Steady growth is the theme for the Government of Saskatchewan, says Yorkton MLA Greg Ottenbreit, and at the end of the spring session of the legislature he says it the province is poised to continue down that path.
There are a lot more jobs and opportunities in Saskatchewan, more now than ever before, says Ottenbreit. The spring session of the legislature was focused on meeting the challenge of filling those jobs. That means education, with more funding and programming for Saskatchewan students.
The Saskatchewan Ad--vantage Grant for Education Savings (SAGES), which ties into the education savings plan on a federal level, explains Ottenbreit. People can get up to $250 annually based on their investment in education savings for their children. That's in addition to the expanded graduate retention program, which allows students to claim up to $20,000 over seven years to stay in the province post-graduation, as well as the Saskatchewan Advantage Scholarship which allows $500 a year for high school graduates to stay in the province for post-secondary.
Education also is involved in the most visible project in the Yorkton region, that being the Parkland College Trades and Technology center, which has $4.5 million from the province for this year's construction work, with another $4.5 million coming next year to fund the completion of the facility.
The focus on education comes from the challenges that a strong economy brings, Ottenbreit says, namely the need to train people for the jobs in the province.
He notes that right now skilled trades are the place to be, given a resource-based economy and many difficult to fill and high demand jobs in that sector, and that training is a must if Saskatchewan residents want to take advantage of it.
"Many people realize that in order to take advantage of the economy we need to have skilled people."
"We've always focused on local first. The primary is to get our local people, First Nations and non-First Nations alike educated and able to take advantage of our economy.
Our next focus would be Saskatchewan people who have moved away and get them to come back, they're used to the way of life in Saskatchewan... Outside of that Canadian citizens willing to come to Saskatchewan and help with our labour shortage and last resort would be immigration and going outside of our borders... Having our focus in the right place is important."
Education helps the economy move, and Ottenbreit says that feeds into the government's other main priority, using a strong economy to bolster services that affect the people of the province, something he believes they accomplished in the most recent session.
The priority for the session was continuing with the province's Plan for Growth 2020, and Ottenbreit says there are likely few surprises when people look at that document, since each budget is fit within that framework.
"It's just a matter of what we can do within that plan, address the challenges that come the best we can, and try to see what's coming and be prepared for that."
