Well, it's official. The Meadow Lake Pulp Mill is the biggest financial disaster in the long history of government boondoggles. It's the cream of the crop. The head honcho of failed government investments. And that's no easy task in Saskatchewan.

Unfortunately, not many taxpayers in Saskatchewan even heard of this development.

On December 28, just three days after Christmas, the government quietly announced that the Meadow Lake Pulp Mill filed for court protection from its creditors. You'll never guess who the biggest creditor for the mill is Yes dear taxpayer: it is you!

The official excuses listed by the government include low prices, the high Canadian dollar, higher energy and transportation costs. But hmmm - it seems something is missing from this list. Could it be - oh I don't know - government policy

Saskatchewan has one of the least competitive tax systems in the world. A fact confirmed by Saskatchewan's Business Tax Review Committee. Our corporate and capital tax rates are the highest in Canada. Our fuel taxes are the highest among provinces west of Quebec and we apply the PST on business inputs.

Of course, the government failed to list these factors as possible explanation of the mill seeking court protection.

The Meadow Lake Mill has a fairly long history in Saskatchewan (at least in political terms). The Mill was the brain child of the Devine government, back in 1990. At the time, politicians crowed the mill would be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly of its kind. Saskatchewan taxpayers were (and still are) 49 per cent owners with Alberta-based Millar Western owning the other 51 per cent.

As an aside, the Alberta government was chasing a similar central-planning dream with the construction of a massive pulp mill near Athabasca. Government meddling in the economy was all the rage at the time. The difference being that Alberta has since smelled the coffee and abandon such nonsense whereas it continues full steam ahead in Saskatchewan.

Over the years the province dumped $275 million into the mill, but three write-downs have reduced the value of that investment to $78.8 million. Incredibly, the province in their infinite wisdom threw another $52 million into the swamp just eight months ago to buy the mill's debt owed to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board and Sun Life Assurance. Saskatchewan taxpayers are now the mill's only creditor.

All in, that's a $327 million (not adjusted for inflation) "investment" into an asset that is currently worth - well - that's anyone's guess. The mill's current value is subject to market conditions and, as everyone knows, there are now two mills experiencing financial trouble in Saskatchewan.

The government defends this expenditure, arguing that the mill employs 150-200 people and the mill has consumed "hundreds of millions of dollars" in wages, goods and services over the years. This is classic government logic. The government could have just as well randomly selected 327 Meadow Lake residents and hand them each $1 million. Surely 327 millionaires in Meadow Lake would have been an economic boon for the region.

Will the Meadow Lake Pulp Mill finally be a wake up call Politicians making "investment" decision with our tax dollars whether for potatoes or paper does not work. For goodness sakes let's try a new approach. Adopt the Business Tax Review Committee's recommendations that lower and make taxes more competitive for all business in Saskatchewan. That may give the Meadow Lake Pulp Mill and similar businesses a better opportunity than the failed Devine/Romanow/Calvert 19th Century industrial policy. Let's turn the page in 2006.