It’s the old forest and the trees thing. When you’re in the middle of something, it can be hard to tell whether you are going forward, backward or just sitting still.
So, when we get a report from an outsider with a broader perspective, it can be helpful. The latest of one of those reports comes from the economics branch at Scotiabank, looking at how Saskatchewan stacks up against the other provinces in terms of growth, contraction and recovery.
There were some things that were not surprises. We will experience a deep recession this year, for example. And our patience in the mining world is finally yielding results as uranium production will resume while potash output has been slowly rising.
Agriculture has been our bright light with China buying more of our goods, despite the restrictions on some products.
And the provincial government’s fiscal prudence earned a special note. We will come out of this with the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the country, freeing up capacity for capital spending that is expected to add $1.2 billion to our GDP next year.
Source: Martin Charlton Communications