It was an informative lunch during which Jeremy Harrison, minister responsible for immigration, trade, and tourism, spoke on a number of topics key to the economy. Among those was mentioned the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program (SINP) and the effect of the changing oil conditions.
“Here in Saskatchewan, oil revenues account for just over 10 per cent,” said Harrison. “So yes, a decline in oil prices will have an impact on our economy, but we will manage the situation with prudence as we have done before to ensure that Saskatchewan continues to move forward.”
Harrison understands that the dropping prices will be a challenge in terms of government revenue, but he said the other sectors will be enough to balance it out. Moreover, there’s a good chance Saskatchewan will see more Alberta workers from that industry who may have been laid off or see more opportunity happening here.
“We’ll see some benefit in that regard, especially for companies that couldn’t fill positions because of the challenge of recruiting those workers,” he said.
Harrison spent much of his speech iterating Saskatchewan positive economic growth, but also mentioned how there is still a struggle with skilled labour shortages. The province’s 2014-2015 budget announced a number of investments aimed at addressing this issue, including additional funding for apprenticeships and adult basic education. In a later interview, Harrison went into further detail about the benefits the SINP provides.
“In order to qualify for SINP, the majority – if not all – applicants are skilled workers,” he said. “About 86 per cent of immigrants to Humboldt came through SINP … we’d encourage anyone outside the province looking for employment to see Saskatchewan as s destination place for potential employment and a career. The vast majority (of immigrants from SINP) have stayed in the province and continued employment or brought their families over or started families here. It’s positive in terms of retention.”
In Humboldt alone, Harrison said 395 new immigrants have arrived since 2000.
“We’re taking an all-of-the-above approach to address our labour market challenges in the province, which means training more of our own folks here, it means attracting newcomers from across Canada, and it means attracting newcomers from around the world,” he said.
Now that SINP is remaining in focus as a healthy channel for attracting skilled workers, the province is trying to jump start its express entry option. The option cuts down the wait time for applicants as long as they can get an invitation from an employer in Canada. Unfortunately, the option isn’t well known as of yet and those who are familiar with the program are still being frustrated by its constantly changing conditions.
“Yes, that’s something I’ve heard repeatedly, that ‘you guys keep changing the parameters around this thing,’ so we’re going to be aiming for stability in how the program’s running and administered,” said Harrison. “We’ve expanded the program significantly … so there have been some changes made along the way.”
Beyond those two main topics, Harrison talked about Saskatchewan’s diverse economy with its many sectors: agriculture, mining and minerals, oil and gas, manufacturing, etc. He mentioned how the manufacturing industry has grown by more than 50 per cent since 2008 and by more than 130 per cent since 2000.
“Economic diversity means that we spread the fiscal expectation around, that we’re not just putting all our eggs in one basket and that’s a part of sound management,” he said.
Harrison didn’t hesitate to pull out the statistics either, saying the province has seen nearly 68,000 more people working here since 2007 and that 14,000 jobs were created in the last year. The crown jewel amidst all of that was the province’s lowest unemployment rate in the entire country for the past two years.
“Our friends, neighbours and family who once left for greener pastures are seeing the potential that exists here and coming home,” he said. “Saskatchewan is the place to be, not just the place to be from as we were for many years and our economic demand is helping to attract new workers from around the world.”
