Moe aims for population of 1.4 million by 2030

Throne speech sets out vision to add 100,000 new jobs in 11 years

The Saskatchewan government is moving to regulate vaping, crack down on distracted drivers and tackle surgical wait times this fall, while dreaming up visions of a province with 1.4 million people and 100,000 new jobs.

Those ambitious goals came in Lt.-gov. Russ Mirasty’s first throne speech, which laid out the government’s priorities for the legislative session that began on Wednesday.

The government plans to introduce 30 pieces of legislation and then pass a spring budget with “significant investments in infrastructure.”

It’s also planning a continued fight against the carbon tax.

But the centrepiece of the fall legislative sitting will be a new Saskatchewan Growth Plan, including targets for job creation and population growth up to 2030.

“Growth remains the government’s most important priority,” said Premier Scott Moe in an address to reporters.

Saskatchewan’s current growth plan runs out in 2020. The government has not yet reached its 1.2 million population goal under that plan, but Moe was confident the province can achieve the new target of 1.4 million people over the next decade.

“It is an aggressive target, no doubt, but the recipe for success in this province is quite simple,” he said. “We increase the value of our exports.”

That will create new career opportunities, said Moe, who predicted people would flock to the province to embrace the export-driven prosperity.

The new employment target of 100,000 new jobs by 2030 far exceeds the 60,000 jobs the current plan aimed at for 2020, a goal the government also seems likely to miss. As of July, there were about 42,000 more people working in Saskatchewan compared to October 2012.

The throne speech called exports the “pillar” of the growth plan. It also touted the oil and gas sector as essential to the Saskatchewan economy and signalled measures are on the way to increase agricultural value-added exports to $10 billion by 2030.

The details of the plan are expected later in the fall sitting. Moe did not explain in detail how he will expand exports in volatile foreign markets, except by highlighting recent trade missions in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. He pledged that those efforts will accelerate along with moves to draw in more foreign investment.

“I’ve always said that we’re going to ramp up our engagement,” said Moe.

NDP leader Ryan Meili criticized the throne speech as myopic, saying it takes a “narrow view” of the economy.

He questioned whether the premier really has a plan for growth, beyond simply crossing his fingers and praying for another commodity boom.

“You can’t count on those oncein-a-lifetime conditions to to occur,” Meili said. “We need to see, what are the actual plans to expand market access abroad and also increase markets here at home?”

He argued the government is missing opportunities to diversify Saskatchewan’s economy and make direct investments in people. He faulted the throne speech for its lack of any concrete commitments on education.

The NDP has repeatedly hammered the government on class sizes over the past legislative session, and looks determined to do so again. Moe said his government is “absolutely dedicated to education,” but is currently engaged in consultations with education groups. Some, like the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, have echoed the NDP’S call to see class sizes shrink.

Despite his criticism, Meili could not point to a specific legislative commitment in the throne speech that he opposed outright. He merely found it lacking in solutions for pressing issues like the opioid and crystal meth crisis.

Others had warm words for specific elements of the throne speech. Donna Pasiechnik of the Canadian Cancer Society was pleased to see a commitment to address what she called an “epidemic” of teen vaping. She was hoping for measures that mirror regulations on tobacco use, marketing and access for youth.

Moe signalled that’s roughly the model the government will be looking at, without going into details.

Some commitments will cost money, like funding for the economic transition in coal-dependent

communities of up to $10 million. But Moe said the government remains aware of its “razor-thin surplus” and will spread that commitment over future fiscal years.

The same uncertainty reigns over the government’s pledge to fund renewed efforts to reduce surgical wait times, another prominent feature of Wednesday’s throne speech and of the 2012 growth plan.

The government has not achieved the three-month target it set in 2012, and Moe did not provide a specific funding level on Wednesday.

Health Minister Jim Reiter said there won’t be any targets this time around. He noted the 2015 Surgical Initiative made “huge inroads” through a combination of funding and innovation, including third-party surgical and diagnostic services.

“Now we’re slipping back a little bit,” he said.

“We’re slipping back because of demographics. Our population is aging, and also just because of population, we have a lot more people.” Asked about private options, Reiter suggested that the new approach will follow a similar path. Other commitments include: Improving the safety and

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well-being of First Nations children and reducing the number of children who need to come under the province’s care;

Strengthening enforcement of

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maintenance orders for child support payments;

Fighting invasive aquatic species

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through a new Fisheries Act.