Paul Martin's Business Update - September 27th

It’s been a long time coming but the province’s population has finally surpassed the 1.1 million mark.

Now this is an estimate, a quarterly update of the changes in population, issued by StatsCan which has Saskatchewan showing a 1.9 per cent expansion rate, a level that is considered strong. Not as strong as Alberta’s 3.4 per cent rate but strong, about 1.5 times higher than the national average.

When the provincial chamber through its Action Saskatchewan initiative put the idea of using population growth as a measure of economic success on the public agenda, some said it was not a particularly effective indicator of anything but others argued it was a bellwether metric. If people were leaving the province, it was a signal that something was wrong and people moving was a sign that there were enough positives to attract people from other places.

Reaching the 1.1 million mark is indeed a signal that something right has been happening here and it is coming from all categories- from international immigration, from other provinces and from a rising birth rate.

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