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The Government of Saskatchewan is touting the province’s ninth straight month of year-over-year job growth.
Since April 2018, Saskatchewan saw 14,200 jobs created — most of them in the private sector, according to a release from the government on Friday.
Jeremy Harrison, minister of immigration and career training, said the trend comes at a time when the province is facing headwinds including low commodity prices and trade barriers with several countries, chief among them China.
Harrison listed the federal carbon tax as another economic challenge even though Statistics Canada announced that 107,000 jobs were created nationwide in April.
“We’re creating these jobs in spite of the headwinds that we’ve seen domestically and around the world,” he said.
“It is a testament to the fact that even with these headwinds, with these policies that will kill jobs and prevent the creation of new jobs, we’re still seeing job creation in the economy.”
For his part, labour critic Trent Wotherspoon said it’s too early to conclude whether recent employment numbers debunk the government’s claims that the carbon tax is a job killer.
Wotherspoon said the employment numbers showed some progress but has reservations about them.
“Clearly the reality is this economy is not working for people and it’s really sluggish. The economy should be so much stronger than it is,” he said.
He said the construction sector has seen 1,800 jobs lost in the last year, blaming it on the government’s decision to expand the scope of the PST.
Another concern of Wotherspoon’s is unemployment among youth, saying the province should be “firing up” renewable power generation and start a creative industry, both sectors that would have opportunities for young people.
Harrison said it’s up to the government to create the conditions that would be conducive to growth.
He said the province is working with the Ontario government to identify areas where regulations could be harmonized and synchronized. Harrison said cutting red tape this way would reduce the cost that businesses incur in order to comply with two sets of regulations.
According to Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan’s unemployment rate rose to 5.4 per cent in April from 4.9 per cent in March.
Harrison said that was due to an increase in the province’s participation rate — or, the number of people out of those working age who are either employed or actively seeking work if they do not already hold a job.
The participation rate can be interpreted as a measure of job seekers’ optimism.
“On the face of it, it doesn’t quite square. The reason for it, is that we have more people in the labour force,” Harrison said.
“You have an increase in the potential labour market pool. That can be people who are returning to the workforce, for example. It can be newcomers from abroad or those who’ve relocated in Canada.”
