Major cities drive growth in province
Saskatoon, Regina must boost attractiveness to youth: economist
By Bruce Johnstone, Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post
November 26, 2009 8:27 AM
Saskatchewan's two major cities are too small to have self-sustaining economies, but they can still be "engines of growth," says University of Saskatchewan economist Rose Olfert.
Olfert was the keynote speaker at the National Housing Day luncheon Wednesday, hosted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., Saskatchewan Housing Corp. and the City of Regina.
Compared with Canada as a whole, Saskatchewan is less urbanized, with 44 per cent of the population living in cities of 100,000 or more, compared with 81 per cent of the Canadian population, based on 2006 census data.
"Saskatchewan is still a rural province," Olfert said. But the trend toward urbanization is gaining momentum in the province, thanks to increased in-migration, the growing aboriginal population and other demographic factors.
Neither Saskatoon nor Regina have the "critical mass" of 500,000 people that economists view as economically "self-sustaining," Olfert said. But the two cities boast many of the advantages of larger cities, without some of the disadvantages.
For example, both cities have larger immigrant populations, higher education and employment rates, higher average incomes and younger populations than the province as a whole. Both cities act as service, employment and market centres for their surrounding areas, while rural areas provide labour, land and consumers for the urban areas.
But Olfert noted today's labour force is less concerned with employment opportunities than quality of life issues.
"Increasingly, young people go where they want to live," Olfert said. "That's a challenge for cities and the development of their infrastructure, including housing."
Following her speech, Olfert said both cities need to make themselves attractive to young people.
"This current generation seems to be making choices (on where to live) on a quality of life basis. It's not just the job. They look very carefully at whether the cities have the characteristics that they value."
Smaller cities, such as Saskatoon and Regina, need to make their downtowns more attractive places to live and improve their transit systems, cultural amenities and recreational facilities to appeal to younger workers.
"There's a long list of things we don't have. We don't have, by any measure, very attractive climates. We don't have the highest end of everything. It makes it all the more important to make the best of what we have."
"Moderately sized cities, with good personal contacts, quality life and safe streets and less congestion -- those are things we're going to have to capitalize on. We won't appeal to everybody, but we will appeal to those for whom those things are important."
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