Saskatchewan economic development representatives are in town to pitch Prairie business partnerships, proposals and prosperity to B.C. entrepreneurs.
Thursday morning’s Opportunities Saskatchewan breakfast at the main Vancouver Public Library (VPL) branch is a key agenda item on the first trip west for the Regina Regional Opportunities Commission (RROC) and Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority (SREDA) in their efforts to drum up collaborative initiatives for businesses in Regina and Saskatoon with their counterparts in major cities in Alberta and B.C.
The organization is also hoping to spread the word that Saskatchewan is hungry for skilled labour and other talent.
“It’s a unique venture in that Saskatchewan’s two largest cities [Saskatoon and Regina] for the first time are co-operating to spread the message that while … a lot of people read about retraction and economic slowdown, the stories in Regina and Saskatoon are markedly different in that our issues are tight labour market and finding enough people,” said RROC vice-president David Froh.
He added that, with Saskatoon and Regina having similar business needs and a similar population base of around 250,000, it made better sense for the two cities to collaborate rather than compete.
The trip west, Froh said, is focused on spreading the word that the two cities and the rest of Saskatchewan are booming, despite the depressed oil and gas market that is hurting economies in other provinces.
“Regina has the strongest population growth in the country and the highest per-capita household income in the country, so it’s an interesting story for Saskatchewan, and we thought it was an appropriate time to travel to Calgary and Vancouver to spread the message and essentially tell companies that if they’re interested in realizing opportunities within the Dominion, within Canada, that Saskatchewan shouldn’t be an after-thought; it should be at the front.”
Froh’s Prairie optimism, however, is not shared in other quarters.
According to the BMO Blue Book released May 4 by BMO Capital Markets Economics and BMO Commercial Banking, all is not upbeat in Saskatchewan.
John MacAulay, BMO’s senior vice-president, Prairies and Central Canada, said lower oil and gas prices have resulted in Saskatchewan’s business owners adopting “a new level of caution.”
BMO Capital Markets senior economist Robert Kavcic added that the province’s real GDP “is expected to remain subdued at 1% in 2015.”
But while he forecast that weaker prices will negatively affect the oil industry other resource sectors in Saskatchewan should offset oil’s weakness, including “an expected 8% increase in potash production.”
BMO’s Blue Book sees B.C. leading the way in Canada with real GDP growth of 2.6%.
But while Froh conceded that Saskatchewan’s economic growth has slowed compared with previous years, he said his organization is predicting 2% to 3% GDP growth next year.
He added that the province’s growing population is driving growth in retail and other sectors in an increasingly diversified Saskatchewan economy.
Potential for B.C. businesses, especially equipment manufacturers, metal fabricators and professional services, abound in the Prairie province, Froh said.
“So our thought was rather than fly to Ireland, or Germany or India, some of our organizations were far better positioned to go to our Western neighbours and remind people that there are opportunities in little old Saskatchewan.”
Thursday’s free RROC event at the VPL is scheduled to run from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m.
