Premier Scott Moe has released Saskatchewan’s Growth Plan: The Next Decade of Growth 2020-2030. This is an aggressive plan to strengthen our economy, our communities and families to build a stronger Saskatchewan.
The Growth Plan is a roadmap for a growing province with key targets such as growing our population to 1.4 million people, creating 100,000 new jobs, increasing exports by 50 per cent and increasing agriculture value-added revenue to $10 billion.
Our plan outlines 20 key actions our government will undertake over the 2020s to build a strong and growing province and to ensure we remain on track to realize the 30 goals set out in the plan.
Our province is home to almost half of the agriculture land in Canada. With that, special emphasis is included to enhance agriculture production and processing of agricultural products right here in Saskatchewan.
The strong focus on agriculture and exports will have a positive impact for our local area. An agricultural technology incentive will support the application of emerging digital technologies and will help attract agricultural technology companies to Saskatchewan. A new chemical fertilizer incentive will encourage investment in Saskatchewan’s chemical fertilizer sector. This will be significant for the potash industry in our area.
Under the new growth plan, agricultural production and agri-food processing will increase. Our goal is to crush 75 per cent of the canola we grow, process 50 per cent of the pulse crops we grow, and double meat processing and animal feed value-added revenue right here in Saskatchewan.
Given that Saskatchewan is the world's leading exporter of dry peas, lentils, durum, mustard seed, canola seed, canola oil, canola meal, canaryseed, flaxseed and oats, increasing markets for these products will be necessary to grow the economy. Work on that has already happened with the announcement that in 2020-21, the Ministry of Trade and Export Development will open offices in Japan, India and Singapore.
Establishing these offices will allow the province to have officials on the ground with a focus on:
- diversifying markets;
- facilitating connections between our businesses and international buyers;
- increasing foreign direct investment;
- establishing ongoing relationships and business partnerships; and
- providing exporters an understanding of the business environment, rules and regulations in these markets.
Our thriving local tourism industry will grow even stronger as the province moves towards increasing tourist expenditures in Saskatchewan by 50 per cent. Addressing climate change will happen hand-in-hand with growth incentives. The Growth Plan will deliver on Saskatchewan’s climate change plan to reduce carbon emissions. We will reduce carbon emissions in electricity production and advance the development of zero-emission small modular reactor technology using Saskatchewan uranium.
The New Decade of Growth will benefit all the people of Saskatchewan. It is our goal to increase Indigenous participation in the economy through the growth of Saskatchewan's natural resource industries and labour market development. Communities will be stronger with the building and upgrading of 10,000 kilometres of highways, and through $2.5 billion in revenue sharing. An initiative to further reduce surgical wait times has already been approved in the legislature.
The new Saskatchewan Growth Plan is a roadmap to building a better quality of life for Saskatchewan people – to build strong communities and strong families – and to grow a stronger Saskatchewan now, and for the next decade. You can learn more about the plan at saskgrowthplan.ca.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
