The more things stay the same, the more things stay the same;
On the same day the provincial government announced it had taken in an extra $1.2 billion in the last budget year, the latest population numbers from Statistics Canada showed a decrease of nearly 2,000 people in the first quarter of this year.
That dropped Saskatchewan’s population to 988,980, putting it under 990,000 for the first time since July 1982.
If past behavior is any indication, we can brace for an influx of immigration as Lorne Calvert addresses the decline by advertising civil service positions out of province.
Yup, that should get the economy back on track.
In my short lifetime, I have lived and worked in 5 provinces. Saskatchewan has not been one of them…although I have considered it twice. I have never been able to figure that province out. The small town individualistic mentality (like Alberta has) seems to be there. But, they have always appeared to me to be inexplicably leftist (i.e. the apparent love of Tommy Douglas and the massive civil service).
While living in Calgary, I used to say that, if you walked up to a random stranger on the street and asked, “What part of Saskatchewan are you from?”…more often than not the response would be, “How did you know where I was from?”
So, I always figured that Saskatchewan was a province of capitalists ruled by a minority of socialists and that only the REALLY disenfranchised actually left for Alberta. Of course, this is all unsubstantiated heresay. Just my impression.
Anyhoo…my inability to figure that province out is what has kept me away.
It is difficult indeed, to figure out Saskatchewan. I stay here because I love the province and know that some day, the government will change and we will again, PROGRESS! The policy and politics of the ndp still remain slightly below, “insane” but when you ask, … NO ONE has ever voted for them! Yet, they keep getting elected!
Go figure…
Saskatchewan is endowed with rich deposits of oil, gas, uranium, potash, with wide tracts of forest, abundant fresh water, and some excellent farmland. If you want to kick some NDP butt and fix a place with enormous amounts of untapped potential, you are very welcome here!
How I wish Saskatchewan would become a “have” province after getting rid of the dippers and socialists. The positive influence on the rest of the Canadian lamprey to get off the federal government teat could put the Canadian economy into the black for good. And just maybe there will be something left for my kid’s pension.
wishful thinking, I know.
“bryceman”:
Don’t underestimate yourself. You’ve “figured Saskatchewan out” quite well!
This time, the juggernaut of change will, I think, be unstoppable. The bland insanity of socialism is becoming too hard to ignore for too many regular folks here.
You may find yourself living here one day!
Coyote: Are you sure your mother allows you to use that dirty word “progress” when discussing social trends.
The hardworking “disenfranchised” leaving the flatlands to labour in the tar sands of Alfarta and the restaurants, etc. The nomads on the move again living hand to mouth aspiring to the average Canadian home listed now at $300,000. No doubt this second wave of ‘immigrants’ to the tar sands are as expendible as the first in the eighties — maybe moreso.
Wage legislation, anyone, anyone? Review of border/minimum wages to the tune of between 24 and 34 percent? That’s majority territory critical mass thinking. Dems in States exploring this with spin doctors already at work at authentic sounding campaign rhetoric. Employees WANT AD states….”guaranteed ten year contract only, no benefits and pension plan not needed.” lol
Hey Mike:
But that’s the weird paradox. If my observations are accurate (about the people generally being individualistic – and having the gumption to be able to stand independently and rely on themselves), then how, as Coyote points out, do the NDP keep getting elected?
BC, from time to time, goes through the insanity of putting an NDP government in place. But they always end up correcting (and sometimes over-correcting) with a vengeance. What’s up with Saskatchewan?
BTW: I ask that with all sincere earnestness. I am not trying to chide.
Tommy,
No insult intended, but I can’t understand a thing you just wrote.
Uhhh Tommy…
I don’t claim to know every person from Saskatchewan who left that province for Alberta. But I can’t think of a single one I ever met who was living in the desparate “hand to mouth” scenario that you are describing. They were all professionals…well educated (and a few of them were constantly “upgrading”). There were a couple of them who I knew who worked in the oil patch. But, they were well established and did not feel like any kind of second-class citizen.
You are almost making it sound like Albertans are making slaves out of (what do you call a person from Saskatchewan?…”Saskatchewanite?”). I think that’s a pretty silly point of view considering that (as I mentioned in my first comment in this thread), it seems like Calgary is made up mostly of people from small-town Saskatchewan.
Off topic, but I’m just so p____d off right now having just listened to a CTV report on the GST tax cut, which came into affect today. Can’t these guys say anything positive about a tax cut? They whined and complained when Mulroney introduced the 7 percent GST, and CTV news has to find a reason to see that the sky is falling, even interviewing an economist who said it was a bad. Ggeeeez.
