LAST MAY, PREMIER BRAD WALL spoke at a Conference Board of Canada event. In front of about 200 business and community leaders, Wall made a surprising admission.

“If we have made a mistake as government,” he said, it was to “underestimate the breakneck pace of growth, to underestimate its impact in terms of issues like housing and infrastructure. This is where we will do better.”

In October, Wall unveiled the Saskatchewan Plan for Growth: Vision 2020 and Beyond, an ambitious plan to increase the province’s population to 1.2 million by 2020 along with a long list of other goals.

In the preface, Wall states: “Too often enterprise-oriented governments appear to seek growth for the sake of growth. This is a mistake – one that can cause governments to lose focus and discipline.”

Without saying it, Wall was referring to Alberta, particularly the reign of former premier Ralph Klein, when a “pedal to the metal” pro-growth policy was pursued.

Klein single-mindedly pursued debt reduction. When the debt was finally paid off, the Klein government didn’t know what to do with its $1.6-billion surplus. So, it sent out $400 cheques to every man, woman and child in the province in 2006.

Wall wants to avoid this “Ralphbucks” approach to dealing with growth and its consequences. And Wall is well aware of the pitfalls of unplanned growth – skyrocketing cost of living, shortages in affordable housing and skilled labour, rising crime rates, inadequate infrastructure, etc.

Instead, Wall says, “The purpose of growth is to build a better quality of life for all Saskatchewan residents.”

To that end, Wall and his Saskatchewan Party government have set some ambitious targets, such as: increasing immigration rates by 50% to 6,000 people per year; investing $2.5 billion in infrastructure over the next three years; employing 60,000 more people by 2020; and paying off the debt within a decade,

But the plan’s goals are not only economic. Wall wants to reduce the gap between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal high-school graduation rate by 50%, lead the nation in Grade 12 graduates by 2020, reduce surgical and emergency-room wait times, and add 12,600 affordable housing units by 2016.

Wall’s plan acknowledges that the province is already experiencing some of the challenges of growth: Saskatchewan has a rising cost of housing, the lowest vacancy rates in the country and a shortage of skilled labour.

The one thing Wall’s growth plan doesn’t do that Alberta did more than 35 years ago is create a heritage fund. The Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund was established in 1976 by a former premier, the late Peter Lougheed, and set aside 30% of the province’s non-renewable resources revenue to be used for future generations.

Instead, Wall is launching something called the Saskatchewan Heritage Initiative, which is a study of heritage or sovereign-wealth funds, like those in Alberta, Norway and Alaska. Former University of Saskatchewan president Peter MacKinnon has been enlisted to undertake the study and report back in a year. But Wall has indicated he won’t act on MacKinnon’s recommendations until after the government debt is paid off. At the rate we’re going, that could be by 2060 – almost 50 years from now.

But, Wall seems to be saying, better late than never. IE

© 2012 Investment Executive. All rights reserved.