ottawa to aid farmers and homeowners in Saskatchewan hammered by the weather.
Of course, figuring out exactly what a fair commitment from the federal and provincial government should be is no easy task - especially, when politics comes into play.
New Democrat Opposition leader Dwain Lingenfelter has already accused Premier Brad Wall government and Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud of "selling out" because they are not insisting on a $100 per acre for Saskatchewan farmers.
"Saskatchewan farm families sit with over 12 million acres of land unseeded and flooded out, and are counting on their provincial government to go to bat for them with Ottawa for emergency compensation," Lingenfelter said in a prepared news release. "Now they find out the Wall government is refusing to even try to negotiate adequate compensation."
Lingenfelter's demand that Ottawa should simply fork over $120 million to Saskatchewan farmers even before it begins to think about also helping homeowners and First Nations residents hammered by floods and tornados is what one expects from the opposition. That Bjornerud is suggesting that such demands is "not realistic or affordable" would seem to be rare breathe of honesty from a politician rather than a sell out.
That this criticism is now coming from an NDP politician whose first order of business in government was to tear up the GRIP contracts with farmers is a bit rich.
However, where Lingenfelter has a point is where he suggests that a federal politician that can blow"a billion dollars for a weekend photo op like the G8 and G20 summits" and not find some serious compensation for Saskatchewan farmers and homeowners. In the wake of the most recent floods in Yorkton and tornado damage, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall should be demanding substantial help from Ottawa.
For all the sheer and utter nonsense we've heard from our 13 Conservative MPs about how well we've fared under their government, this is simply not reality.
Even if you can now somehow discount the 2006 election promise from Harper and the Conservative MPs to remove natural resources from the equalization formula - what would have been an $800-million-a-year benefit to this province - Saskatchewan has still gotten the short end of the stick. Whether it has been money for infrastructure stimulus programs or support for projects like clean coal and carbon sequestration, the Conservatives have simply not come through for Saskatchewan in the way that either the Wall government or the voters should have expected.Coming through now with a few bucks to help Saskatchewan's farmers, towns and smaller cities would hardly make amends.
But let's assume for a moment that Harper and Conservative hierarchy aren't so callous and calculating that they could ignore the devastation in Saskatchewan in favour of lavishing more dollars in downtown Toronto and Quebec in the hope of buying votes.
Let's assume that by the time you read this, somebody in Ottawa will have started to pay attention to Saskatchewan.
And let's hope some serious money from Ottawa is on the way.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 15 years.