Saskatchewan has experienced two periods of declining population in he past century and both times it began at the tail of a Conservative government’s reign in office; something they’ve only held twice coincidently. So clearly it’s conservative policies that are driving people out of the province.
How I wish Saskatchewan would become a “have” province after getting rid of the dippers and socialists.
Saskatchewan is a have province, rube. Rather than taking Kate’s misinformed blathering as fact you should actually look at the economic indicators of the province. They’re first rate. Saskatchewan ranks in the top four in most of them.
Speaking of misinformed blather – Grant Devine grew the population of the province, as did Romanow. Population decline is Lorne Calvert’s baby. God knows it has nothing to do with the predatory tactics of the Crown corporations and his ever-expanding civil service.
Tax cut opponents should fight the government by sending it all the money they save! That’ll teach’em!
NO ONE has ever voted for them! Yet, they keep getting elected!
This is the same theme I came across in the 6 years I spent in Saskatoon. As a born and raised Albertan who went to Saskatchewan to start a business, I was at first stunned and after a while merely disappointed by the short sightedness of many people in the province.
The NDP ran on the fear mongering of “Do you want to be Alberta Lite?” That’s EXACTLY what Saskatchewan could and should be.
THEN, you’d have population groeth.
Speaking of misinformed blather – Grant Devine grew the population of the province, as did Romanow. Population decline is Lorne Calvert’s baby.
A falsehood: Population decline precedes Lorne Calvert, and cannot be laid at his door.
A story by James Wood in Saturday’s Regina Leader-Post (page A6) says that, since 1972, “there have been only six years where the number of people coming into the province exceeded those leaving.”
According to Wood (also, oddly, the author of quite differently-slanted Star-Phoenix story Kate quotes), high outmigration levels have been present for many years.
Indeed, Wood cites a study by three U of S professors (Partidge, Olfert and Fulton) which found “the province is part of a pattern of pervasive population decline throughout the great plains of North America, from West Texas to the northern prairies.”
I know some will rush to refute this conclusion by pointing to *overall* population growth in Alberta or Manitoba or elsewhere, but I wonder if the population data they would cite would really show that those jurisdictions have avoided *rural* and/or *small centre* depopulation, or whether they have just grown their *large urban* numbers in a way that hides their rural and small centre population drops.
As the U of S study notes, some of the population shifts have a lot more to do with changes in economics and technology than they have to do with specific government policies:
Patridge says Saskatchewan’s decline doesn’t have much to do with government policy, pointing out that the pattern of population loss throughout the Great Plains has affected governments of various ideologies.
‘We could have better government policies but we can’t just say “gosh, if we just had a more pro-business government all our problems would be solved,”‘ he says.
An unpopular view on this blog, I’m sure, but then most views based on facts rather than knee-jerk NDP-bashing generally are.
That’s not to say Saskatchewan shouldn’t try to attract more people, or to address the issue of an aging working population (also flagged by the U of S report).
It is to say that those who think we have only to vote out the NDP and vote in another party haven’t bothered to do any serious thinking about this topic.
For where is Brad Wall’s concrete plan to ‘grow the provincial population’? Or David Karwacki’s, for that matter?
How will either of them stop people from leaving Saskatchewan to go elsewhere?
So far, we haven’t heard.
FWIW, my own suggestion is to devote resources to attracting more immigrants from around the world, and making it easier for them to settle, work and live in Saskatchewan.
We should so this even as we work with our First Nations people to devote more resources to helping them participate more fully in the province’s educational and employment programs.
That would be a start.
Robert McClelland,
Have you ever looked at the books in Saskatchewan? Perhaps you have read the most recent budget in which Lorne Calvert increased the Provincial debt by another $285,000,000 and had the nerve to call it a “balanced” budget?
The oil & gas reserves in Saskatchewan and Alberta are about the same, only Saskatchewan used to charge a 33% royalty and Alberta charged a 17% royalty. ( Saskatchewan has lowered their royalty to 19% in recent years ). The other thing Saskatchewan has done on numerous occasions is to Nationalize business, against to the will of the rightful owners, like Cuba did, or Hugo Chavez is doing now.
So really it comes down to a simple comparison: Saskatchewan is a Socialist’s dream and Alberta is the Conservative dream. People are voting for the better system with their feet.
bryceman:
The last election was won by the NDP with a one-seat majority. Sask. has a huge provincial civil service, and these people know which side their bread is buttered on. Add in the employees of huge Crown Corporations who succumb to the fear-mongering by the NDP at election time, and there’s enough votes to easily change the outcome. I don’t claim they all vote dipper, but the way the seats pan out is telling.
