Holy Dyna, honey! Better clean up the place to make room, looks like we're getting company.
Look at all the people around here!
June 28, the Government of Saskatchewan made some hay out of the fact there are now more people here, in Saskatchewan, then ever before. In a release, it noted, "Saskatchewan continues to be one of the fastest growing provinces in Canada, growing by 3,711 people in the first quarter of 2010 to an all-time high of 1,041,729 people. According to Statistics Canada, this represents Saskatchewan's largest first quarter population increase since 1972.
"Saskatchewan's rate of population growth was 0.36 per cent in the first quarter of the year, second among the provinces to British Columbia at 0.37 per cent.
"Net inter-provincial migration (people moving in from other provinces minus people moving to other provinces) accounted for 1,297 of the increase and there was a natural increase (births minus deaths) of 865. Net international migration made up the other 1,549 of the population increase."
It reminds me of the pilot episode of Corner Gas. A man pulls up to the pump, and comments to Brent that there's nothing to see.
Brett responds: "There's lots to see. Nothin' to block your view. Like the mountains back there. They're uh ... Well, what the hell? I could've sworn there was a big mountain range back there. Juttin' up into the sky all purple and majestic. I must be thinkin' of a postcard I saw or somethin'. Hey, it is kinda flat, thanks for pointin' that out."
Man: "You guys always this sarcastic?"
Brent: "There's nothin' else to do."
Well, that may have changed since that episode aired in 2004. Now Brent can start counting people.
However, he won't have to worry about those people cluttering up his skyline, like the non-existent purple and majestic mountains. These new people are almost all ending up in towns, and cities not on the land.
When I was flunking out of the College of Engineering back in the mid-1990s, there was basically one job prospect for people who did not flunk out - Calgary. That's still where the bulk of engineering jobs are on the Prairies, in the oil and gas sector at least, but it's no longer a foregone conclusion that's where you will end up.
Indeed, this past spring I did a story on an engineer from Saskatchewan with a PhD, who got tired of the southern California rat race working for large cell phone companies. Your cell phone in your pocket probably has some of his designs. Instead, he came home a few years ago, set up a wind turbine company in Saskatoon, and is now growing leaps and bounds, hiring more engineers and others. We didn't see a lot of that 15 years ago.
But we must find somewhere to stick people. While new housing starts have been strong in recent years, it can't be the only source of housing growth. What Saskatchewan needs it more housing, in particular, rental housing - apartments in particular. When a developer can build an apartment-style condo, sell it out in a few months, and walk away with a decent profit in their pocket right away, it's a simple decision. Building an apartment building, then waiting 10, 15 or 20 years for it to pay itself out, never mind the hassles of being a landlord, just isn't all that appealing. Yet this is exactly the type of housing new people to Saskatchewan need, because newcomers typically don't have a lot of money to drop on a house of their own on day one.
Someone smarter than me will need to figure out this housing issue. We need more people in Saskatchewan. There are 5,800 jobs posted on www.saskjobs.ca at the time of writing, 579 in Estevan alone. People will keep coming to fill those jobs. Let's get some of those people building apartments for the rest.
- Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net
