I've always thought that Saskatchewan was a beautiful province with diversity that few can match. Yes cold climate but the summers are beautiful, far less snow than much of Canada, sunny year round, and those beautiful endless sunsets that she is known for.

Unemployment is amongst the lowest in the country. There is work to be had all over the place from blue to white collar yet they can't keep their young people.
Alberta, of course, offers higher wages and lower taxes. BC doesn't offer either. Yes the climate is more mild but the price of housing is obscene. When moving to BC your standard of living plunges, its just a fact.
Alberta has its benefits but in Sask you do not pay healthcare premiums and the price of housing is much less.

Its not like Alberta is a cultural becon and nor is it the most tolerable place.
Sask seems more relaxed and Saskatoon especially is a real liberal cultural gem in the middle of the praries? So again why are so many young, especially white collar ones leaving?
They have a choice of jobs with an extremly high standard of living in a beautiful province.
I know the crime rates are very high which doesn't help but can't explain it all. All of western Canada has major crime problems, some worse than others but still Calgary is the only major western city to have a crime rate less than the national average.

I can see people leaving Atlantic canada due to very poor job prospects even for the well educated and the horrible climate but Sask?
Thought? Maybe Sask people can lend a hand, I really would like to know?

Our neighbours to the east are starting to turn the province around for the better. There is a lot of evidence that the situation in Saskatchewan is getting much better. However, Calgary and Edmonton offer a combination of cultural and economic pursuits, while still being quite near Saskatchewan. I know some people that live in Calgary because of vibrancy and jobs, while still being able to travel back frequently to Regina or Saskatoon to visit family.

I'm going back a few years, but when a lot of young people were moving to Alberta from Sask. it was for employment. Income on the farm wasn't so great and job opportunities weren't that good in the local community. This is true even though the unemployment rate was quite low. Understand the unemployment rate was low because the unemployed left the province, not because the job opportunities were great - the reverse was true for Alberta.

If you grew up on a farm near Estevan and needed to get a job in a major urban center you had to move no matter what. Now where should you move to? Saskatoon, Regina (both with so-so job opportunities) or do you go to Alberta where they have no PST, and you can choose from the booming economies that its cities offer. Even a city like Red Deer has really boomed - nearly tripled its population over the last 25 years.

I can appreciate that but at the same time your standard of living would fall.
Health care premiums are expensive.
I know Alberta doesn't have PST but the same time the cost of housing is far lower, whether that be rent or purchase. Take what you spend in Sask and double it.
Personal income tax is lower but that can be deceptive.
You make more in Alberta but due to this you pay higher federal income tax to pay for your house that is twice as expensive. Electricity and auto insurance rates are also far lower than Alberta's.
Personally I don't think you are better off.
God knows you are better off than in BC but atleast BC has the mild climate.
There really does seem to be two "wests". Alb/BC on one side and Sask/Man on the other.

I was talking more about 10-15 years ago when a lot of people where moving to Alberta from Sask. The price differential in housing was much less than now and even today Edmonton's housing is very reasonable. Also, you have to consider that there is no PST - a lot of money when you buy a vehicle - and that wages are higher in Alberta. If you have a high income, the taxes on it are much lower in Alberta too.

You make a good point about auto insurance - Alberta is the shits that way.

The winters in Calgary are much milder than most of Sask as well.

If you can build a successful business, you will be way, way, way better off in Alberta than in Sask. due to the tax differences alone. I retired at the age of 40 yrs after only working for 15 years in Alberta (Edmonton and Red Deer). Don't underestimate Alberta's advantages.

Bottom line - it is a fact that Alberta has Canada's highest standard of living.

^^But, I believe that Saskatchewan is known for being the cheapest in living expenses.

My parents' house is worth around 115,000 I think and it's about 1200-1300 square feet and has 2 levels... In BC that price would get you a trailorhome, and in Calgary I'm sure you'd be up over 200,000. When My Aunt and Uncle moved to Alberta, they paid double what they would have paid here for a home (they had to move because of job opportunities).