Fear-mongering works. A critical number bought the “scary Stephen Harper” meme federally, too. Note where the only Lib seats in western Canada are.
I still think a critical percentage of people today are no longer buying it. Maybe wishful thinking on my part…
To all the Socialists and Dippers. The proof is in the pudding. In 1931 Saskatchewan was the 3rd largest province in Canada. The population was close to 1 million. We have been hovering at that point for 75 years. The Dippers and their ilk having been “ruling” this province for the vast majority of the time . The NDP have consistently chosen to spend our hard earned tax dollars on hiring voters disguised as civil servants. The NDP stay in power by creating despair and dependence. They are afraid of Saskatchewan new found wealth and are making a concerted effort to blow it all . They will not allow the people of this province to keep the money they earn for fear they may become prosperous . Properous people do not vote for Socialism because they have something to lose. The NDP want to keep people who are dependent on them here and drive everyone else away. But they should be carefull what they wish for because that is exactly what is happening. The scary thing about the population numbers is that it does not tell the whole story. Saskatchewan has a very high population of Senior citizens who can’t afford to escape Saskatchewn winters. Many of the wealthy one leave for hostile weather conditions. we also have an expolding First Nations population that live in areas up north with 80-90% unemployment. Who is footing the bill for all of this? You add in the largest civil service per capita in Canada and how many net taxpayers do have left to pay the bills? The net taxpying group is getting smaller and smaller in proportion to the other groups. Sakatchewan has been able to maintain these very skewed demographics because of it’s abundant resources and it’s hardworking loyal citizens. The younger generation seems to have lost the will to fight to save this province and are bailing at an alarming rate. They watched their parents work hard just to survive and pay their high taxes an they want a different life.It is the ambitious ones who would help build this province that are leaving. If Saskatchewan continues to support this Socialist regime we will just see more of the same. Crumbling infrastructure (roads are the most visible symptom), out migration , high taxes, high crime rate, way too many civil servants. Sounds wonderfull doesn’t it. If this is the kind of world you want just keep voting NDP.
BTW the NDP LOST the popular vote in the 1999 election! They only got back into power through a back-room deal with the Liberals.
(what do you call a person from Saskatchewan?…”Saskatchewanite?”)
When they started settling on my street in Calgary (1971) we referred to them as Saskabushers.
That very same year the Conservatives won a majority government ending 36 years of Social Credit rule.
Eerie eh? They were “bushers”.
The size of Sask’s snivil service is a scandal but, guess what? Here in free enterprise Alberta there are more government employees per capita than in the wicked socialist stutopia. There was a sharp reduction of folks on the public teat during the first few years of the Klein government but, now that the oil money is flowing freely again, everthing is back to “normal”.
I don’t know Zog, there was a recent article in the Star Phoenix stating figures that showed Saskatchewan is still the leader in that respect.
Robert,
“Saskatchewan has experienced 2 periods of declining population…”
Please explain to me when the last conservative government in Saskatchewan lost power and who has had the reins since. This habit of blaming the last administration only works so long (don’t forget that the last government in Sask. was NDP). Calvert and his crew have been there long enough to at least START fixing the problems rather than becoming the problem.
What about the sign on the Alberta border that faces into Saskatchewan? “Last one to leave please turn out the lights” That joke has been around Calgary since I was a kid.
Some insight into SK voting patterns: generally speaking, the poorer the voter, the higher the liklihood that they will vote NDP: thus, the poor inner-city neighbourhoods in Saskatoon Regina and PA are the safest NDP seats. Indians on Reserves vote over 90% NDP, and the turnout there exceeded the turnout amoungst the general pop, but only becasue the Band leadership was motivated and got the vote out. We know that SK under the dippers has a low mediam income, has high rates of crime and poverty: the problem is that it is young and successful people that are leaving: the “bums” (and old-timers) stay behind and vote NDP: the danger is that as things get worse, will the dippers become entrenched?
I should ahve added that SK has a disproportionately large Crown sector, and the unionised gov employees have also tended to vote red. Meanwhile, private inductry is being chased out… NDP entrenched?
To Stephen and Robert McClelland:
Once again, I’m getting so sick of you Saskatchewan NDP freaks it enrages me to simply read any little thing you say. The only thing that satiates me is the knowledge that you are clearly getting the boot this coming year. If Weyburn-Big Muddy is any indication, you are going to be annihilated and will not be back in power for a long, long, long, long time.
