You wouldn’t know it from the Saskatchewan Party’s throne speech.
Much like his low-key March re-election campaign, Premier Brad Wall’s throne speech downplayed the unpleasantness and accentuated the positives.
“In 2015, Saskatchewan’s agri-food exporters reached nearly $15.3 billion, surpassing my government’s Growth Plan target of $14 billion exports by 2020,” Lt.-Gov. Vaughn Solomon read from the throne speech delivered last Tuesday.
The speech further highlight other positive happenings: a $25-million expansion by Edgewood Forest Products of Carrot River; $800 million by Crescent Point Energy; $1 billion by Husky Energy in thermal projects; $10 million by Weil Group in a helium facility near Mankota; $50 million in enhanced oil recover by RII near Lloydminster; $4.1 billion by K +S Legacy Mine, and; $20 million by BHP Billiton for carbon capture and storage.
The address opening the 28th Saskatchewan Legislature also noted the province’s population grew by 150,000 people from Jan. 1, 2006 to Jan. 1, 2016 — a stark contrast to the nearly 24,000 people that left Saskatchewan between Jan. 1, 1996 and Jan. 1, 2006.
By such measures, one might conclude that things have never been better in Saskatchewan — especially in rural Saskatchewan where most of the aforementioned economic activity seems to be taking place.
Yet statisticians, your neighbours and even Brad Wall, himself, all seem to be telling you a very different story of late.
According to Statistics Canada numbers, Saskatchewan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 1.5 per cent in 2015.
Moreover, it is only expected to grow by .5 per cent this year.
These numbers suggest that, at best, the Saskatchewan economy is barely emerging from a recession.
And if one remains unconvinced of that, one need look no further than recent employment numbers that show a shrinking workforce and an increasing unemployment roll where most areas in this province not qualify for the unemployment benefit extensions offered by the federal government in its own March budget.
In fact, it’s not only why Wall’s throne speech had little say but also why the Sask. Party’s election campaign was so low-key.
“We didn’t make a lot of election promises,” Wall said in a prepared statement last week, acknowledging that Saskatchewan can’t afford much right now.
That said, Wall vowed to keep “one significant” promise — “to keep Saskatchewan strong.”
He further added that means a three-fold approach of keeping the economy, province’s finances and Saskatchewan’s place in this country strong.
His problem, however, is that there seems little in his throne speech that will help accomplish that.
Admittedly, it is always a mistake to forget about the good things happening in province while overplaying the controversies.
Heaven knows, a lot of ink has been spilled over the Global Transportation Hub (GTH) and other over-spending related to the Regina by-pass. While important, they do not solely define what’s going on in the economy that’s impacting people.
That said, what is being accomplished is minute to the impact of the oil sector downturn.
This was something last week’s Saskatchewan throne speech clearly acknowledged when it spoke of those who “would shut down major parts of the Saskatchewan economy and put thousands of hard-working Saskatchewan people out of work ... all in the name of some misguided dogma that has no basis in reality.”
This serious concern regarding a decline in oil revenue for whatever reason has been acknowledged by Wall in another way — his talk of the need for “transformative change” in government spending.
Last week that extended to talk of provincewide education and health boards and the need for a “risk analysis” of SaskTel that now stands as small, isolated carrier.
The re-elected Sask. Party has much to deal with. Unfortunately, the throne speech wasn’t much of a start.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