A lot of the time when the younger people move they don't think of all the living expenses that are cheaper here or everything else... they just see "NO PST" and think they are in heaven...

Saskatchewan is like Arizona. But I thought the economy is doing really well?

the reason is because of urbanization, rural sask is moving to regina, saskatoon and other western cities.

^^The economy is doing fine, and I know Saskatoon is going through a nice big boom right now... there has also been a pretty big boom in Regina (especially in the North and East areas of the city. TONNES of new stores within the last 5 years. It's quite amazing really. It's starting to turn around. Saskatchewan is now a "have" province. Things are slowly changing, but it takes a while for mentalities to switch.

It's been said for a long time that Saskatchewan's greatest export is it's people. I hope this changes soon... we've had a pretty stagnant population for over 20 years.

The real problem is the young that are leaving. Saskatchewan, especially rural, is becoming decidedly old. So many vacant towns.
There are tons of jobs in Sask. now but the exodus continues. The only reason the population has stabalized recently as opposed to it continued decline is because of the native population. Natives have birth rates twice the national average.

Is that part of the problem? Natives coming to the cities? They have low incomes and have much higher crime and substance abuse levels than the national average.
I know that Regina and Saskatoon have both very high crime and murder rates.

Can it be something else that many Sask. citizens don't want to admit to? A rather conservative society in terms of social issues like abortion/gay rights? In many ways that also doesn't make a lot of sence because Alberta isn't a bastion of liberalism.

I suspect Sask doesn't have much immigration, and probably has a low birth rate. Also, it doesn't have a large urban centre such as Calgary or Winnipeg. Populations are growing mostly in large urban areas these days.

The real problem is the young that are leaving. Saskatchewan, especially rural, is becoming decidedly old. So many vacant towns.
There are tons of jobs in Sask. now but the exodus continues. The only reason the population has stabalized recently as opposed to it continued decline is because of the native population. Natives have birth rates twice the national average.

Is that part of the problem? Natives coming to the cities? They have low incomes and have much higher crime and substance abuse levels than the national average.
I know that Regina and Saskatoon have both very high crime and murder rates.

Can it be something else that many Sask. citizens don't want to admit to? A rather conservative society in terms of social issues like abortion/gay rights? In many ways that also doesn't make a lot of sence because Alberta isn't a bastion of liberalism.

There aren't tonnes of specialized jobs though. Because the big companies would rather be in big centres like Calgary, Edmonton, and Winnipeg, and from those big centres they can cover Saskatchewan. With a lot of the specialized positions people do have to go out of province to find work in their prospective fields.

I just read a perfect example in the paper just now... It says that only about 30% of the Graduates of Nursing programs can find jobs as Nurses.

I know Regina and Saskatoon have high crime rates, but personally I have never really felt threatened by it (I've lived for 12 years in Saskatoon, and 7 in Regina). All you have to do is know which areas of the city not to go late at night and you'll be fine. Sadly it is the areas with the higher native populations which are the most dangerous :(.

As for conservatism, that doesn't hold water either... Saskatchewan had anti-discriminatory laws since 1993, which was before Newfoundland, NWT, Quebec, Alberta, and PEI. Furthermore the Legislature ruled in favour of Same-sex marriage in Nov, 2004... nearly a year before the Federal Government passed the legislation. (I had to look up the dates because I couldn't remember them). The way the marriage came about is that a Judge ruled that the law went against the charter of rights, and the saskatchewan government didn't challenge the ruling, so it was passed into law.

The society as a whole is somewhat conservative (mostly because the younger population, which is often the more open-minded group) leave the province and thus the more conservative, older generations remain.

Too bad you can intergrate your native population like us

The reality is that Canada's Natives and the ROC have little to do with each other.
They never mix.
Natives are viewed as another "ethnic" group but also poor with too many problems.