It also amazes me how you consistently refer to the Conservative governments in Saskatchewan and how they were the source of all the damage that we as a province experience and have experienced. You would think that the NDP, having held by far the majority of the government tenure, would have been able to undo any alleged ills the Conservatives might have committed. The truth of the matter is that the NDP hasn’t been able to cure any of these alleged ills because… wait for it… THEY ARE THE SOURCE OF THE DAMAGE THEMSELVES.
From the ‘Available hours’ legislation, ignoring the Vic Report year after year, Spudco, Minds-Eye investments, the predatory manner of the Crowns Corps, fear mongering and lies during elections to simply more than I can list off, the NDP shows not only its incompetence but the predatory spirit it truly lives by.
Long story short, I sincerely believe the Saskatchewan NDP are going down – and going down hard. I, for one, can hardly wait to see them be removed from the slate of Saskatchewan government process as we move forward.
Postscript: I can understand your unhappiness with the government of the day, but that kind of rage is apt to lower our population by another “1” if you keep it up… lol… we can’t afford that! So calm down M8!
: )
Channel that rage into something constructive, like a small business… that’s what I did. There is a compelling paper on entrepreneurial network cues by Minitti that supports the theory that entrepreneurs and business will seek out opportunity in areas where others present social cues that it is “acceptable”.
I think those network externalities succinctly differentiate Alberta and Saskatchewan, as it is more acceptable to behave entrepreneurially in Alberta.
I for one would never let a government get in my way of capitalizing on opportunity and generating value and wealth… Change comes from the grassroots, not through government.
Cheers!
Leto
The dippers do not get to inflict their damage upon Saskatcetchewan because they are nice: they get to do so beasue they are inscrupulous and nasty.
By way of example, I ahve twice been told by angry old men in the last feww years to “move to Alberta then if you don;t like it here”, once while holding a baby, and this was during a calm and civil discussion of politics here. Of course, i told them that many of my freinds already ahve, and I might be next.
If things don;t change, if the dippers win the next election, why stick around?
…i always thought Calgary was Saskatchewan’s biggest city, with all the SK plates running around.
Now we’ve got more people in Calgary than the whole province of Sask.
Shame, beautiful country and history, all for naught.
All that virtually free oil offered up by Alberta is creating quite a party there. Sask. will just have to be patient and wait until the boom calms. Meanwhile, you can quietly cash in in a more modest way, as befits Sask.
Steve, you mistake mediocrity for modesty: you refer to “cashing in”, but what you really mean is oil subsidizing the dependance of gov workers, the elderly and welfare cases in Saskatchewan, while Alberta has created a truly diversified economy.
Yeah, Kate, Devine grew the population. Unfortunately he also unconscionably grew the debt to the point of bankruptcy, leaving a fiscal legacy that haunts us still. All the right has to offer is whining and finger pointing and Alberta envy and the same freemarket fundamentalist nostrums Devine employed.
postcript wrote:
Once again, I’m getting so sick of you Saskatchewan NDP freaks it enrages me to simply read any little thing you say.
Obvious from the tone and content of your post.
It also amazes me how you consistently refer to the Conservative governments in Saskatchewan and how they were the source of all the damage that we as a province experience and have experienced.
It amazes me that you would charge me with this, since my post above makes no mention of Conservative governments, and I doubt I’ve elsewhere made the claim you attribute to me.
ignoring the Vic Report year after year
What can this phrase possibly mean? Especially after Andrew Thomson’s statements about the last budget?
Thomson adds that the largest factor that convinced him to fully implement the Vicq Report was ongoing discussions with the Saskatchewan business community where he was assured that business tax cuts would translate into more jobs and investment in the province and not be used to simply profit take.
“I really do think we are going to see significant investment and new jobs created as a result of this (business tax cuts),” Thomson says.
Wow, a radical anti-business tirade from Thomson there, eh?
Long story short, I sincerely believe the Saskatchewan NDP are going down
Believe what you will, Saskatchewan’s voters will eventually make their decision, regardless of your ill-informed ramblings.
Devine grew the population. Unfortunately he also unconscionably grew the debt to the point of bankruptcy, leaving a fiscal legacy that haunts us still.
