Saskatchewan.

• Author: Perras, Joelle M.
• Position: Legislative Reports

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly commenced its spring sitting on March 2, 2009, and was completed on May 14, 2009. At the outset, the provincial budget was introduced and adopted, and the estimates were scrutinized over the course of the session. The committees also worked on the passage of legislation, and are now preparing for public hearings to be held this summer.

Provincial Budget

The 2009-2010 budget highlights include a complete revision of the province's property tax system, funds for a children's hospital, and increased grants to municipalities. In the face of great economic uncertainty, the government was pleased to present one of the only balanced budgets in the country.

The opposition's main criticisms of the budget centred on poor fiscal management and increasing the provincial debt. The NDP also objected to what they saw as a failure of the government to address issues such as rising utility rates, and a lack of affordable housing and child care.

Introduced on March 18, the budget motion was debated until its adoption on March 26. The standing committees reviewed the ministerial estimates and reported them to the Assembly before the end of the spring sitting.

Legislation Review

One of the more interesting recent occurrences involved the splitting of a bill before the House. Originally conceived as a single piece of legislation, Bill No. 72--The Traffic Safety Amendment Act, 2008, contained two areas of focus: to increase the driving privileges of volunteer firefighters when en route to a fire scene, and to introduce "enhanced" driver's licences.

In early March, the Information and Privacy Commissioner tabled a report raising concerns about the privacy implications of the enhanced driver's licences, which would contain radio frequency identification technology. When it became clear that the opposition supported the provisions of the bill relating to volunteer firefighters, but would object to the passage of the driver's licence portions based on the Commissioner's apprehensions, the government opted to divide the bill. The new bill regarding volunteer firefighters passed without controversy, while the government reviewed the enhanced driver's licence legislation. In the end, the decision was made to scrap the plan for the new form of identification.

Another noteworthy piece of legislation was Bill No. 605--The Traffic Safety (Maintenance Workers--Gallenger) Amendment Act. This was a Private Members'...