The government cannot ignore the call for change that resounded though Saskatoon's Centennial Auditorium during the province's over-hyped Centennial Summit. The Summit was billed by the government as a consultation to help launch the province into its second century with a fresh vision.

It was easy to assume, given this government's total resistance to any form of criticism, that this would be one big NDP love in. But this wasn't the case. When you invite business leaders and academics to speak on live television, they will tell it as they see it, or risk their professional reputations.

It was quite a sight to see Cameco president Gerald Grandey relate how opening a uranium mine in Saskatchewan is substantially more expensive and take ten times longer than in other jurisdictions. He told Summit-goers that Saskatchewan's proven uranium reserves are equivalent to 16 billion barrels of oil - enough to make Saudi Arabians green with envy. Why then does our uranium industry account for 1,500 jobs and not 5,000 Grandey suggests it has much to do with - and this is no surprise - taxes and regulations.

Cameco's story is a familiar one for government. Industry has been telling the government to get off its back for years, formally and through back channels, to no avail. Government has only acted in fits and starts. One action that government did take was reducing royalty rates on oil and gas development in the 1990s and in 2002, and guess what happened. By golly, oil and gas production -- and therefore government revenues -- increased. The same logic can be applied elsewhere in the economy - and particularly to the uranium industry.

But this old government dog doesn't take well to new tricks.

Todd Hirsch, an economist from the Canada West Foundation laid down some unflattering economic statistics. While Mr. Hirsch didn't make any recommendations to the Summit on what the government can do to grow our economy, outside the Summit he didn't play his cards as close to his vest. On talk radio Hirsch said our government needs to cut taxes to become more competitive. He went as far as to say the government needs to cut taxes twice as deeply to reverse the entrenched outside view that Saskatchewan is not friendly to business. A view, I might add, that was created by government policy.

More importantly, summit-goers themselves called for change. While the Centennial Summit was billed as a consultation, less than two hours of the $500,000, three day event was actually earmarked for "consulting." That said, many attendees made good use of their time. Recommendations arising from a session on "competitiveness" included scrapping the government's "available hours" regulations as soon as possible, undertaking a review of provincial and municipal taxes, and limiting the government's role in the economy to oversight and not participation.

This is pretty serious stuff for the government of the day. Recall that this government recently enshrined public ownership of virtually everything into law. Also recall that this government consistently fights tooth and nail against almost every proposed market-oriented reform. This government continues to deny private businesses the opportunity to participate in major provincial projects.

Recently Premier Calvert admitted that the "available hours" regulations have been a complete gong show (my words, not his), but in the same breath, hoped to have the widely-loathed regulations in place this summer. This gives us pause to question how serious the government really is about making the changes recommended at the Centennial Summit.