Falling oil prices bring good news bad news week for Saskatchewan

Falling oil prices may be dampening the good news about provincial growth.

Last week, Premier Brad Wall announced within mere hours of each other, the growth figures and a public sector hiring freeze.

New revenue projections prompted Wall to tighten the provincial belt on December 17 by “offering a fiscal restraint memo to all of the ministries.”

That means not only no new hires, but clawing back travel budgets and other non-essential spending.

“We need to go into the next few months making sure that we have the appropriate restraint and not spending money in discretionary areas,” Wall told the Leader-Post.

The NDP had a field day with the announcement accusing the government of breaking its promise of cutting the civil service.

Meanwhile, the premier also announced the latest population statistics from StatsCan showing an increase of 18,102 residents in the past year.

He noted that since 2007, when the population topped one million, 130,000 new residents have arrived.

“That kind of growth creates both opportunities and challenges,” Wall said. “One of those challenges will be to keep our economy and our population growing in 2015 in the face of falling oil revenues. Our government will be working hard to meet this challenge through sound fiscal management, continued investment in important infrastructure projects and tax incentives for new growth and job creation.

“The good news is that Saskatchewan’s economy is a lot more diversified than it was just a few years ago, so a slowdown in one sector can be offset by growth in other areas.  That’s why we continue to enjoy the strongest rate of job creation and the lowest unemployment rate in the country, in addition to continued population growth.”

Wall is optimistic that the balance between providing necessary infrastructure for a growing population—such as new schools, hospitals and roads, including the Regina bypass—can be achieved.

“Even as we make some tough decisions on the operating side of government, we need to continue to build,” he said.

“We’ll use innovative ways to do it. We’ll absolutely use, in a transparent way, P3s if we need to. We need to invest in infrastructure to make sure we’re ready for the growth that will likely continue.”