A recent caller to Murray Wood's show on Newstalk 980 summed up the issue of government-run liquors stores best when she said "I cannot believe that in 2006 we are still having this argument."

Indeed, it's astonishing that in this day and age we still buy most of our liquor from a government retail outlet. As Murray Wood later pointed out, government liquor stores are a throwback to a more puritanical time. People still remember having to fill out a slip of paper and hand it to a government worker, who would then assemble the order.

Things have come a long way since then but the government is still the biggest player in the liquor business and it's getting more expensive to run liquor board stores every year.

Documents obtained through Freedom of Information by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) show the cost of running government liquor stores has soared by 33 per cent over the past four years while Saskatchewan's population is in steady decline.

The biggest reason for the dramatic increase: the shocking amount we pay liquor store employees. Salaries for all liquor store employees have jumped by 23 per cent since 2003 with the largest increase (13 per cent) taking place over the past year. Salaries for head office workers have risen by 13 per cent since 2003. Labour costs account for 65 per cent of all expenditures.

The documents also show the top salary for liquor store customer service representatives has increased by 14 per cent since the beginning of 2005 to $21.28 per hour, which is equivalent to $44,262 per year. Statistics Canada data suggests the 2004 average salary for a cashier in Saskatchewan is $10.24 per hour, which is the equivalent of $21,299 per year.

A liquor store manager can earn as much as $34.91/hour. The average hourly wage for firemen is only $26.54 and police officers earn $30.67.

It's ridiculous that you can earn more running a liquor store than you can saving lives.. It's time to re-think state-run liquor.

Another problem is the amount of money spent on building or renovating liquor stores. Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority (SLGA) spent $3.6 million on liquor store construction in 2005-06 - nearly five times the amount spent the previous year.

If SLGA thinks this is a wise use of tax dollars, they have been sampling too much of their own product. Private operators -- not taxpayers -- should be paying these bloated salaries and building new liquor stores. Let private business owners decide what kind of liquor stores to open, where to open them, and let them pay for it.

A position paper released by the CTF in 2004 showed how liquor privatization can improve the province's bottom line while providing more selection and better prices for consumers.

Privatization benefits consumers with better selection, more stores in more convenient locations, and better hours of operation. There would be more jobs. And entrepreneurs in every corner of the province could benefit from being involved in a profitable business.

So why are we still having this argument It's the unions, silly. The only reason we are still paying bloated salaries is to appease giant government unions. The sooner we start standing up to them the better.