The Saskatchewan NDP wants to restore film tax credits and Saskatchewan Transportation Company, a taxpayer-subsidized crown bus company. Those ideas play well to artsy leftist voters, government unions, and a few others, but they’re bad for taxpayers..The Regina Manifesto, penned in 1933 said, “No C.C.F. Government will rest content until it has eradicated capitalism and put into operation the full programme of socialized planning.” When Tommy Douglas and his Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation seized Saskatchewan, they formed numerous crown corporations, including STC..Ridership peaked in the 1980’s, but before the decade was out, a long streak of annual financial losses was already underway. Saskatchewanians got rich enough to own their own vehicles, just when the perks of unionized labour were really taking off..While it is easy for governments to start programs, it is often harder to end them. So it was with STC. In the mid-2000’s, STC launched its first new route since 1976: an incredibly long journey to La Loche, many hours north of any other STC connection point. By then, only 3 of 29 passenger routes made money. But that didn’t prevent the province from building a $26.2 million terminal in Regina so opulent I called it the ‘crystal cathedral’ at the time. Soon, unions filed grievances that their drivers weren’t getting triple pay when their shifts ended on a stat holiday..Only after Brad Wall began his third mandate and STC bleeding had become horrendous, did his government finally end the socialist CCF’s creation. STC had $14.9 million in revenue and $49.1 million in operating expenses in its final year of 2016-17. Sold-off assets included three 16-passenger vehicles and a 22-passenger vehicle that were never used..The Saskatchewan Film Employment Tax Credit (SFETC) had a much shorter and less expensive run. At first, the tax credit paid up to 40 per cent of labour costs for any eligible project, but by the end it was 55 per cent. Although this prevented the government from cherry-picking winners and losers within the sector, it represented disproportionate help to the sector, one any economy-driving industry could have only dreamed of..The government program also presented strange ironies. A few projects, such as CTV’s Corner Gas, were so successful that they needed no help from taxpayers. (They got $11 million anyway.) Others were losers for their objectional content or dismal viewership – or both. The Horror flick Tideland received $1.6 million from the SFETC in 2005—an amount eight times the US $197,659 it earned at the box office. .This wasn’t the only way Saskatchewan taxpayers contributed to these productions. The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit covered up to 16 per cent of labour costs in those days, meaning the total subsidy reached 71 per cent in some cases..But wait, there’s more. The Canadian Television Fund (CTF) also handed out funds. Half of the CTF money came from a CRTC-mandated surcharge on cable bills and the rest through federal tax dollars. The TV series Renegade Press received $3.2 million from the SFETC for its first four seasons and another $2 million from the CTF!.Economic spin-off benefits touted by the film and TV industry were mythical. In 2004, when the SFETC was ‘only’ 40 per cent, Saskatchewan’s NDP government commissioned an Economic Impact Statement for the Saskatchewan Film and Video Industry. It found that each job created by the SFETC cost the province $15,873. Even if indirect employment was included, the cost was still $8,095. The SFETC was a perennial money-loser, just like STC..Worse, the province competed with others in a bidding war with other provinces and American states. Manitoba’s film employment tax credit grew to 65 per cent, and pressure was growing for Saskatchewan to match. Saskatchewan decided to follow Alberta’s lead and eliminated its $8 million tax credit in 2012. However, the government later launched Creative Saskatchewan to hand out grants, $2 million of which goes to film and TV production..Saskatchewan, long-mired in a socialist experiment – should not go back. The Regina Manifesto said, “Only by such public ownership, operated on a planned economy, can our main industries be saved from the wasteful competition of the ruinous overdevelopment and over-capitalization which are the inevitable outcome of capitalism.” It was the philosophy that underpinned programs like the STC..Saskatchewan has spent enough taxpayer dollars on productions people didn’t watch and busses that people didn’t ride. Neither the NDP, nor anyone else, should bring those days back..Lee Harding is the Saskatchewan Correspondent for the Western Standard
