The number of people leaving Saskatchewan for other provinces has climbed over the past three years.
However, the two major provincial political parties are looking to change that this election.
Between April 2019 and April 2020, 11,247 people in Saskatchewan packed up and moved to another province, according to data from the Saskatchewan Bureau of Statistics.
The year prior to that, 9441 people left and from April 2017 to April 2018, 8475 headed elsewhere.
The bureau has the population at 1,178,681 as of July 1.
The Saskatchewan Party set a goal for the province’s population to reach 1.4 million by 2030.
They intend to do that by keeping more young people in the province while increasing immigration.
“We’ve improved on that greatly over the course of the last decade, but I would say there is more work for us to do,” leader Scott Moe told reporters at an Oct. 6 campaign event.
He pointed to the Graduate Retention Program and last week’s campaign announcement about increasing the Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship from $500 to $750 per year.
The NDP said it hopes to make Saskatchewan appealing to those outside of the province with its promise of a $15 hourly minimum wage and employing local workers for public sector jobs and public contracts.
One University of Regina economist said governments can only lay the foundation to draw in population by making their region attractive to businesses. After that, it’s on those businesses to create jobs.
Jason Childs cited the story behind Instant Pot, where a group of former Nortel employees came together to build a company.
He added bringing like-minded people in one place to start business could help stimulate job growth and make regions of Saskatchewan more attractive.
University of Saskatchewan professor Avi Akkerman said right now could be the time for cities like Saskatoon and Regina to capitalize if business leaders are thinking of putting down roots in a new area.
“If (a CEO) sees an appealing, attractive downtown, this will certainly be part of his or her consideration to move the headquarters of a company into a particular city,” he said.
Saskatchewan has seen population growth mostly due to international immigration.
In the same time span between April 2019 and April 2020 where more than 11,000 people left Saskatchewan for another province, 13,364 people moved from another country to Saskatchewan.
However the amount of immigration this year could be significantly reduced because of the pandemic.