There may be challenges but it's a good time for Yorkton and for the province as a whole. So says Saskatchewan's premier, Brad Wall, who was in Yorkton last Wednesday to meet with city councillors as well as to attend a community barbecue event hosted in part by Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit.
"We've been travelling around the province this summer, meeting with municipalities of all sizes. We just want to make sure we are getting out to the communities to find out first hand what the priorities are," said Wall to local media. "We want to know the concerns with respect to the provincial government and hear the suggestions on how we can deal with things. The mayor and council here in Yorkton had lots of good advice.
"The message I received loud and clear... is infrastructure and that's very much a part of our growth plan. We've been investing record levels of money in infrastructure to help keep up and to facilitate more growth across the province but frankly more is needed. Municipalities can't do it on their own. They need a meaningful partner at our level and at the federal level."
Wall believes in the coming year there will be additional support offered from the federal level and he says the province is prepared to climb on board as well.
While Wall has met most of those serving on Yorkton city council before, this was the first time he has had the opportunity to sit down with them as a group to discuss the issues of the day.
"This is a very good council. They're thinking about the long-term future of Yorkton while also trying to deal with the immediate needs. That's a good balance to have... we want to be able to work with the City of Yorkton. This is a growing community. When you consider how much it's grown in the last little while... this is a growing Saskatchewan centre and we want to be able to work with it in a constructive way to make sure Yorkton can keep up with the challenges growth brings."
The future looks bright for the province as a whole says Wall. Exports are up and the province is prospering.
"Last year we broke a record in terms of exports - $32.5 billion exported from the province. We moved ahead of British Columbia... not bad for a place without any ports. We're on track in the first six months of this year to beat last year's record... the stars are oil and potash and agriculture but we're also diversifying into more manufacturing exports as well... it's solid and this is a credit to not the government, this is a credit to the businesses and their employees, their teams..."
The more we export, says Wall, the better it is for the economy, thus the plan is to continue to work with worldwide partners like Asia to encourage more.
Another recent development that's important to Saskatchewan and it's residents adds Wall, is the fact the province was just awarded a triple A credit rating.
"There are only three provinces in Canada that have a Triple A credit rating - British Columbia, Alberta and ourselves... and only one of those has potash, a giant gopher and the best team in the CFL. This is not insignificant because the reason the gave us this credit rating which is the highest credit rating they give out, is because of low and decreasing debt.
"This is important for future generations and it's good to see."