Simply not true. Devine’s government actually ran operating surplus’ for most of the years he was in power, but ran budget deficits because of the overhang of very high interest rates coming out of the 1970s and early 80s. Try inheriting the kind of neglect and mess that Blakeney left behind, with 20% interest rates, and unfunded pensions, and put in a fiscal performance that even matches Devine’s. Very difficult, if not impossible.
Devine’s government built a lot of stuff as well that was responsible for powering the Saskatchewan economy in the 1990s. The NDP cried like babies when the Shand Power station was built — but every last watt of output was desperately needed by the mid 1990s (as predicted). SaskTel built out a fibre optic network that is the basis for the Internet access that Saskatchewan people now enjoy. Highways were actually maintained, not left to neglect. The economic benefits of the Devine-built heavy oil upgrader total in the billions for Saskatchewan today, as do the income taxes paid by Cameco and PCS, divested Crown corporations and now multinational leaders in their respective industries.
Devine has nothing to apologize for, and the dippers ought to be ashamed of innaccurately portraying his record as being anything but of honour, service, and dedication to the province he loves, and might I add, still lives in (your beloved Tommy Douglas…left the province in his retirement).
…still lives in Saskatchewan, just outside of Moose Jaw (your beloved Tommy Douglas…left the province in his retirement).
Stephen:
“Despite the NDP’s protestations to the contrary, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the ruling party is growing nervous about the official opposition. You can see this by looking at the speed with which this government has responded to recent Saskatchewan Party initiatives.”
-Randy Burton, Saskatoon Star Phoenix, Feb. 8/05
Randy says that beautifully. If it wasn’t for the fact that the NDP is crapping it pants right now, they would definitely not have moved forward anywhere near what they did with the Vic Report. The NDP are without doubt the most anti-business party in Canada, and for you to even try to dispute that is simply foolish. See the following letter from the Saskatoon Business Chamber of Commerce:
http://www.eboardoftrade.com/files/Productivity_Reports/Advocacy/12_13_04_Letter_MLAs.pdf
That summarizes nicely how ‘business friendly’ the NDP are.
When you make comments like, “… where is Brad Wall’s concrete plan to ‘grow the provincial population’?”, that’s what ticks me off. Not only do you try and insult the Conservatives who have been feeding the NDP ideas for the past 12 years, but you completely ignore the plan that is right in front of you. If you care to review the Saskatchewan Party site or search the internet you would find there has been a plan for the Saskatchewan economy from Wall and SaskParty for a long time. But of course, you don’t want to see that.
Mark…As to your enumeration of Devine “achievments”, well, as someone commented during his tenure, even a blind squirrel gets a few acorns.
Your historic revisionism just dosen’t cut it, no matter how much time has elapsed. The truth is Devine inherited a fiscal situation in which there was zero debt on the budget side and a sound infrastructure. He ran deficits every year he was in office while divesting the gov’t. of assets through privitization. By 1990 the debt to asset ratio put us $3.4 billion in the hole.
The NDP keeps forming gov’t., regardless of their performance because of the memory of the Devine Conservative gov’t.
If Devine performed so exceptionally, why did the PC party have to kill itself off and resurrect as the SK party?
Why wouldn’t Harper’s Conservatives touch his candidacy with a barge pole?
Say what you want about Calvert, one thing he said is right on the money. The right doesn’t believe in government, and every once in a while they get elected and demonstate it.
One thing this province can’t afford is another right-wing fiscal performance to match Devine’s.
maryjane:
Yeah, because we’re doing so well under the NDP. Business is thriving, people are moving here in droves, our resources are being used in such a way as to benefit our economy and standard of living and the free-market is thriving.
Oh, wait – that’s Alberta, where they have had a strong Conservative government for a long time.
There is absolutely no reason why Saskatchewan should not be performing like Alberta in a greater variety of sectors except for the ineptitude of the NDP governance.
Ahh, Alberta envy raises it’s ugly rightwing head. The fact is, Alberta is where it is in spite of, not because of the Conservatives. Even Devine could have balanced the books there.
Maryjane knows that Alberta had a debt as great as Sk’s 10 years ago: while we have gone deeper in debt, Alberta is debt fee. Maryjane knows this but does not care, because the smoke is maliscious. And I envy Alberta becasue so many of my friends, good people all, ahve moved there and are raising their families and pursuing their careers there: meanwhile, we are held back by selfish and dishonest and self-righteous dippers like maryjane.
maryjane, I wish you would move to Alberta, they need some more socialists there.
Yes bushman, I’m sure your delusions give you much comfort and self-justification when you go to the post office to pick up your subsidy check.
