REGINA: At 1:30 this afternoon, Lee Harding, Saskatchewan Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), delivered 5679 petitions to the Hon. Rod Gantefoer, Minister of Finance, The petitions called on the government to legislate an end to provincial handouts to corporations.

The petitions were worded as follows:

Saskatchewan taxpayers have paid for a long line of failed government investments, and those failures continue to this day. The Government of Saskatchewan has long pursued a policy of direct investment in the economy in order to create opportunities for Saskatchewan residents. This policy has failed in almost every instance.

These investments, both inside the province and out, hurt the economy more than they help. They send a clear message to potential investors that if they invest in Saskatchewan, their tax dollars may very well end up subsidizing their competition. Or worse-investors may end up competing directly with government.

Just a few examples of failed government investments include:

• Spudco (2005): $40 million;
  
• SGI (2005): $10 million lost in Ontario;
  
• SaskTel Navigata (2005): $72 million and counting; and
  
• Meadow Lake Pulp Mill: $804 million

We the Undersigned Citizens of the province of Saskatchewan say to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan:

-Enact legislation that outlaws direct government investment in the economy and government competition with the private sector.

"We brought this petition forward because we want a 'no boondoggles act.' Saskatchewan's government should not be picking winners and losers, and too often we've picked the losers," says CTF Saskatchewan director Lee Harding.

"We welcome this week's announcement that $100 million taxpayer dollars won't be sunk into the Prince Albert Pulp Mill. However, we want the government to confirm its stated intention to avoid direct public investment in the economy. We want the legislature to, in law, prohibit financing of private business enterprise through grants, loans, loan guarantees or equity investments, or any other direct or indirect financing."

This kind of legislation is not without precedent. In 1996, Alberta passed the Business Financial Assistance Limitation Act that ensured no business could get government help without legislative approval and all the public scrutiny that involves.

"If a subsidized business gains the market, it only means that private sector competition has subsidized their own downfall. If a subsidized business flounders--as has happened far too often--it's money down the toilet.

"What the government needs to do is establish the tax and regulatory structures that allow viable businesses to thrive, not to tax us so heavily that the only way people can succeed is when the government hands people's money back to them."