Saskatchewan... Where Have All the People Gone?

There has been a lot of talk recently on the declining population of Saskatchewan, despite it being somewhat of a land of promise... after all, we do have a fair amount of resources here, and lots of potential for making them useful and profitable. So why isn't that happening? Why are our young people leaving in droves, especially to the land of promise and profit next door - Alberta.

There are no doubt a lot of reasons, but I have a few of my own...

Number one, I believe, is both what's good about this place, but at same time one of the worst things too. Saskatchewan is cheap. By that I mean that housing prices, general cost of living, etc. is way lower that it is anywhere west of here. By a huge amount.

Which leads me to my first supposition... I think that it may actually be that the few people who do come here, come here for just that reason. I don't think you will find too many well-heeled individuals moving here, because they can AFFORD to be somewhere else, and why, I must ask, with the higher taxes and lower incentives from this government would anyone risk (and there is always a degree of risk, no matter what business you may be thinking of starting) would anyone come here and try to make a go of it, even if they did have money to burn... A fool and his money is soon enough parted, so why set yourself up here when you know you will encounter higher cost just to get your business up and keep it going?

One thing that must be considered is whether you will not only recover the expense of setting up your business, but also whether you will have the client base to support it on an ongoing basis.

Now, knowing that there are a whole lot of people struggling just to make it month to month here already, what chance is there that they will frequent and support your establishment, enough to make it wildly profitable and successful?

If you are planning to start something that falls into the realm of neccessities (i.e. groceries, gas, clothing, etc), you are likely going to face discrimination if you are not 'one of the Sask natives', who is fortunate enough to have still have family here that will help you to promote your endeavor. Unless you are the epitomy of charm with a whole lot of charisma, you might as well forget it. Yes, you will get the gawkers who come in to check you out, tut tut over whatever you are offering, but who will walk right out again and go to 'Fred's store' down the street where they have always done their business, and likely alway's will... that is unless you are prepared to lose even more by making you prices sooo low on some things that they just can't resist... but they will clean you out of those items, and then still go to Fred's for their main shopping needs.

Yes, there are those who believe people should be coming here in droves, but I think those are the same people who are already here, established in a decent job, and who don't have a realistic
perspective on what newcomer's face when they try to set up shop in this "land of promise", where people are leaving in droves and will continue to do so until radical changes are made to the way this province works.

SS