Saskatoon’s outgoing Mayor Charlie Clark has long argued the city functions as the “economic engine” that drives Saskatchewan’s economy.
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During his final “state of the city” speech this month, Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark included a slideshow with a graphic that drove home a message he has often repeated.
The graphic, perhaps more than a little cheekily, used indexed values to compare employment growth in Saskatoon to the rest of Saskatchewan.
The indexed numbers showed that from March 2014 to March of this year, the cumulative employment growth in Saskatoon was 24 per cent, while the rest of the province’s cumulative employment declined by seven per cent.
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It would take the rest of this column to fully explain these statistics, but it underlines what Clark has been preaching for years, that the city he will lead until November serves as the “economic engine” of Saskatchewan.
Here’s some job numbers from Statistics Canada, compiled by Saskatoon city hall, that should be easier to understand: In 2022, the number of people employed in Saskatoon and area jumped by 16,700, which is the highest increase recorded since 2006.
The corresponding number for the entire province was 19,800, which means the Bridge City region accounted for 84 per cent of the province’s net employment growth.
From 2006 to 2022, employment growth in the Saskatoon region outpaced the rest of the province five to one. The number of people employed in Saskatoon and area increased by 59,700 over that span, or 45 per cent, while in the rest of the province, employment increased by 30,200 or 8.4 per cent.
In 2022, Statistics Canada’s labour force survey shows the Saskatoon region led the way in Canada with the highest employment growth rate, the highest employment rate, the second-highest labour force participation rate and the third-lowest unemployment rate.
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In all but one of those categories, the Regina area ranked below the national average.
Yet Regina Mayor Sandra Masters, not Clark, accompanied Premier Scott Moe to Dubai last year to tell the Saskatchewan success story at the COP28 climate summit.
As for what type of jobs Saskatoon added from 2006 to 2022, 43 per cent were professional occupations and another 15 per cent were skilled trades and technical occupations. Another 42 per cent were service, sales and the rest.
But those qualify as the types of jobs you want for a thriving economy.
According to numbers on the Saskatoon Regional Economic Development Authority website, Saskatoon’s gross domestic product reached a record $24.9 billion in the first quarter of this year.
That’s nearly a third of the record $77.9-billion GDP the provincial government boasted about this month — without mentioning Saskatoon.
It doesn’t require much imagination to reckon why you rarely hear provincial voices tell the Saskatoon success story, given the city’s progressive mayor and left-leaning council and the provincial government’s ongoing migration to the right.
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Increasingly, the Saskatchewan Party government seems content to ignore Saskatoon, when it’s not outright punishing it, like when it abandoned the longstanding Meewasin Valley Authority partnership and slashed its funding.
Yet later this year the provincial government will stress that people need to re-elect it because it has fostered a successful economy. That argument strains believability more than a little for a province that has suffered billion-dollar swings the last couple of years in its resource-based economy due to global markets.
However, it beats trying to convince Saskatchewan residents that their current government should be re-elected because of its respect for democratic institutions or accountability, given the ongoing saga stemming from revelations by Speaker Randy Weekes, a 25-year MLA with the governing party.
Still, if you believe continuity is vital at the provincial level to sustain the economy, that argument should work even better at the Saskatoon city hall level.
Regardless, this fall’s municipal election will be brimming with candidates trying to convince voters that Saskatchewan’s largest city is heading toward oblivion due to its left-wing council that imposed a six per cent tax hike and is destroying the city with bike lanes and plans for a new arena.
Clark has opted against running again, but he could make a compelling economic argument for another term.
Phil Tank is the digital opinion editor at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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