There are a lot of things the people of Saskatchewan take seriously.
There's health care, and there's roads, and education. And then, somewhere in there, there are the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Roughriders are this province's only professional, major league sports team. And that team is loved - almost revered, actually - by thousands of people in this province, and likely millions across the country.
For years, the Riders' home base was Taylor Field. Now, due to corporate sponsorship, they play in Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field. And in the future, if some have their way, they will play in a new covered stadium in Regina. One that's not open to the elements.
This idea for a domed stadium that is being touted as a multi-purpose facility was brought forward by the province, the City of Regina and the Saskatchewan Roughriders Football Club last year. It was estimated at that time to cost $430 million to build.
Four-hundred and thirty million dollars.
Building this stadium, it was said, would require private donations alongside contributions from municipal, provincial and federal governments.
That's a lot of dough to spend on anything, nevermind a professional sports team, no matter how much we love them.
Even talking about spending this much on something for sports in Saskatchewan is something I find quite odd. This is Saskatchewan, land of the pragmatic farmer, where we believe in looking after the essentials first, and if there's money left over, maybe saving it for a rainy day. Not spending it first, so that no more rain falls on football players or fans.
I'm not saying that the Riders don't deserve a new place to play. I saw them practicing in the snow last fall, before the big Grey Cup game. That did not look fun. And the Riders have actually gone a long way towards bringing the many disparate factions of our population together. Face it, there may not be a lot of things we all have in common besides that green and white shirt in our closet, but we can always talk about that if necessary.
However, I am saying that perhaps there are some essentials we should look after first - some homework we need to do before we get to go outside (or inside, I guess) to play.
First, our roads. I know you may be thinking "boring!" if you haven't driven down one of the lovely side roads in our part of the country lately. But if you have, it's likely the first thing on your list of items the government needs to fix as well.
We have to face it - we live in Saskatchewan. There aren't many people here, we have lots of roads and our climate is tough on anything we build. Our roads will need constant work. And they do. But some of them are quite beyond the "needs fixing" stage. Their condition is quite deplorable. We need to pour some money into them so that they can be maintained in the future and don't just fall apart.
Second, our health care system. As an idea, our health care system works. There just are not enough people, I feel, to make it work in reality. We need more doctors. We need more nurses. We need more LPNs and special care aides and everything else. Things have gotten better, but there's a long way left to go. Frankly, I'd rather spend $430 million training nurses and doctors than building a stadium, but that's just me.
Third, there's our education system. I'd rather some of that $430 million go into hiring more teachers and making sure full class offerings are available in rural schools than ensuring the Riders don't get a sun- or wind-burn at practise.
If it were up to me, the stadium idea would be shelved until we can look at it without seeing something better to spend the money on. Or at least consider it without feeling guilty.
