One-point-two million people – that is the goal the government has set for the number of people living in Saskatchewan by 2020.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall released his vision today during a speech to the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce on how the province will grow to this number by 2020 and the roadmap for reaching that goal.
“Saskatchewan people have seen the benefits of a growing province – more jobs, more opportunities and more revenue to deal with the challenges of growth,” said Wall.
“Those benefits are why we seek growth – so we can improve our health system and shorten surgical wait times, so we can do more for the most vulnerable people in our province, so we can balance the budget and pay down debt.”
“Saskatchewan Plan for Growth” highlights six core activities the government will undertake to reach those targets.
One of those areas is investing in infrastructure.
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Wall said the government will invest at least $2.5 billion over the next three years in infrastructure, with $150 million coming out of the Growth and Financial Security Fund to establish a new agency SaskBuilds.
“Our government will work with Saskatchewan municipalities to develop a municipal infrastructure program funded through SaskBuilds,” said Wall.
SaskBuilds is tasked with driving innovation in infrastructure financing, design and delivery and Wall says the initial funding for the agency will leverage hundreds of millions more for projects.
Wall also said the government will reduce the debt by $400 million by 2017 and announced former University of Saskatchewan president Peter McKinnon will head the new Saskatchewan Heritage Initiative.
The initiative will look at ways to best utilize revenue from non-renewable resources once the provincial debt has been retired.
Wall also wants the corporate business tax rate dropped to 10 per cent from the current 12 per cent by 2015, the same rate as Alberta and British Columbia.
With an increased population comes a need for jobs and the plan is have at least 60,000 more people working by 2020.
Wall says to ensure there is a trained workforce, training seats at SIAST will be increased for skilled trades where there are shortages and to work with the federal government to increase the annual cap on the immigrant nominee program from 4,000 to 6,000.
The government will also work to reduce the graduation rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students by 50 per cent and plans lead the country in grade 12 graduation rates by 2020.
Money would also be invested in housing, with $344 million going towards 12,600 new housing units by 2016 for low- and moderate-income families.
The plan is also to double the value of exports, increase crop production by 10 million tonnes and increase the value of agricultural and food product exports by $5 billion.
“Our plan will keep the province growing, improve our quality of life and continue to make Saskatchewan the best place in Canada,” said Wall.
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