Is Saskatchewan Canada's new "it" province? According to the Globe and Mail's Report on Business magazine, yes it is!
In a recent issue, Report on Business paints Saskatchewan as THE place to be in Canada right now, and it predicts that our economy will remain strong for many years to come. There are plenty of good reasons for that optimism. Here is an excerpt from the article.
"This province, with a population only a bit higher than it was in the 1920s, is enjoying the best times of its century-long history, riding multiple booms in commodity prices. Government, once so central to the economy, has stepped back and instead embraced a more business-friendly agenda, including corporate tax cuts.
Predicted to lead Canada in economic growth this year, Saskatchewan is a land of food and fuel - feeding North America, and the world. It is the country's second-largest oil producer. It leads the world in uranium. And its grains are more valuable than ever. "
Considering our richness of resources, it's no wonder that our population is finally showing sustained growth, and that our housing market, and economy is leading the nation in growth. It gives everyone here plenty of reasons to be optomistic, even when other parts of the country, and the continent are seeing downturns in their economies.
You can read the full Report on Business Article by clicking here.
7 comments:
Not sure we're the new "it" province yet. We may have the most potential, but we still lag behind Alberta in wages, and it's tough to convince people to move here, when at present, they can still make more money in Alberta, and can buy cheaper housing in Edmonton on average, and Red Deer, Calgary et al once you take into account those places have had decades of new housing growth.
Or according to today's Star Phoenix, you can pay $270,000 for a half duplex formerly drug house in the crime ridden King George area of Saskatoon. Not that we shouldn't be better one day. But we still have a $15,000 income deficit per household (annually) to make up to Alberta, and that high crime (wasn't there another west end murder today?) rate to tackle become we become a desirable place to move. Especially when it's more expensive to buy a house here than elsewhere - where income is higher, and crime is lower.
While it is true that Saskatchewan still overall has lower incomes than what you might typically find in Alberta, dougy's statement about housing being cheaper in Edmonton than in Saskatoon is simply not true. For example, an 820 sq.ft. house in Edmonton close to the university is currently asking $400,000 (mls#E3137709).
In Saskatoon (in Nutana), a larger, 1300 sq.ft., but similarly finished house is currently asking $309,900 (mls#303718). And this example is typical of the differences between the cities.
When considering new houses, the margin is not as wide, but overall it is still cheaper, at least from what I've seen, in Saskatoon than in Edmonton and Calgary.
The so-called high crime in Saskatoon is focussed almost exclusively around the 20th street area. Edmonton has even worse problems, being the countries homicide capital.... at least according to this Edmonton Journal article:
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=f83824df-e282-4a25-a409-e6deea5f3acd&k=6523
I've lived in Saskatoon, Edmonton and Vancouver, and I've never seen or felt the buzz that has been around Saskatoon for the last couple of years.
Sorry dougy, but it's too late, Saskatoon (and Saskatchewan in general) has already become a desirable place to move to.
By "remains strong" are they basing this on the 0.4% decline in GDP in 2006 province wide for Saskatchewan? Or the just announced 2.8% (lowest of all western Canadian provinces) GDP growth in 2007 that was up to 2% below forecasts and below BC 3.1% and Alberta and Manitoba 3.3% each?
Check out the link, our economy is not so strong after all, Hope this warrants a Saskhouses.com story when it filters through main stream media.
http://www.teamfisher.com/blogs/norm_fisher/archive/2008/04/30/saskatchewan-economy-underperforms-on-expectations.aspx
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080428/d080428a.htm
www.thebench.ca
Apparently no actual economic boom, just an unfounded house price boom. I won't bore you with how the city of Saskatoon actually lost jobs from Feb to March (if you hear gained, your thinking of numbers ending February).
Once again, we really need to pay attention to what we read in the news.....
GDP, while it can be a useful indicator is not a great indicator on a provincial level. The GDP does not include new housing. And most importantly, GDP is not a measure of the sustainability of an economy.
Saskatchewan has a much more diversified economy than Alberta (while they are trying to tell people that they are diversified, we all know what drives their economy) or even BC for that matter. The GDP numbers seen in provinces like Newfoundland and the Territories is simply unsustainable.
I don't think that anyone in Canada is going to be immune to the recession in the US even resource based economies like the western provinces.
And don't forget that Alberta's "booming" 3.3% growth in GDP last year was 25% below the predicted 4.4%.... So don't just take what you read at face value!!!!
I made an incorrect statement above regarding new housing and GDP.... it does include new housing (I guess my recollection of economics classes isn't what I thought).... so I apologize for that.
But that doesn't change my argument that GDP does not give you a complete picture of the economy and is really quite archaic.
http://community.foe.co.uk/tools/isew/annex1.html
Not what was read in the news... GDP, according to Stats Canada is WAY below predictions for 2007 and fell in 2006. The predictions make the news, which is why the "boom" is overblown. Also, looking at the trend in the chart in the bottom, Sask, despite diversified economy, consistently is an under performer, with multiple negative years of growth/shrunken economy.
Maybe those house sales are based on incorrect assumptions? And biased news?
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080428/d080428a.htm
"And don't forget that Alberta's "booming" 3.3% growth in GDP last year was 25% below the predicted 4.4%.... So don't just take what you read at face value!!!!"
GDP growth predictions
Really so Alberta 3.3 of 4.4 predicted,
Sask ("more diversified") 2.8 of 4.8
We underperformed more than Alberta compared to expectations
We grew less than Alberta percentage wise, which is less total, since they started bigger, and means they widened the gap in economy size/GDP.
Also, they still make more money working there, previous "cost of living" comments were based on expensive Alberta housing, which we now equal for pretty much everywhere but Calgary and FortMac(which is in a crazy oil focused economy and Fort Mac housing is crazy expensive compared to anywhere)
So Our economy underperformed, got beat by Alberta's, which was supposed to do worse, but again did better, this fits with our previous lower GDP growth every year since 2001, As on Stats Canada's actual numbers for the last 7 years, which differ from predictions:
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080428/d080428a.htm
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