REGINA -- The Saskatchewan Party`s education budget provided taxpayers with some property tax relief.
"Education plays a key role in our government`s growth agenda, and continues to be a priority for government," Education Minister Ken Krawetz said on Wednesday.
"The previous government was planning for declining student enrolment and allowed our schools to fall into disrepair. But now that Saskatchewan is turning a corner, we need to have our infrastructure ready for growth. This year`s budget of more than $1.18 billion helps us fulfil our commitments and prepare our students for their future in our growing economy."
Health Minister Don McMorris said he knew Saskatchewan had a human resources problem when he was the Saskatchewan Party`s health critic, but he didn`t realize how much the capital assets had deteriorated under the NDP.
"We have a $4.4-billion value on our buildings and our hospitals and we weren`t putting nearly enough towards that -- we were living on depreciation," he said.
REGINA -- The numbers in the Saskatchewan Party`s first budget address are directed toward preparing the province for growth but the politics are all about trading places.
More than just the seating arrangement has been reversed as the result of the election last November. The fiscal shoes are on the other feet, too. The new government finds itself defending double-digit spending increases while the new Opposition finds itself complaining the proffered tax cuts are not enough.
The Regina Planning Commission would like city council to consider a number of proposed projects after it met Wednesday.
One unique project being proposed by the International Association of Iron Workers is a shared facility. The property is located in the Rothwell subdivision within the boundaries of the Dewdney East Community Association.
A career as a Mountie is "nowhere near ordinary," says the RCMP, which held an open house at IPSCO Place on Thursday.
About 20 of the RCMP`s 152 different investigative units were represented at the open house, such as fraud investigations, forensics and the police dog service.
SASKATOON -- Tenants of the Milroy apartment building failed Thursday in a bid to overturn a city council decision approving the building being converted to condominiums.
The renters had sought a Court of Queen`s Bench ruling to quash a Jan. 14, 2008 decision by Saskatoon city council, which approved a plan by the building owner, Viking Developments Corp., to convert the apartments to condominiums.
REGINA (SNN) -- Saskatchewan`s post-secondary institutions will churn out more trained workers as a result of the government`s recent budget, but Advanced Education, Employment and Labour Minister Rob Norris acknowledged the increase won`t be enough to meet growing labour force demands.
Just because local real estate prices are on the rise doesn`t mean Moose Javians should expect a mortgage crisis like in the U.S., said local property ownership experts. According to a recent story from The Canadian Press, the U.S. economy has been staggered by a housing market that has sagged and sapped consumer confidence while plunging American mortgage lenders into crisis.
Dinesh Kashyap is alive and well and definitely not in Nigeria.
That may be good news to several hundred of Kashyap`s friends, colleagues and business contacts, who received a strange e-mail from the well-known Regina resident recently saying he was stranded in Nigeria without food, money, or a way to get home.
REGINA -- A $1.4-billion clean-coal project at Boundary Dam power station will use carbon-capture and storage (CCS) technology developed over the last couple of decades at the University of Regina and licensed by a Regina-based company.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to officially announce the
federal government`s contribution of $240 million to the project, promised in last month`s budget, at a news conference in Estevan today.
REGINA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to tour the SaskPower Boundary Dam Power Station near Estevan today, on the heels of the federal government`s recent investment in a clean-coal project in Saskatchewan.
The federal Conservative government`s February budget gave $240 million to Saskatchewan for a clean-coal, carbon-capture pilot project by SaskPower.
In booming Saskatchewan, a government wanting to put a positive spin on everything can even afford to overlook a statistic most people would consider good economic news.
That`s what appears to have happened Tuesday when the Saskatchewan government media machine crammed three nuggets of nation-leading, positive economic statistics into one press release and seemingly didn`t even notice Saskatchewan also had the greatest decline in the number of people making employment insurance claims.
Canada`s four western provinces are moving beyond their frontier past and becoming increasingly urbanized societies, set to attract as many as three million more people through interprovincial and international migration in the next 25 years, according to a new report.
"Quite a bit of activity in Canada has shifted to the West," said Brett Gartner, senior economist for the Canada West Foundation and author of the State of the West.
SASKATOON -- Most Saskatchewanians need not bring out their scuba gear this spring, as risk of flooding is significantly less than the previous two years.
In fact, the southern half of the province is already dry and desperate for moisture, according to the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority. The areas with the greatest risk of getting wet from the runoff are north and east of Saskatoon, though recent cooler weather has allowed the process to occur gradually and more manageably, said SWA spokesperson Doug Johnson.
The future of Station 20 West, a multi-purpose development under construction in Saskatoon`s core area, is in serious jeopardy, having lost the provincial government`s financial support, The StarPhoenix has learned.
A previous funding commitment of about $8 million for the project, announced last year by then-premier Lorne Calvert, will not be honoured by the Saskatchewan Party government, Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer confirmed Wednesday.
Province uses part of record roads budget to mend infamous highway
REGINA (SNN) -- Some provincial cash is being set aside for an interchange at Regina`s Lewvan Drive and the Trans-Canada Highway, but construction isn`t expected to begin in 2008, Highways and Infrastructure Minister Wayne Elhard said.
The government on Wednesday released a list of highway construction projects it hopes to tackle in 2008 and 2009.
REGINA -- Fueled by sky-high commodity prices and a favourable business climate, Saskatchewan is poised to replace Alberta as Canada`s economic growth leader in 2008, according to the Canada West Foundation.
Brett Gartner, senior economist with the Calgary-based think-tank, told a breakfast meeting Wednesday the economic forecast for the province is "overwhelmingly positive."
Sask. ends 2007 leading nation in population growth: StatsCan
REGINA -- Saskatchewan`s once shrinking population expanded again in the final months of 2007, propelling the province to the biggest one-year jump in size since 1952.
The province`s population grew by 16,492 people in 2007 to an estimated 1,006,600, based on Statistics Canada data released Thursday.
Business groups may complain education property taxes aren`t being reduced fast enough and the soaring cost of real estate dominates every coffee klatch in town, but an outside study says Saskatoon remains a pretty competitive place to run a business.
The conclusion of the latest KPMG international Competitive Alternative study shows Saskatoon retains its cost advantage within Western Canada and is still holding its own against comparatively sized cities in the U.S. Midwest.
