By Sean Leslie

Minister of Economy predicts growth for Sask. and PA

Apr 19, 2013 | 6:15 AM

The Minister of the Economy, Bill Boyd, was in Prince Albert to discuss the Saskatchewan Party’s fiscal plan at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday.

One of his first points to the crowd of around 200 people was about the high growth projections for Saskatchewan’s economy.

“Conference Board of Canada estimates Saskatchewan’s economy will grow by 2.9 per cent last year and forecasts are about three per cent this year,” Boyd said. This is one of the highest economic growth rates in Canada, he continued, “somewhere right in the same level as Alberta.”

This economic performance is translating into new jobs, said Boyd. “We have 547, 700 people working in our province and we have an extremely low unemployment rate of 3.8 per cent, well ahead of the national average.”

While these numbers are impressive, unemployment in some Aboriginal communities remains much higher than this provincial average. Boyd said his government will try to address this problem.

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“We are taking special focus on developing training and employment opportunities for Aboriginal people right here in Prince Albert and in Northern Saskatchewan.”

“We see the First Nations and Metis people as a great resource that we have in our province, but we’ve got to get them up to speed in terms of education and training programs,” he said.

“Our economic growth, I believe, depends on well-trained and highly skilled workforce going forward.”

The forestry industry was another focal point of Boyd’s speech, “We expect to see the industry make a full recovery as early as 2014.”

Mills in Meadow Lake, Hudson Bay, Big River and Prince Albert are starting to operate again “largely driven by exports to Asia,” he said.

These exports are helping to turn-around the industry following the dramatic decline of housing starts in the United States. A surging forest industry would have a dramatic effect on the Prince Albert economy for two reasons, said Boyd.

Paper Excellence, the company that now owns the mill, is currently investing more than $80 million into its refurbishment and “a lot of the investment of course will come and flow to businesses here in Prince Albert,” said Boyd.

High-paying, full-time jobs would also be created by a mill operating at full capacity.

“There’s a lot of good jobs that would be associated with the restart of the PA pulp mill,” he said.

After his speech, Boyd opened up the floor to anyone with a question and, not surprisingly, a question about a second bridge in Prince Albert was put to the Minister.

After referring to the study indicating that the Diefenbaker hadn’t yet reached maximum capacity, Boyd squashed the notion quickly and concisely, “I’m sorry, I don’t see it in the cards in the short-term.”

Boyd acknowledged infrastructure is a challenge in Saskatchewan, but pointed to other projects, like the twinning of Highway 11, that are likely to have a positive effect on the Prince Albert economy.

“When you look at it and say is there direct investment into the city of Prince Albert … perhaps not, but all of these other things that are being done definitely helps the economy here in Prince Albert.”

sleslie@panow.com

On Twitter: @_seanleslie