If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you do to improve Saskatchewan?
The TransformSK consultations came to Melfort on Dec. 8. The moderator asked the dozen participants that question after going through the challenges faced by the province as well as possible opportunities.
“To be honest, I think the economic downturn is an opportunity,” said one participant. “Now is our opportunity to sit back and take a look at the bigger picture.”
“I think a lot of times, we’re looking for the government to sustain everything. We need to sustain it and actually be proactive. I think there’s so much that we can do,” said another, pointing to tourism as an example.
Mark Cooper, the moderator of the discussion, as well as president and CEO of Saskatchewan Construction Association, asked that quotes not be attributed to participants to ensure that everyone could speak freely.
Challenges specific to the NE
Participants, who came from Melfort, Star City and Nipawin, spoke about an affordable housing problem, a coming skills shortage, the lack of a big vision, the exodus to urban centres and a lack of communication with rural areas as just some of the problems facing the province.
“Today we heard a lot about the challenge of having services in a rural region and how we provide health care and housing and education and that’s different than we’ve heard in some other places. It’s not unique to the area either, because Saskatchewan itself is a very rural province,” explained Cooper.
Tom Weegar, the president of Cumberland College, spoke about an unprecedented skills shortage which he sees coming in the near future as a challenge. On the other hand, he noted that the province has an opportunity to do more applied research.
Rob McKay, who spoke to the Review after the consultation, said it was important for the North East School Division to sit at the table during discussions like this one.
“We would want to be involved in the consultation of what it looks like. I think we understand that change happens, but we want to be part of the change and not have change done to us,” he said.
The City of Melfort, the Melfort Chamber of Commerce, the town of Star City, the RM of Star City, the town of Nipawin, North East School Division and Cumberland College were represented at the meeting. Also in attendance were a pastor, a business owner and several members of the media.
From the people to the coalition to the government
Consultations wrapped up on Dec. 15, but the transformsk.ca website will be open for online submissions until Dec. 31. After that, it’s up to the coalition to bring the province’s ideas forward.
“We wanted to... share our ideas and put them together with the ideas of others and present what we hope will be a pretty compelling case to the government about why they should pursue certain changes,” said Cooper. “It wasn’t a question of whether we trust [the government] or not, it’s more of taking them up on the invitation.”
No one spoke on behalf of First Nations groups, a gap which Cooper said would be rectified in the future. He noted that First Nations as well as other groups were directly invited to the discussion.
“Anybody that has been invited, we will be contacting by phone and engaging them one-on-one as best we can,” said Cooper. “We want to hear that perspective. It’s unfortunate no one was here today but they’re certainly welcome to participate in the process, as I would encourage anyone to do, online through the website.”
The consultations, which were held across the province this month, were organized by a coalition which included the province’s Chamber of Commerce, Construction Association, Mining Association, Manufacturing Council and Agricultural Producers Association.
