Saskatchewan Office

In Saskatchewan, homelessness has become a grave concern and a serious reality for many women and children. Saskatchewan now has the highest rates of homelessness in the country with one in five people saying that they are homeless or at risk of being homeless.  In the past 3 years in Saskatchewan the vacancy rate has been dropping with the rate for 2009 being 1.5%.  Regina and Saskatoon have vacancy rates below 1%.  

Homelessness is compounded by poverty.   More than 41% of female-headed lone-parent families in Saskatchewan struggle to provide the basic needs of their families because they live below the poverty line.  Saskatchewan has the third highest child poverty rate in Canada.

 With sky-rocketing home ownership costs and a constantly decreasing availability of safe and affordable housing, the women and children of Saskatchewan who are attempting to exit abusive situations are faced with incredible challenges. If women cannot find adequate and affordable housing their chances of succeeding in leading lives free from violence are diminished.  

While the causes and consequences of violence against women exist beyond housing, there is no question that without an adequate, suitable and affordable home to which one can escape, women are choosing to stay in violent relationships or return to abusive partners because they feel they have no other option. 

To read the full PATHS report, visit here.

A look back at the spring sitting of the Saskatchewan Legislature with David Seymour of the Frontier Centre and Simon Enoch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Saskatchewan office.

Listen to the podcast here.

Regina —The Saskatchewan office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ series "Transforming Saskatchewan's Electricity Future" was launched with the publication of "Sustainability is Achievable, But How Do We Get There?" by Mark Bigland-Pritchard and Peter Prebble.

The report – developed in partnership with Green Energy Project Saskatchewan – outlines how Saskatchewan can leave coal-fired electricity generation behind, and with it the vast bulk of our electricity-produced greenhouse gas emissions, while building a renewable energy system that includes rural and Aboriginal communities.

“With the best solar and inland wind resources in Canada, extensive possibilities for biomass energy production, reasonable hydroelectric potential, and a very low population density, Saskatchewan should be well-placed to lead the world in the inevitable shift away from fossil fuels,” the authors write, “Yet currently the province is heavily dependent on coal and is among the world's very highest per capita greenhouse gas emitters.”

Report author Mark Bigland-Pritchard states:  "It is one of the urgent tasks of our generation to make this shift.  It will require a major re-think of the way we do electricity, but the result will be less pollution, fewer health problems, more stable costs, more jobs and stronger communities".

"Two other provinces in Canada - Nova Scotia and Ontario - are making the transition away from coal and towards renewable electricity,” notes series co-author Peter Prebble, “the time has come for Saskatchewan to do the same."

Transition to a sustainable electricity system is a real possibility in Saskatchewan. As the report states, “none of the technical and economic barriers is insuperable: the questions to be resolved concern the best technical, legislative and logistical routes to take — and whether the province can find the political will to do so.”

Some of the highlights from the report include:

• Saskatchewan has traditionally spent less than $1 million per year on electricity efficiency, while Manitoba’s electricity efficiency budget has been over $35 million per year for years. We have the potential to realize 300 MW in electrical efficiency alone.
• Renewables — and even more so efficiency/conservation — have been consistently found to generate more jobs per dollar of investment, and more jobs per kWh, than either fossil fuels or nuclear.
• The renewables available in Saskatchewan — wind, sun, hydro and biomass — are all ideally suited for community-scale development.
• A grid based more on distributed generation, and less on large power stations, can offer more jobs, stabilize more communities, help more families to stay together by creating an alternative to long-distance commuting, enable more family farms to stay solvent, and provide opportunities for some First Nations communities.

To view the full report, visit here.

The Saskatchewan office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is releasing University of Regina business administration professor S. Muthu’s study, Restoring the Bargain: Contesting the Constitutionality of the Amendments to the Saskatchewan Trade Union Act, a thorough analysis of the constitutionality of the province’s current labour legislation.

This study represents an important contribution to the current debate over the extent to which legislatures can limit workers’ rights and freedoms. The study also thoroughly evaluates recent Supreme Court decisions, with emphasis on the Dunmore decisions and Health Services et al v. B.C. to determine if recent guidance by the Supreme Court will uphold Bill 6.

Muthu concludes that Bill 6 amendments to the Trade Union Act S.11(1)(a) are in violation of sections 2(b), 2(c), 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Furthermore, Muthu contends that these changes are not saved by the constitutional test under Section One.

Muthu argues that rather than representing a “rebalancing of powers,” as the government insists, instead “unions’ and employees’ freedoms have been infringed while employers’ freedom have been enhanced.” The effect of Bills 5 and 6 “provide the employer with a double barrel gun – freedom of speech enhancement at critical organizing moments and mandatory requirement of certification elections – with a lot of ammunition, resulting in practically an open hunting season on unions.” 

With the current court challenge to the Wall government’s labour legislation by both the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour (SFL) and the Saskatchewan General Employees Union (SGEU), professor Muthu’s analysis offers a detailed background of the arguments and logic that will ultimately shape this important judicial decision.

View the full report here