Wasn't sure where to post this, but Brad Wall is now openly musing about selling Sasktel, going as far as appointing a new minister who he thinks would be best able to handle offers and negotiations (and PR):
http://leaderpost.com/news/politics/...ktel-to-public
I am very much against this. While I do have some ideological opposition to government competing with private interests in some areas of society, telecommunications and internet have been 2 areas where history has shown
conclusively that government does it better, and cheaper. Not only that, but having an independent large player in Saskatchewan forces Rogers and Bell and Telus to be more honest with their rates. Wall says that it would help "solve" the jobs situation in Regina, but it would likely do the opposite. Sasktel is fairly bloated as telecoms go, and there's no way Bell or Rogers would keep all the jobs here, or even keep all the jobs in general.
On the face of it you'd think the argument to sell would be defeated quite easily...but never underestimate the stupidity of people in large numbers. I've heard people say things like "Rogers and Bell have better plans in Saskatchewan than Sasktel, so why not sell Sasktel anyway?" Well the reason these companies have these better rates sometimes is because Sasktel is forcing them to compete. Reality shows that in markets where the big 3 dominate, they form a collusive cartel where rates are raised and fixed. We literally pay 1/2 the amount as Ontarians for many cell and internet services. The only other province with rates close to ours is Quebec because of Videotron being in the market.
Sasktel is the last bastion against Robellus dominating Canada, and I hope public outcry prevents it. There are arguments for selling some crowns, but of the big 4 (which I think all serve the province well), Sasktel makes the least amount of sense to sell, perhaps tied with SGI.
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