The reality is that Canada's Natives and the ROC have little to do with each other.
They never mix.
Natives are viewed as another "ethnic" group but also poor with too many problems.
what is roc?

ROC.........Rest of Canada

Saskatchewan is going to boom and boom quickly...their manufacturing sector is quickly improving...I have had the opportunity to visit regina and saskatoon lately...and I could see myswlf living there...but I really don't want to leave Toronto/GTA...just because Toronto is my home

Just because a city looks like its booming doesn't neccesarily mean its population is growing.
It can be total demographics. Fewer people to a houshold.
Victoria is building all over the place but the population is growing by just 500/year.
Even Vancouver with construction all over the damn place is only growing by 25,000......that just one quarter the rate of the GTA.

^^However, when there are many many new stores being built/coming to the city... for instance in Regina all these have come in the past 5 years: Rona, Best Buy, a new Walmart, a new Superstore, a new IGA/Sobey's, a new Co-op store(this might only be known by western Canadians - not sure if they have co-ops in eastern Canada), Old Navy, Sears Home Store, Boston Pizza, Tim Hortons, Robin's Doughnuts, and a Sandman Hotel/Denny's combo.

Those are just the ones that I can name off the top of my head. If you want to have those businesses running you need employees, and since the unemployment rate in Regina is pretty low already (Saskatchewan overall I think has the 4th lowest in Canada), there has to be more people moving to Regina to staff these new places.

So the cities of Saskatoon and Regina are indeed growing in population, but it is because of inner-provincial-migration from rural areas to urban, not from out of province.

Well, Regina's population over the last decade has only grown by about 5,000 and Saskatoon by about 12,000. Regina's population has stabilized and atleast Saskatchewan's population is no longer shrinking but it is still smaller than it was in 1925 {pre dustbowl} and 1990.

Well, Regina's population over the last decade has only grown by about 5,000 and Saskatoon by about 12,000. Regina's population has stabilized and atleast Saskatchewan's population is no longer shrinking but it is still smaller than it was in 1925 {pre dustbowl} and 1990.

Where are you getting your information about Saskatchewan's population statistics?

We have more people here now than we had in 1925 (806,000).

The first peak was in 1936 at 931,500. That dropped off to a low of 831,700 in 1951. The next peak was in 1987, when we reached 1,032,700. But this dropped off to just over 1 mill in 1991. Then it peaked again in 1996 at 1,019,100. And now it has stablized at around 995,000.

Information taken from the government of Saskatchewan Website:
http://www.stats.gov.sk.ca/pea/rbpop1.pdf

As I was mentioning before... offices relocate out of Saskatchewan... here is a recent example. There is a Royal Bank Data Centre in Regina right now... but it will have moved to Toronto by 2007. I don't know how many jobs will be lost, but if 200 people that are eligible for retirement work there, imagine how many others.

From other discussions I've developed this sort-of theory about jobs, urbanization and the like.

Civilization spoils people, and the points in this thread about Saskatchewan are a perfect example. Most people these days want a phyisically-easy but well-paying job in a big city somewhere with lots of amenities . . . and so on. Who wants to work in a factory somewhere, or work in some small rural town when you can get an office job in Calgary or Toronto or Vancouver and have lots of stuff to do with plenty of Starbucks and bookstores to go to?

Maybe Saskatchewan just doesn't have that. Maybe if Saskatoon and Regina started growing fast and got pretty big, things would turn around.

From your description, Saskatchewan sounds a lot like the Dakotas. There's a sufficient number of jobs and unemployment is low . . . but nobody wants to live there. So the place just kinda stagnates, albeit at a sort-of "nice" level of stagnation.

Well, Saskatoon has been adding Starbuks at an alarming rate.

Hey there goes another one right now...

Gotta go.

Where isnt there a starbucks? I think they just built one in my kitchen