Why are 2 Saskatchewan Crowns looking at moving in together?

What would moving in together mean for the future of two Saskatchewan crowns? This week, SGI and SaskTel said they were exploring the idea of combining head offices on Saskatchewan Drive in Regina. The minister responsible says SaskTel could accommodate the SGI employees moving from the high-rise. And there are apparently some issues with the insurers' 47-year-old building. Our panel is here to talk about this and why the province is not adding another provincial holiday. Marie Mandrick is a political columnist. CBC reporter Alexander Kwan covers provincial politics for us at CBC Saskatchewan. They join me now. Alex, what's prompted this potential move? So both head offices of SGI and SaskTel are close to 50 years old. So they're very... Close to end of life, according to the minister in charge of the Crown Investments Corporation, Jeremy Harrison. But the SGI office also experienced a massive flood in August that, according to Harrison, basically damaged floor 11 down to the basement. And that has forced a lot of their head office workers, for SGI at least, to work from home. It also comes as the SaskTel head office is roughly half-empty. Harrison said that although the two buildings may look roughly the same size, the SaskTel office actually has a lot more floor space in its building. And it was also built at a time when there was much more infrastructure taking up that space. But due to advancements in technology, the building now has lots of free space. It's half-empty. That's why the two Crown corporations are now exploring I mean, really, the announcement came out of nowhere. It was really a surprise for a lot of people that they're going to be combining into the SASTEL building. So far, this is just an idea. It's not something concrete. The government is already framing this as a move that would give both organizations a modern workplace while making good use of an existing Crown building. And it said the collaboration would ensure a strong employment presence in downtown Regina. Marie, what's your reaction to this? Alex says it's come out of nowhere. It has come out of nowhere. We're There's a suspicion that we'll get into in a moment because of the history here. But on the face of it, it seems to be responsible government. One's always a little suspicious in terms of the long-term agenda for government to do anything of such a major nature and without really telling anybody. And one only has to look at the AI Centre and that whole debate as to why we should be suspicious. But I listen to what Minister Harrison says, and it's perfectly logical and kind of the thing that you want from a minister to provide good administrative analysis as to why he's doing it. There is a really legitimate question, as Alexander outlined, about why we need such space in the modern age. Certainly the whole issue related to SASTEL. Has changed in terms of the services provided. They don't need the same hardware and other things that they might have once needed. In that kind of operation, pre-internet, pre-everything, the model has changed. I assume the same thing is probably said for SGI, up to and including the number of employees. And as uncomfortable as it might be to say that, we all pay for the services and salaries of these people. So you look for your government to find efficiencies in terms of providing services. And on the surface, that does seem... to be what the minister is doing and if there's legitimate questions about us having to need two office buildings which were in essence the pride and joy of the New Democrats when they were built 50 almost 50 years ago of these wonderful offices that are these towers in downtown Regina well the world's changed and and that's important however There is a big however. It's what comes next, and what comes next really depends on the future of our crown corporations.