Saskatchewan.

• Author: Ursulescu, Stacey
• Position: Legislative Reports

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The third session of the of the twenty-sixth legislature resumed on Monday, March 8, 2010. The Spring sitting proved to be more rancorous than others in recent years. Speaker, Don Toth made numerous rulings ranging from oral presentation of petitions, statements by Members and Ministers, unparliamentary language, the sub judice convention, meeting periods of standing committees, the use of closure, the propriety of oral questions and responses to written questions.

A major dispute developed over the course of the session over sitting hours, culminating in the government introducing a motion that extended the daily sittings and meeting times from eight in the morning to midnight. The government house leader, Dan D'Autremont, claimed that the extra hours were necessary because the opposition was unduly holding up the government's legislative agenda. Opposition house leader, Kevin Yates argued that his caucus was merely utilizing the hours available to the full extent allowed under the regular legislative calendar. The government invoked closure on the extended sitting hour motion, which was adopted and came into effect on Monday, April 26, 2010.

Budget

On March 24, 2010 the Finance Minister, Rod Gantefoer presented the province's budget for 2010-2011. The theme of the budget was "balanced, forwardlooking and responsible". The budget promised to reduce the size of the public service and overall government spending. The Ministries of Education and Health did see increases in the overall budget but sustained cuts to programming such as subsidized chiropractic services.

The Opposition took issue with the government's definition of a balanced budget because it was spending more than it was taking in with the balance being covered by funding from the Growth and Financial Security Fund. The government defended its accounting practice by arguing that it had not changed the methods utilized by the opposition when it was in government. Provincial Auditor, Fred Wendel, renewed his long-standing criticism of the government of Saskatchewan's practice of using only the general revenue fund financial statements when reporting its budget and financial position. He said all other governments in Canada have adopted the use of summary financial statements, which look at all government revenues and spending, including Crown corporations.

Bills

To date, there have been 32 bills that have been reviewed and reported back to the Assembly. Of...