Their numbers in the Saskatchewan Legislature may have been reduced substantially, but the New Democratic Party's energy level is up and with an experienced mentor serving at the helm as interim leader, they're ready to do their jobs as the provincial legislative assembly begins work this week.
John Nilson spoke with The Mercury last week, stating that he was "happy to serve the party as interim leader" until their membership selects a new person to fill the leadership post following the resignation of Dwain Lingenfelter last November after a disastrous outcome at the polls.
"I'm turning 61 this summer, so I'm not a leadership candidate, I'm happy to serve as a senior mentor," said Nilson who said the party's provincial council was scheduled to meet March 10 and they would set the course for a new leadership selection process.
"We could be selecting a new leader as early as June of this year at the annual convention or it could be later this fall, or a year from now. There are a lot of strong opinions coming from the membership as to when we should select a new leader, but most indicators are pointing to the fall of this year or early 2013," Nilson said.
There are no big rumours out there yet as to who might decide to seek the position, but Nilson said the party has capable people within caucus and from outside caucus and around the entire province. "But it seems everyone is waiting to see what comes out of that March 10 meeting. I imagine some hopefuls will emerge once the leadership selection parameters are set."
Nilson said the NDP had several issues they'll be addressing during the spring sitting including the setback suffered by the Saskatchewan Party and its essential services legislation that was basically struck down by Queen's Bench Justice Dennis Ball just last month.
"We had the premier having to apologize for letting ideology trump common sense in this situation, now we're waiting for them to tell us how they're going to fix the problem of defining essential services. We're already hearing that the Justice Minister Morgan doesn't even want to handle it during this spring session yet the judge only gave them a year to fix it. We need a regulation that works for Saskatchewan, we're the only province that doesn't have a third-party mechanism for defining essential services, so I expect we'll be going after them on that file," Nilson said.
The NDP, now reduced to a total of nine members in the legislative assembly, have had their critic's roles assigned with each member assuming critics' jobs for two ministries each.
"I've taken on the critic's role for Crown investments, justice and the premier's office for instance. We each took one business and one social portfolio.The NDP MLA you've had for this area around here for the past few years, Trent Wotherspoon, is critic for finance and education. We have eight experienced MLAs and one rookie, Kathy Sproule, but she's an astute lawyer who knows a lot about agricultural and Aboriginal issues, so we're feeling pretty confident in her abilities. She had a good two-week run in December and did very well," Nilson said.
Because their time will be limited the critics won't be able to delve as deeply into some files as they would like, but Nilson said it's been surprising the number of people and corporations who have stepped up and offered them their research materials, which helps alleviate some of the homework pressure.
When asked if he had been in contact with the former leader, Nilson said that Lingenfelter is currently away from the province, visiting in Â鶹´«Ã½AV America but "I've known Dwain for a long time and when it's appropriate we'll be connecting."
Nilson said other issues the NDP will be questioning during this session will be the proposed tax cuts brought forward by the government.
"I don't know why with a deficit budget already, they're pushing the debt loads out to the school boards, health authorities and Crown corporations. Capital costs for SaskPower, for instance, will be huge. They know how to build traditional power plants but they've hired an Ontario company instead to build it and we don't know why. We'll be asking some questions. It's worrisome because costs are being hidden through the general revenue accounting system and the increased debts and costs associated with the Crowns is not showing up. For instance the Northlands Power plant at Battlefords is showing only the purchase price of the power each year. We're hoping to force them to show the real costs."
Nilson said he and his party are concerned with the manner in which the Saskatchewan Party government is pushing the debt out to others in an inappropriate way and that could include their financial plan for paying the provincial share of the major carbon dioxide capture project at Boundary Dam that will cost in excess of $800 million before it's completed.
"I'm betting we won't see the contracts for the carbon dioxide plant and the environmental liabilities. They're buying a lot of things on time and that simply costs more."
Nilson said he is also afraid that school divisions are not getting straight answers from the current administration regarding payments for their work.
"I worry about a premier who states they'll have to hold the line, that some school boards will have to take big cuts, but so far, no clear indications of what's going to happen with overall educational funding. What's going to happen with community schools, with early childhood education programs? We'll have to ask questions about how they're going to fund English as another language programs around the province. They keep telling us how they're welcoming newcomers, but then they want to cut back on helping them. It'll be interesting to see how the institutions are going to face this problem."
Another area that will see some NDP activity on the critic's front will be in housing.
"What we're seeing is seniors' costs going up, and no answers forthcoming. Where are people going to move if they can't keep their homes? If they have a rental policy, let's see it. So far we haven't and so far they haven't received a lot of public pressure to come up with anything. They keep giving us sound bites for radio and television news shows, but no action. I'm afraid this emperor is wearing no clothes," Nilson added.
"This past week we had a premier and others taking a trip to Ireland to recruit workers, yet they eliminated the Aboriginal Employment Development Program three years ago and said they'd replace it. We're still waiting."
Nilson said another area that will get NDP attention on the critic's side will be one of policing costs that are now about to be shifted toward the communities and municipalities.
"It's all coming home to them fairly rapidly now. It could be an interesting session," said Nilson in conclusion.