Dear Editor
In 2007, I became the chair of the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce's Sustainable Growth Strategy for the New Saskatchewan Task Force. We needed a way to support the strategic and sustainable growth of the province's economy and population. The task force has been monitoring 18 indicators which include such issues as total employment, full and part time students, population and real GDP per capita. Our goal is to reach a population of 1.5 million by the year 2030.
The aim of the Saskatchewan Chamber's Growth Strategy is to support and facilitate sustainable growth that benefits all of Saskatchewan. We have said from the beginning that the province must increase the population of its smaller centers, increase its entrepreneurial activity and retain and attract post secondary graduates in order to increase its growth. In the last year, we have found each of those areas are in fact growing, thus increasing our total population and keeping us on target of our objective of an annual growth rate of 1.75 per cent. We came very close in 2010 with an estimated 1.6 per cent increase of population in 2010.
The number of larger centres in Saskatchewan (population of at least 2,500) has increased since 2006. The growth strategy has a target of one new larger centre in Saskatchewan every two years or so. Since 2006, figures from Saskatchewan Health suggest that La Loche, Maple Creek, and Esterhazy have joined that group. It means Saskatchewan growth is not just in the larger cities.
We will need to maintain a clear and steady focus on indicators for our overall employment and the number of post-secondary graduates in the labour market. This indicator reports it has been growing fast enough to meet our targets and, in 2009 and 2010, we exceeded it. However, it is vital that we retain our young educated individuals to work, live and invest in our province. Not only do we want to retain those educated people but we want to attract them from other provinces.
Entrepreneurial activity, which we define as the number of self-employed and business owners, fell in 2007 and 2008, but has since grown rapidly and is now above our target level. Our province is known for innovative ideas and it's those ideas that are attracting new businesses to Saskatchewan.
We are proud the province is growing and will need to encourage and advocate for further strategic growth. Saskatchewan is still in its early stages of growth and it is important that we are monitoring all areas to create an economically efficient province that continues to push the envelope in education, entrepreneurism, and health innovation.
As Walter Scott once put it, "This is a big land for big people with big ideas." We must believe this is our time to move forward and grow Saskatchewan, for us to realize our dreams.
Dave Dutchak
Chair , Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce,
Growth Strategy Task Force
