Saskatchewan should get ready for another population surge.
Economic developers have a saying. People follow opportunity. In general terms, it means that there is a percentage of the population that is transient, tending to migrate to locations that present employment opportunities.
As we enter 2022, it is clear Saskatchewan is now one of those places of opportunity.
We saw it in an RBC Royal Bank economic forecast last week putting us near the top of the provinces for growth prospects this year. That was reinforced by Friday’s job numbers.
In the last year, Saskatchewan employers have created 30,000 jobs. That’s the number of people working in a city the size of Moose Jaw. In the last month alone, there were 7,400 new employment openings as commodity price increases lead to larger payrolls.
At that pace, we will not be able to fill all the vacancies without attracting people from outside Saskatchewan. In the expansion of 2005 to 2014, we saw our population increase by 15 per cent. A repeat of that performance in the next few years is more likely than not.