Admit it, grassass, Alberta had as much debt as Saskatchewan 10 years ago. remember the 80s, the decade of deficits? well, Alberta did something about it and things got better. Saskatchewan stuck with you dippers and has suffered.
And leave the post office alone, you sick bstrd, it is a venerable Canadian institution. delusions? I wish. I wish i was high on socialist idealogy, i wish I had the naivity of youth, but no, I have to see and understand how bad you pish poshers have made economic and social conditions with your do-gooding bs. you;re lucky I didn’t catch you peeing on the cenitaph you ittle dooby-head.
As much debt and 3x the population, do the math or are your addition skills on a par with your spelling?
Mary Jane,
When you speak of subsidies, I’m getting a little tired of paying yours and the other thousands of salaries to the bureaucracy each day I go to work. I do not farm. I own a small business which, like many others in this province, is struggling to make ends meet. I pay my staff a VERY fair wage, have introduced a VERY generous benefits plan (I’m reminded of that by a very THANKFUL staff) and yet, I keep going further and further in the hole each month. My business relies directly on the success of other businesses around me and, to make a long story short, they are coming up short on cash as well…it’s a vicious cycle.
So, when you talk of Alberta envy, it’s true. I so wish I was in Alberta at the moment (I have many colleagues in the same industry as me who are doing VERY well). Instead of wondering how I’m going to pay the next round of bills I’d possibly be able to bank away some money for my retirement. While you and the other sponges in Regina are putting in your SGEU mandated 37.5 hour work week with every second Friday off, not to mention your matched pension plan and “reasonable” salary, I’m sitting here with a business that represents my retirement and it’s sinking slowly into the NDP abyss.
I’m 37 years old, my wife and I have our first child on the way and I’m not planning to leave SK anytime soon. It would give me no better pleasure than to place my “X” next to my SK Party candidate and let him/her kick your confused, bloated, holier than thou asses out onto the streets so you can work in a real job like the rest of us.
And, before you start your predictable comeback espousing how rosy everything is where you live, take a look out your back door. Enjoy the view while you can. Your party is going down and so are you and a few thousand snivel servants. I’ve worked too damn hard for too damn long (18 years) to let a worn out United Church minister, 29 of his closest cronies and a whole whack of you useless bureaucrats wreck what I’ve built.
So help me God, if the people of Saskatchewan re-elect this band of losers, I’ll be packing up and heading west where common sense and hard work are rewarded, not shite upon!!!
pissed off wrote:
“And, before you start your predictable comeback espousing how rosy everything is where you live, take a look out your back door. Enjoy the view while you can. Your party is going down and so are you and a few thousand snivel servants.”
—
That is a fantastic piece of writing.
As for ‘maryjane’:
All you do is prove your ineptitude when you write. The plain fact is YOU have no plan, not you or your NDP pals. Everything the NDP has done beneficial for the economy of Saskatchewan has been siphoned off the SaskParty.
Plain fact: The NDP, anywhere in Canada, drives the province it governs in to the ground.
I, like ‘pissed off’, am sick and tired of it. I will work my hands to the bone to see the NDP dethroned and pushed as far back in to the nether-regions of Saskatchewan history as possible. And I can guarantee you this, if by some act of stupidity the NDP is re-elected next year, I will take my two university degrees and high-tech experience and my wife will take her financial degree and we’ll move to Alberta where we are rewarded for our efforts.
We’ll see how well you survive when it’s you, the retired baby-boomers and a 1/3 of the population that is undereducated and tax exempt.
You boys have everything on your side but the facts and a grasp of history. Pissed off was wet behind the ears when this same right-wing jive was being peddled in ’82. Who knows what accounts for postscript’s ignorance.
That being said, go, by all means go to the free market paradise of AB. No one will notice your absence. Civilization does not stand or fall by your existence.
We’re in the middle of a boom here in Sask but people keep leaving. My wife works in healthcare and she says they can’t fill jobs. Good unionized jobs. Nurses(32.00 an hr),LPN’s (27.00 an hr),Home heath aids(18.00 an Hr),Labourers (15,00 to 17.00 an Hr)and it goes on. No one applies.So is that the gov’t fault? I think the lure of Alberta is so great that people don’t apply here.
It doesn’t help that the Sask Party preaches doom and gloom. They get alot of exposure. It’s cheaper to live here than in Alberta. I think people look to the west as Oz where everything is great and the streets are paved with gold. It’s not the wages. It’s the state of mind in Rural sask where all farm kids go to work in the oil patch. They don’t even apply here.